Nora E, If You Hate Your Neck, I Loath Mine!

All the way home from physical therapy I kept playing with my neck to feel what was going on when I tilted my head and twisted just a bit to the left. At home, I made the horrible mistake of investigating more thoroughly. I took this web cam photo. OMG! Look what nearly seventy years of life has done to a neck that was once long, lean and lovely--just ask my mom. Cover the mirrors guys! A chicken neck is passing by. But I got the picture.

Some adjusting was needed. My gal's head didn't need to tilt quite that much. I lessened the tilt, firmed her jaw line and lengthened her hair. (A key light with reflective umbrellas, in the photographic stage, would have taken care of her neck problems. But for me, the photographer would have had to go all out with lens filters and...and gauze. Maybe a prop? A bee keeper's hat comes to mind).

In the painting, the heads won't be nearly the size of the preliminary drawings I've been doing. So lines everybody wishes they didn't have are really not going to be a problem. I just like to be very familiar with the subject and know in front what to look out for. Slouched and twisted necks over-shadowed by a tilted head being just one area, her blurred hand with pointed finger clutching a tissue, the other. Snapshots make the worst reference photos. Particularly of people moving through their lives oblivious to the camera watching. But these are the shots that intrigue me the most, so I persevere. I'm happy enough with this drawing to move on.