I somehow seem to have misplaced whatever talent I had for making a drawing that is reasonably likeness of the person I was drawing. Not sure where it might have disappeared to but it ain’t here at the moment. I can make generic drawings such as these but nothing else at the moment.
Whenever I try to make something that starts to resemble a likeness it falls to pieces. I suspect it maybe because I spend more and more time creating digital paintings than with pencil and ink pen on paper. Perhaps it is something totally different?
I’ve just scanned through my work for the last 12 months and the last time I made a drawing on paper that actually resembled the person I was sketching was Sir Ian McKellen and that is 12 months ago! At this time I was attending an portrait art class so this may have had something to do with it?
When I put my mind to it I can make a reasonable likeness with my iPad such as Billie Piper or Sir Jonathan Millar. With pencil, pen and paper it doesn’t seem to work out and I find myself abandoning the drawing.
The elephant in the room here is photography. 2018 saw photography take an ever greater proportion of my creative output and this no doubt has affected things. So perhaps I should do the hard work and start to sketch again with pencil and paper and see where that takes me.
See I told you it was a first world problem!
It’s not a problem at all unless you make it one, dear Simon! Maybe your deeper artist self finds something else about a person interesting and important. And is trying to get your attention. Let likeness go–and let IT happen. IMHO strictly of course.
Thanks for this Carol…I have been through these dry periods before and no doubt I will come out the other end. It is just a bit frustrating at the moment. However, I find I have only a certain amount of creativity and I suspect that most of that is being consumed by my photography practice.
Thanks again