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Saturday, January 3, 2015

What's To Grimace About?

What's to Grimace about?, graphite, 6 x 3, thirty minute drawing session
I started out this free hand drawing as a contour. I always hated doing contour drawings in college--no depth--but to get the orientation of the eyeglasses and their relationship to the raised hand-- my HB just went into contour mode.  When I had the woman down with common points  properly aligned, . I went for the 6B and started examining shapes and depths of shadows, etc.  

 I liked the reference for this one. Of all the many shots I took while head hunting on the beach, she was one of the few people not wearing sunglasses.  What was there to frown about? Sun, sea, five star hotel, great service, food and drink and she's having a bummer moment! She's still not old enough to grab the good times and hold on to them tightly. You have to be in your seventies to know that.

 I do love people watching.  That should have been my clue years ago, that portraiture was my thing--but then there was that guy who said his dead mom didn't look that old.  She did to this seventeen year old!   Now there's a reason to frown.  Here I am 57 years later next week and. the sting is still vivid.  Best forgotten, I know, but I just heard a HS acquaintance died.  Best get a move on. The clock is ticking. 

8 comments:

  1. Amazing the comments and events one remembers after years and years. Portraiture is YOUR thing! And I am so enjoying seeing your daily sketches, Linda!!!

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    1. Youngsters--no matter how tall--are still not sure of themselves. That comes with age. The adult who doesn't recognize this and doesn't show them respect has some character flaws. I wish I knew that then. Then the comments would have rolled off my back as they do now. I welcome critiques. Another set of eyes can be very helpful. Comments should all be taken with a grain of salt--they can help to correct, or they can clue you in to what you know to be correct. It takes a few years and a lot of self confidence to recognize this truth.

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  2. Yeah, a shame he criticized you at such a tender age---and I'm sure your effort was way better than anything he could have done. Great drawing of the squinting semi-unhappy lady. Maybe she is criticizing something too...kind of looks like she is. Keep the drawings coming. love them!

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    1. And no monies had been talked about! So if he didn't like what I did, he was only out of a couple of weeks of time! There was no good reason to blast a kid. He must not have been a parent. The drawings will continue till it's time to store the SAD light--early April I think?

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  3. You really captured her expression. Happy new year. I loved the description of your new year concert and the thirty minute drawings for all of this year have been great! I painted my sister in law and was told later she hated it. Portraiture is tough. When I was young I entered a painting competition and mine wasn't accepted. I had a thinner skin than you - stopped painting for thirty years..

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    1. Our skin is abut the same thickness--at least it was. I just stopped painting commissions then. Then, I entered a juried exhibition and was reject--what a shock for a youngster. That's when I restricted my painting for my own curiosity and pleasure--been doing it ever since EXCEPT for a few occasions when private buyers asked to see my work at my studio, on my turf. Those two experiences--plus one more when I took my work into a critiquing session at the art association and was soundly blasted--totally ended my interest in the art business and the art association. The slights stung. the slights injured imagination. Turned me in a related, but entirely different direction. Now, I don't give a hoot (nice word for what I really thought). I was incredibly successful as an architectural interior space designer and extremely satisfied when I walked through spaces I had designed and Ellis built. If I hadn't of been able to do FA, I wouldn't have been able to do that. The alternatives to the Fine Art profession, when I went to art college, were automotive design and graphic arts. That's it! I was fine with illustration, but really sucked at lettering with that flat, chiseled pencil! Today, hopefully young artists are exposed to a number of fields towards which they can direct their talents? Thanks Dan. Happy New Year painting whatever you damn please.

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  4. Yeah!!! I don't give a hoot now either and I am painting whatever I damn please. (Lacks something without the profanity, doesn't it?) And I plan this year to have my artwork pile higher and deeper. Thanks for the best new years wish ever!

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    1. You are most welcome; my pleasure. We are naturals, gifted from birth. The work piling up in our studios is our legacy. We're in good company--Vincent Van Gogh's! Pretentious? You bet! But what the hell. :-))

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