The last few drawings I've made at my weekly life drawing sessions have been pretty good. Likenesses are a bugaboo for me, so the fact that all of these models have distinct faces that actually look like them in my newest drawings pleases me no end. I realize that verisimilitude is not the aim of art (if it was, the king of the artists would the photographer), and I realize that any drawing made from life is necessarily a composite image because even the most disciplined of models will move during the session, and the artist themselves will move, too, but a good likeness is always a goal for me. I'm a representational artist by temperament, so it's a matter of pride. Anyway, these are all drawn with a graphite pencil (a number 2 pencil, as it so happens, rather than a snooty art pencil). The above drawing is especially satisfying for me because it's the first time I've drawn this model and I got her in one, awkwardly posed feet and all.
This drawing and the one at the head of this post are very similar. I was in the same spot for both of them and the prop set-up hadn't changed much.
I'm particularly happy with this one. I mostly got everything right, even within my method of creative scribbling. I'm really happy with her face. I've just been feeling it lately, I guess.
