Today’s experiment:

I have the wonderful opportunity to practice drawing and painting my grandson in his presence! I am not used to drawing from life, relying instead on photographs. It is quite a different experience.

William is always in motion. As I am just getting the correct contour of his forehead in profile, he faces another direction. I then begin another sketch of him in his new position on the same paper. The result is a conglomeration of different views of Will’s head and face .

I try drawing his contours with my eyes fixed on him, not on my paper. Most of the time it does not work and I have to look at the paper and make adjustments. While I am drawing him, I try memorizing his features.

The most difficult part is to arrange his features in correct proportion.

I painted the watercolors first. I was trying to capture correct spatial relationship of Will’s nose, lips and chin. As this did not work out very well, I proceeded to pencil sketches, where I met with a bit more success.

I believe the best course of action is to continue drawing from life and, in the process, memorize features so that I can draw from those images burned into my mind’s eye.