Today’s watercolor experiment:

Yesterday I did not take my eyes of the plant I was drawing. I did not look at the paper. Today I did the opposite. I closed my eyes and did not look at the paper or the subject. The subject was my mother’s face. I used to practice drawing her face when I came over to visit. I was working on memorize it but I only got to her eyebrows. They were distinctively arched. The rest of her face was more complicated and, perhaps less distinctive.

Sketch:

My pencil drawing, with my eyes closed, really missed the mark. Except for the eyebrows. I drew two lines for her eyes a little half circle for her nose and a line for her mouth.  None of it lined up.

Painting:

I did paint with my eyes open. I used my flesh formula (cadmium red, yellow ochre and titanium white). For the darker areas I added a bit of Permanent Green #1 (Holbein). The face looks nothing like Mom’s.

One thing I remembered the last time I saw Mom was when the doctor held her eye open and shined a flashlight in it. The next thing he said was, “Sorry for your loss.”  I expected that. I had just seen her ECG number go to zero. She was very ill.

Blind Portrait
16″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

The eyes are how I remember them. I know I got the eyebrows right.