In my last post, I wrote about a friend who inspired me to pick up my pencil and start to draw again. This is a portrait of that friend. After our drawing session together, I decided to continue working on portrait drawing, and I thought she would be the perfect subject. The greater motivation for this portrait is that it was Magda’s birthday a few days ago, and I thought this would be a nice present, and which I’ll actually be able to give to her when we meet in person for the first time in three days.
I tried for a John Singer Sargent style charcoal portrait with this piece. After seeing an exhibit of his charcoal portraits in December 2019 at The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City, I’ve been fascinated with the style and technique he used to execute these “all prima” (finished in one sitting or session) portraits. In most of those portraits (photos below), careful attention was given to the face while the clothing and background was filled in very loosely. It was quite liberating to express the clothing and background in this manner, allowing me to concentrate on what truly matters in the portrait, the face.
I didn’t complete this in one sitting and I didn’t draw it from life (I used a photo reference instead), but I think I found a portrait style in which I feel most comfortable and I hope to pursue much further. For the next portrait in this style, I think an imposed time limit or goal to finish it in one session would encourage more focus on the gesture, expression, etc., and not the minor details that ultimately don’t contribute to the subject’s essence.
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