Yesterday I mentioned the work of John Coplans. He did a series of photos (that I admired) showing his aging body. I thought that I would explore a similar project through my series of self portraits. However, there are some differences that may make this impossible. First, photography, although not strictly objective, is more objective […]
I leaned over the camera for the reference shot to this quick sketch. I wanted to see the weight of my face. I also got to see my double chin. My dad had a double chin; s I only see my double chin now and again. For some reason, as I posted this latest […]
I need practice sketching profiles of faces that are partially turned toward me. The terrain of the far side of the face, is like a crescent of the moon, but it must be matched to the more visible, near side for the portrait to make sense. I’m also trying to make sense of my wrinkles, […]
I tried to sketch this with as few strokes as possible.
I cropped yesterday’s photo (Draped Bust) purposely to create ambiguity: Was the sculpture of drapes, or was there an underlying sculpture covered by a drape? The sketch below is a sketch of the uncropped photograph.
Yikes! I didn’t know my sinuses went that far back.
I’m having fun renewing my acquaintance with sketching. Just a few pencil strokes can shade more effectively than spending lots of time carefully perfecting dark-to-light gradients. Now, my challenge is to tighten up on the spatial relationships among facial features. If you look back on other quarantine self portraits in this series, you can see […]
I looked carefully at one of Cézanne’s sketches of his son. I think he sketched the shapes that made up the face, not facial features. This is a different way of sketching, a different way of seeing. We’ll see how it goes.
The other day, I treated myself to a book about Cézanne, one of my favorite artists. I was inspired by his spare sketches, to concentrate on broad pencil strokes rather than replicating details. The study below is not Cézanne-esque, but is, perhaps the start of a new direction for my self portrait sketches.
