I’ve been sketching for about ten months now. When I started my goal was to be able to draw some of the unique buildings here in Quebec. That is still my goal and I’ve been happy with my progress. Heck, I’d be happy with any progress as I spent most of my life believing you had to have special talents to draw.
I’ve approach that goal in single-minded fashion, first drawing a gazillion boxes and finally buildings. It’s only been recently that I’ve even added trees and such to my building sketches. I think that trying to keep it simple has helped me considerably as I climb the learning curve.
But I’ve met a group of sketchers that have me conflicted over my approach. They meet once a week and draw portraits. They are Yvan, Denis, Jean-Marc, Sylvie, Katherine, Catherine, Han, and Celine. While their names don’t mean much to you, take my word for it; these are some of the nicest, most talented people you’d ever want to meet.
I met some of them during our recent sketchcrawl, and I decided to attend their portraiture session last night. I didn’t sketch. As I said, I’m trying to stick with buildings and while the US Government can decide that corporations are people, I have a hard time convincing myself that people are buildings.
But the ‘esprit’ of that evening session, and the enthusiasm of its participants, is infectious and I’m afraid I have been infected. I shouldn’t. I know I shouldn’t. Stick with the plan, Larry. But…but…I feel the need to participate. My only participation last night, aside from being amazed by the sketches done by these artists, was to pose for a 20-minute session. It was fun. I hope to do it again. If you’ve ever wondered what I look like, this sketch by Yvan is a very good likeness.
Portraits are FUN, Larry! Ooooh…
And this one’s nicely done–you’ll be trying your hand it it next!
I’m sure portraits are fun for you, but I’m just not interested in people at that level. The people here who are doing it, though, I’m very much into them and maybe I’ll be forced to turn my pencil towards Homo sapiens in some limited way 🙂
Cheers — Larry
Nice blog, Larry.
I hope you’ll be a participant next week.
Oui, c’est difficile, le portrait. Mais tu as la piqure, maintenant il faut pratiquer!
À bientôt
Hi Celine,
I want to participate because I love you guys. You’re fun, talented and passionate about sketching. It seems hard for artists to believe that someone could simply not WANT to do portraits, always thinking that a reluctance has to do with it being ‘hard’ or some other reason. But the truth is, I have no interest in doing portraits. My only interest in drawing people at all is so that I can add them to my urban sketches. I’m trying to figure out how I can bring that interest to your Monday night sessions. I’m sure there’s a way and I’ll be there next Monday night (grin).
Cheers — Larry
Bonjour Larry,
I can understand your point of view about doing portraits. But you can sketch people sketching, or people posing or people looking at them (is it a good english?)
Toutes les occasions sont bonnes pour dessiner les personnages!
Bonne journée!
It’s perfect English, Celine, and a perfect idea as well. I think what I will do is what Denis does, and draw the entire person. This fits more with my needs as an urban sketcher. Besides, I’ll get to come to your sessions, which are really fun 🙂
Cheers — Larry