5th entry for January 17, 2010

These were 15-minute poses. I have drawn M- many times, but most of those occasions were a few years ago. When I draw someone quite a few times in a similar timeframe, I find I start to develop a `shorthand' to depicting their likeness, and that can speed up the process.
But after a period of time has passed, their features will shift with age, and that shorthand can be a bit of an obstacle, as it means imposing no longer relevant information on what is being seen.
I felt like I was re-acquainting myself with the features of M- 's face, with varying degrees of success. That meant that I spent quite a it of time focussing on drawing her head that night.

1st entry for October 15, 2009

These are two 10-minute studies and one 1-minute study of Y- , who was at the TSA on Thursday night. Owing to a big book give-away at OCAD, I missed the first set of poses he did.
I know Y- from a long time ago, and he is an active portraitist himself. He adjudged the face study as having `pathos', which is okay in my books.

I might add that for me, a portrait study looking right into someone's eyes is the hardest to draw, as I still feel awkward meeting my sitter's gaze. I had a sense that Y- didn't feel uncomfortable at all meeting my gaze - or having mine meet his - and that helped. Usually any degree of likeness goes out the window in that situation, but this does have a good sense of Y- about it, in my mind.