Thursday, October 23, 2008

big draw day 23

Another experiment from Spirit of Drawing. Close your eyes and sense your face from the inside. Then, touch your face, feeling it from the outside with your fingers. When you are ready pick up your pen/pencil and draw your face with your eyes closed.

I made two eyes closed drawings with charcoal.

Looking into a mirror, draw your self-portrait. Brush pen.

Charcoal. Kinda a grim, unflattering portrait but I felt really crabby yesterday.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Andrea and Kim said...

Suki,

This is quite wonderful to be sure. I like the idea of sensing your face from the inside in order to influence your drawing. That would be very much like something I would do. I very much like these drawings and think you have done a beautiful job with them. I think Charcoal is a good medium for you...and the brush pen.

Keep going!

I am also liking this new way of the full page commenting. I might have to change my format from pop up to full page. I like being able to refer back to the post.

Thanks Suki!

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

wow. fun fun drawings. but you DO look grim. My SIL when here was looking at my self protraits I did last year and said I drew myself a pig nose which I didnt have. When we analized it I realized I couldnt see well out of my glasses and was tipping my head up to see and thus drawing a different angel of my nose. We had a royal laugh over that. lol

Mary Richmond said...

my you do look a little crabby and that is so not like you! at least when i see you ;-)

i love that you're doing these exercises so sincerely. are you enjoying them?

Anonymous said...

I was going to say, that does not look like you! Sorry you are crabby, I have been a little cranky too, so I understand.
Interesting way of drawing. I am going to have to get that book.

~Babs said...

I too like your charcoal work Suki.Funny results with the eyes closed drawings,,but neat, in a crazy, abstract kinda way.I like 'em!

Maybe you don't look so much crabby in the eyes open portrait,but maybe more like in high concentration as you're working. I find that my latest self portrait, (several years old now) is like that too,,,looks crabby, and I really wasn't.

Teri said...

That is really a neat experiment!!

sukipoet said...

Kim, Did I do something to get the comment box like this??? If so it was by accident. Thanks for your perceptions. I do like charcoal, it hides mistakes and actually the brush pen does too.

Cris, I think part of the thing I dont like abt my face here comes from just what you describe. I was holding my face up to see in the mirror and that is not a complementary angle. I actually thought the first eyes open portrait done in my small sketch book was one of the better SP's I've done.

Mary, I am enjoying the experiments esp as then I dont have to use my brain to think up things to draw. NO, seriously I think I am learning something, not sure what, by being consistent and alos experimenting with new ideas.

Annie I am finding it quite a wonderful book. She "teaches" in a manner that works for me, though it might not work for everyone.

Babs, maybe it is the frown of concentration. I like the eyes closed pictures too, they are more abstract. In the one, I dont know how I got the jaw line so smooth, but generally they come out sort of cubistic when the eyes are closed.


Teri, it is neat to feel the face esp. When I turned 50 I painted a self-portrait (first painting after a 20 year hiatus) and it kept coming out looking like a skeleton no matter what I did. Finally I got some flesh onthe face, though the face is a grey color still. Odd. I dont think it meant death was imminent as I am still her 13 years later. But when you feel your face with yr fingers, that's what you feel, the bones and muscles.

sukipoet said...

ok after reading Chewy's post about the comment box thing, I changed mine back to full page. go to settings. Click on comment. select full page (if that's what you want) save settings. Thanks Chewy

soulbrush said...

okay now this is fantastic stuff...and i am going to try it today...isn't it odd that when i drew myself i too looked so old and stern and grumpy, is it just how we were feeling or is it something deeper? mmmmm?

sukipoet said...

I dont know, Soulbrush. Of course i was looking in the mirror, and looking up sort of, so not a great angle. But for me, that day, I was feeling grumpy so maybe it just showed in what came out of the pencil.

marianne said...

Nice to experiment like this, but I'm sure you look more beautiful in real. But a good expression of how a crappy day must look!
Hope you feel better now!
I'm home gain, after 10 1/2 hours flying and 3 1/2 hours stuck in traffic. Husband is making dinner, life is good (again)
love >M<

sukipoet said...

Hi Marianne. Glad you are home again. Well, who knows what I look like. I only see a one dimensional vision of me unless in a film. That's because when I stand in front of a mirror i only see one side usually and ditto in a photo whereas other people get a three dimensional view of me when they look at me. I am saying me but this is true of everyone.

Karen Salva said...

I should always come here first then decide what to do for the big draw. Another cool exercise and I think you captured the emotion very well. Great job, with charcoal no less!

sukipoet said...

thanks Karen. charcoal, to my mind, covers a lot of "mistakes" You just blur it or add more charcoal.