Are you afraid to face your drawing?

I make a lot of noise about drawing.

“Have you seen that portrait Gauguin did of me painting sunflowers? It was really I, but it’s I gone mad.” – Vincent van Gogh

I love to draw, and I found that having a good grasp of drawing has helped my art to be infinitely more powerful. I get to choose what I want to dial in, and when I want to let the form go completely. Instead of being trapped in the drawing, I get to play with it.

There’s no place more exciting to play with our drawings then when we are traveling through the facets of a Portrait. The subtle nuances of the human face can be hilarious or even tragic. Our faces are infinite, and they reflect the fullness of the human spirit. And sometimes, that’s shallow and petty. But other times the process of drawing or painting another human being is life at its most profound.

Various faces – Gabriel Mark Lipper

But there is no shortcut here. The Portrait can be one of the most frustrating things to draw and paint when we don’t have the tools. And this frustration ends up, tracking us down in other parts of our artwork as well. This is because a good understanding of drawing is at the heart of the portrait. Not how to draw the face specifically, but just how to see shapes in relationship. The portrait is unforgiving that way. We know when we have screwed it up because we’re used to looking at people’s faces. Our identities are caught up in our faces.

Have you ever tried to draw 10 faces? Put the paintbrush down for a second and just try drawing faces. Faces are amazing! If you are seizing up and unhappy with the results, switch to your non-dominant hand. Now look at what you’ve done! These things are fun!

If you can draw a recognizable face, you can paint anything. There’s a lot of freedom there.

What is your favorite thing to draw?

Do you ever draw faces?

Are you afraid to face your drawing?