This was a while ago, but for me it was kind of what got me re-interested in an art class. A friend of mine had posted some of art online, which included some fantastic drawings of people. Since before high school, I’ve tried very hard to not include faces in my art, because I really couldn’t draw them – they never came out the way I wanted, they were so complex and strange, full of shapes and shades but really very few solid lines. And they were so darn familiar that I knew everyone would know when I messed it up. So I just avoided them all together.
Thing is, I went through a phase of drawing people. I drew a portrait of every single Zoom member (if you remember Zoom, you’ll know how much of a dork I was back then) in great detail, and was actually pretty proud of them. So it struck me as I looked at my friend’s portraits, “why can’t I do this? Why can’t I at least try and figure it out and stop being scared of something I haven’t been close to for years?” So I did. I picked a few photos of friends and family and just drew them, all in ink, in my sketchbook. I liked the ink because while it didn’t blend at all and it didn’t erase, it kept me from making any of the sketches too precious. I felt like it allowed me to start over if I wanted or keep going even after I messed up because it wasn’t anything important anyway. And I finally found that I like faces.
This was maybe two months ago, and I still try to draw a new face every other day, to keep up on it. I don’t love what comes out all the time, really I don’t consider any of them worth hanging on to, but the important thing for me was that I worked through the parts where I hated what came out and I got better. And I’m still getting better. And I’m learning to see faces in a new way, see where the planes intersect and how the bones can be seen under the skin and how the tiniest change in skin ‘weight’ (is that even a thing? I don’t know, it makes sense to my brain) or the angle of a wrinkle can change someone’s appearance or emotion greatly. I love that.
ishkadoodles
lockecole1994
megmarie28
