When I retired 6 years ago (where have those years gone?) I was heading towards art as a hobby. Things have drifted and after giving myself a ‘talking to’ I’m looking to take up the hobby again.
That ‘talking to’ is something I do quite often. I give myself something of a hard time when I stand back and look at my life. I keep asking myself questions and checking I’m doing the right thing and whether it fits the plan inside my head.
This kind of ‘self-talk’ quite often takes place when I’m in the car on my own; as the miles drift by I find it easy to mull things over. I think it’s quite a healthy thing to do – a sort of self check process. And so quite recently, I realised how life had drifted away from art and photography. You see it’s easy to get distracted by all kinds of things!
As a step towards feeling arty once again, in particular my fascination with portraiture, I decided on Monday afternoon to head into London. I headed to The Department Store in Brixton where the biannual Contemporary British Portrait Painters were exhibiting their work. It could be argued that the CBPP represents the very best in contemporary portrait artists here in the UK. There’s certainly quite a variety of styles: adventurous, expressive colours through to smaller, muted works. Each a unique view of a unique person.
In some ways, portrait drawing and painting must be amongst the most difficult of art. As if capturing a likeness wasn’t hard enough, conveying the sitter’s character is something else. When you combine all of that with something which looks good is quite a challenge.
So what is it about a man’s face which makes it look like a man? Or the same for a woman. How to you convey someone’s character – expression, the colour palette etc? These are all imponderables which I’m keen to explore.
Here’s a sketch I did a couple of years ago of a friend. You can see my style and that I don’t like to over-finish my art – there’s quite a trick to knowing when to stop. I still can’t answer the question I asked – when it comes to drawing faces, what is it that makes a man a man, or a woman a woman? I know hairstyle must be an influence but other than this, what are those subtle clues?
Keen to explore, say no more. That wasn’t meant to be a rhyme as such.
You bring up some interesting questions Doug. I would be interested in sharing some of my own thoughts/artwork on portraits in particular. I enjoy capturing the likeness and feeling of a subject.
I recently taught an art group at Connect at The Way in Dunstable, and decided to concentrate on portraits. I was fascinated by how people start a portrait. Drawing from the nose or mouth or eyes, or with the head or a grid and moving inwards.
Be happy to share a morning or afternoon to discuss and explore.