6. Kate

My beautiful niece.  And my first request.  Almost immediately, people started asking me to draw them and Kate was the first. 

So - since I actually was out of charcoal, this drawing was done with a graphite pencil that I found in my couch.  All line, no smearing.  A good likeness I think.  The sunglasses and earphones and blowing hair attach it to a specific moment in time and give it context.  But it’s a little stiff, so I’m still not there yet.

Kate wasn’t really thrilled about it either.  Later, when I asked her if she wanted it …she politely declined.  (I also made amends to Kate.)

5. Fish

Cameron Fish, to be exact, another of my oldest friends.   And my greatest patron – I’ve drawn him numerous times and his house is filled with my art.  In fact, he once commissioned me to do a large painting of Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby.  And by large I mean HUGE, 4’ x 8’.  It’s hanging proudly in his living room, to this day.  True story.

Anyhoo, I took a similar approach to this as I did to Andy’s drawing.  I wanted it to be pure tone with minimal line work.  I consciously tried to be looser and not get stiff, so all I used was the eraser and a large chunk of charcoal so I wouldn’t be tempted to even try to get tight.  Also, I think I was out of charcoal pencils and had to make do.

It turned out okay.  But it was still painfully apparent how out of practice I was, and the prospect of doing 95 more drawings seemed ridiculous.  (I later made amends to Fish also.)

4. Snooki

When you decide you’re going to draw everyday, you have to accept the fact that some days you’ll have your A-Game and some days you’ll have your B-Game.  Sigh. 

I don’t know what letter of the alphabet I was bringing to Snooki, but it sure fell flat.  Believe it or not, I was not attempting to do a caricature.  It’s poorly drawn and that’s a fact.  Looks just enough like her to be passable.  Snooki, I’m sorry! *

But it was significant for a few reasons.  It was a contemporary subject and a random choice, and I wanted the series to be able to go in different, unpredictable directions.  And by virtue of the subject matter (and not the quality of the drawing by any means) it elicited quite a response from people when I posted it on FB, as you can imagine.  

In fact, I was sorry quite a few times in the 100 days, and went back later to make amends.  To Snooki, and many others.

3. Rooney Mara

Leafed through a magazine and randomly picked a photo.  This was before the whole Lisbeth Salander thing so I had no idea who she was.   I just wanted to draw a random person, I didn’t care who.

This is a straight-up caricature, David Levine style.  Big head, little body, cross-hatching, and decorative line work.  It was fun to do and I finished it pretty quickly.  I considered it good practice, which I needed badly. 

I wasn’t going to do 100 portraits of my friends and family, as that would get very old, very quickly, aside from being mathematically impossible and emotionally exhausting.

2. Andy

Andy is one of my oldest friends.  We’ve known each other since 1^st grade and did the whole growing up thing together.  In fact, he’s Lucie’s godfather.  He is a very unique and intense individual and a great guy. Friends to the end.

First, I laid out a flat grey middle tone to act as a base and used an eraser to carve out the white areas and build up the composition.  I tried to do as much as I could with just the eraser, and then went in with pencil to darken up the eyes, nose and mouth.  I wanted the whole drawing to be just tone, no lines.  But since I laid the initial grey tone on pretty heavily, I couldn’t erase it back to a clean white and as a result the drawing looks grey and foggy. Live and learn.

So – not my best work by any means.  Draftsmanship is bad, the drawing is stiff and dour, and the rust is showing.  But hey, that’s why I’m doing this right?  I need to get better.

1. Lucie

A couple of years ago I gave myself a project: to do 100 portraits in 100 days.  I wanted a reason to draw every day.  Because I love to draw.  It turned out to be an incredible journey.  I pushed myself, I got better.  I tried to include everyone whoever meant anything to me or had an affect on my life.  At the end I was a much better artist.  And I realized I had inadvertently created a colossal self-portrait.

This is me.

******

Lucie is my daughter, my world.  It seemed like a logical place to start. 

My original intent for the series was to try a different approach for each portrait.  So for this I decided to do a basic line drawing.  Keep it simple.  I started on the left side and worked my way around her face and hair.  I wasn’t too concerned about getting the proportions exactly correct.  After that was done, it looked kind of empty so I added some tone to give it light and depth.

I liked the way it turned out and thought I was off to a good start.  Lucie, however, didn’t care for it much.  She didn’t like the photo I used, thought it wasn’t very flattering, and that the drawing didn’t look like her.

Oh well.  99 to go.