Portraiture Post Ponderings

 As an artist one strives to be a jack of all trades. Which means knowing how to paint, watercolor, ink, sculpt, develop photographs, edit film, stitch fabrics, hack tree stumps, clip hair, melt small toy soldiers, spray tags, arrange food neatly upon thy plate and/or any other infinite amount of particular methodologies and variations thereof. Crafting the raw into the refined, evoking from the ether- beauty manifest. Becoming godlike in a world-making potential if only for a moment. 
  "Nick and Talin" 9"x12" Pencil on Bristol. 2012.

Before I broke boundaries into other tools I was a solely reliant master of the fifty shades of grey and penciling is still probably the most expressive means of me capturing a likeness, channeling a softness of character, mirroring the light of the eye. Usually my life drawings are more gestural, fleetingly stolen in a corner-of-the eye glance but when it comes to people I know- my family and friends, people whose character I admire and whose lives I cherish-it's more of a meditation upon their spirit, and capturing the focused-totality of their life spark, before casting it to the page in rough grooved pencils. 

                                                                   "Sofia" 9"x12" Pencil on Bristol. 2012.

I fancy myself a comic artist primarily but maintain my ability to channel the Renaissance Man of yore.  So while I'd really rather ink my version of an animated and distorted person in my own stylo than spend the time trying to reproduce God Himself's handiwork- it gets me closer to him. (Because its time consuming, evolving beauty takes positively eons.) Let a camera capture true life, as it is the best tool for the job and takes a  mere fraction of the time. Still, there's something to be said for eclipsing the uncanny valley of a photo-real depiction completely hewn by hands. Imposing the second dimension onto a supremely physical third and fourth dimensionally acting personnage is quite the challenge, I undertake it only with the greatest consideration. 

"Marion" 8.5" x11" Charcoal on Bristol. 2008.

When I draw something, I'm tinkering, figuring it out, trancing at the miracle of flesh and bone, fabric and stone, knitting it together on paper alone. Nothing grants the appreciation for bare reality like trying to reproduce it. Only a maker can possibly sympathize with thee Maker. So I live in the firm belief that all things are born of some kind of love. Above all let it be said, I drew what I loved and fell in love with whatever I drew. There's no helping it.