The Last Portrait (for a while)

This is my final offering in the "Sargent in January" project. I didn't capture a likeness here and I didn't capture the mood as I wanted to, but I do think it is a stronger portrait than I could have done at the beginning of the month. In short, I am cautiously pleased. Here are some end-of-the-month thoughts...

Things I learned from JSS:

• to use my pencil boldly. I got this from reading about how much paint he used and also trying to mimic charcoal effects with a pencil.
• get the structure right or start again. Trying to correct something later just doesn't work well with portraits.
• the right shape to suggest a feature is likely to be all you need. (i.e. it is too easy to overwork details in portraits and then the whole falls short).
• work around the whole thing as you go, don't zero in on details until the end.

Other things I learned:

• I like blogging, it really adds a fun dimension to things for me.
• After drawing exclusively portraits for a month, I have much more confidence in approaching them.
• Focusing on one thing for a month is a good way for me to learn (this idea isn't new with me!) It gives me immediate direction when my drawing time rolls around for the day. Also, it helps me tackle the issues I want to (and not run away) with the promise that I will be done with it for awhile in a few weeks.
• I also learned that a pencil (one color) can really be used for a tremendous variety of marks.

I'm ready for a new month. I think February will be landscapes. Today I began with a few tricky water scenes...a waterfall and a lake. More posts later....

Work in Progress

This isn't a great image, but I at least wanted to show that I have begun my final portrait for 'Sargent in January.' There is a long way to go on this one. The structure is about there, but there is plenty more work to do with the values. I am trying to implement as much as I can from what I saw in the Sargent drawings, particularly that "economy of line". I'll have a break for a few days (nursing the love of my life), but will be back soon.

The Right Look

This sketch is after Sargent's charcoal sketch of Sir William Blake Richmond. As Sargent drew him, he's looking at you with a bit of an attitude, I think that came across in my translation. I'm quite pleased with it.

I counted up today and I've done 21 of the portraits in my Sargent book, half of them. I would like to finish off this project as I said before with a portrait of my own. To that I will shortly be turning my attention. My husband is going in for surgery in a few days, so I may not finish by the end of January, but we'll see.

Back Again...

Last night we got a "loaner" from the "superstore," so I am back in business! Here are a few sketches from the last few days. I was unhappy with the first one (Benson, the man) when I finished it, but with an interval of some sleep, I think that the eyes have more expression then I thought they did. Sargent's Mrs. Webber is a melancholy beauty. In fact, it wasn't until I was working the lips in detail that I realized her mouth was open, about to break into a smile. But the weight (through values) that he gives to the eyes totally overwhelms the mouth. My version looks like a younger version of Sargent's lady.

I didn't get a portrait in on Saturday. I hope to do one this week sometime. I'd love to finish my Sargent project with a portrait of one or some of my boys. I just have to scrounge up some photos. My goal would be to keep two main things in mind that I have learned this month. First, what I have referred to in the past as his "economy of line." Second, his famous use of light and dark. We'll see...

Technology has left the building...

Since I began this blog we've been having computer problems, not because of the blog, just occurring at the same time. Anyway, we got the machine back last night and it has new, more crippling problems than before. So my persevering husband has hauled it off again to the "superstore". Until we get a loaner back (and up and running) I'm on an ancient machine that has so little video RAM I can't view pictures on websites or post images to blogger (because it fails to draw the blogger buttons, or even the tag). So, I can't post any sketches until at least tomorrow evening.

However, I carry on with the Sargent project. My goals in starting this blog were to try blogging and also to encourage others to join the Sargent project. The other artists on Maggie's list in her blog post are very accomplished and that can be intimidating. My blog is on that list to show that anyone can participate (I like to think my distinction is that I have the most to learn!)

Two More...

The lady is Dame Ethel Smyth, apparently a good friend of Sargent's. He drew her singing at the piano. The man is W.B. Yeats. Yeats was 40 at the time Sargent drew him, but Sargent's drawing makes him look much younger. He told Sargent that he wore his hair flopped over and a big tie to remind him of his significance as an artist. Personally, I have to believe Sargent *made* him look young, arrogant, and stupid because of that. Certainly one has to think that the dark shadows over the eyes were meant to speak "mysterious" to Yeats and "without light" to the rest of us.

Fashion and Economy

One interesting thing about looking at portraits of another century...there are things that don't make sense. For instance, looking at Sargent's drawing of this woman I can tell that she has an elaborate hat on. However, I could barely begin to tell you what is hair and what is hat. I cropped this picture close to the head for just that reason. Rarely does 21st century fashion make sense to me, I can't pretend I will ever understand this sort of thing.

And for the economy, I just have to say again how looking intensely at JSS's drawings I see a few small, precise lines that make great suggestions as to features and the like. Less is definitely more in the works that I have looked at. To give you an idea, this portrait, which is small, and is based on another's work, only took around 15 minutes from start to finish.

Back to Sargent

(Again, forgive the glare.) I've been dreading this portrait since I decided to work through this book. There is so much about it that shrieks "tricky" to me and not being particularly artistically clever, I felt doomed to failure.

In the original, she is looking rather askance at the viewer, from a slight elevation. She also looks rather regal in her attire. I have made her looking off in the middle distance, wrapped up in blankets with her chin tucked in. But, I didn't entirely fail, I did a better job with the values this time and if you just look at the eyes, the eyebrows look like she genuinely pulled them back. (When I first saw Sargent's drawing I wondered at how he could make the shadows on the eyelids darker and larger than the eyebrows and have it work.)

Enough said on that, I'm going to try and squeeze in another drawing for today!

Saturday's Portrait

I can't believe it, I managed to do another portrait this Saturday! This time it was from a magazine photo, a fellow who runs the German extension of the seminary my husband works at. (NB. There is a significant glare on this photo, but I just got tried of messing around with it.) Anyway, it is a fair likeness. I used the "scultping" sort of idea to manage myself. It seems to help me tremendously. However, I do tend to forget to push myself onto other areas and not get too zeroed in on any one detail before another. (The idea being to bring the whole thing together at one time, thus creating the illusive unity.) So, I think it suffers a bit from unevenness. Lastly, the man had obviously thinning hair on the top, I found no successful way of conveying that :-).

On the whole, I am seeing a good influence on my own work after spending so much time with Sargent's work!

That sculpting idea...

As I said yesterday, this is the first of the more 'painterly-style' portraits that I have attempted. Sargent's work was done in charcoal, his lights are lighter and his darks are darker than mine. Of all the works that I've done here this is the least like the original. I've got the guy looking out, whereas Sargent's looks down. Also, the mood of mine is much different, Sargent's is more somber and contemplative. Part of this is due to the fact that I have some of the values wrong, there is more of the darkest darks on his face and hair than I have put in (to match the darks in the eyes).

That said though, I am pleased that this came out as much as it did. Because it is a tonal work, I can't just transcribe lines. I actually had to try more of the sculpting idea that Sargent and others mention. So, I began just shading in large areas on the paper, I had a few guidelines, but not more than a circle for the head and an 'X' for the line of the nose and placement of the eyes. Then began refining the shading in of tones to more and more exact shapes, as a sculptor would chip away at his rock revealing the shape within slowly.

This was an exciting way to work. I have tried it before, but it has been a while. I even had a sort of minute where all of a sudden I stopped and looked and thought, "that's it, it has transformed from blotches to a figure." Honestly, I tried to refine it a bit after that and realized quickly that I best stop, because I was on the verge of screwing it up!

Tomorrow, time permitting, I will attempt a portrait from a photo I've got.

Last of the 'Drawn' Portraits

Two sketches today because yesterday my drawing time was spent in a traffic snarl resulting from a four car accident. Things like that always make me thankful to arrive home, even when late.

Anyway, this post represents the last two of the more "drawing-style" portraits in the book I am working through. Sargent's next thirty or so are in more of a painterly-style. He also did the rest in charcoal as opposed to pencil. They should be quite a challenge for me. I hope to stay with pencil myself as I work through them - with 3 little boys around I need a more "drop-at-a-moment-and-dash-to-the-disaster" kind of medium than charcoal, we'll see.

As for these two, there are a few points of interest. The first is a man with predominantly white or graying hairs on an equally light background. My first instinct would be to throw in a dark background to reveal him, but I assume that would have changed the mood to something Sargent didn't want. His sparing use of line creates the illusion of all that bushy white hair even on the light background. (NB. The lips are suggested with two blotches of darkness! Sargent is a master!)

Secondly, on the Duchess of Marlborough portrait I'm going to make a wild conjecture. He saw her turn at this angle and fell in love with the line of her face and neck. As you look at his work, the line down the side of her face and her neckline on the same side are two bold, confident strokes. There is evidence (in his drawing) of work around her left eye for the right shape, but the rest of it is very plain vanilla tonal work and outline to get the basics. So, I'm guessing that the edge of her face and neck entranced him. (On other work I have dashed to capture a specific line or edge I see that grabs my interest and then found that the rest of the object I just didn't care about.)

That's the offering for today...

Saturday's portrait

This is done from a photo that I received in a Christmas card from friends. My plan is to spend a little time each Saturday doing a portrait from a photo. I hope this helps me to see progress and do my own work, not just copy Sargent.

By way of evaluation, I think the first week's worth of drawing has been good for me. The chap in this drawing looks around 2, as he is in real life. I did a "from photo" drawing of my son a few months back, he looked about 8 or 9 in the drawing (he is 4 in real life :-0).

Three posts is enough for one day! Tomorrow I'll post another.

Greenough Portrait

Today I started my blog, but I started drawing on the 1st, so I have a little backlog. This is the second one that I did. Sargent did his about six years after the Beckwith portrait on my first post. This was more challenging simply because Sargent had developed quite a bit as an artist between this portrait and the last one that I did.

Sargent in January

I am beginning this blog to push myself (a little bit). I've been a lurker on other blogs for a while. Some of them are spending time this January learning from John Singer Sargent. I've decided to join them and learn from my betters. The real artists participating in this project are: Katherine Tyrrell and Maggie Stiefvater.

I am working my way through Dover's Publication of his portrait drawings. Above is my version from the first page. Sargent did it in his first year of formal training. When I was doing this, I was impressed with his "economy of line." In several places Sargent only used one line to suggest a feature (e.g. the lower lip), but the subtlety of that line produces the detail/likeness for which Sargent is renown. I have found the same to be true in other portraits as I have continued through the book. Katherine makes a similar point more vividly in reference to an oil painting here.

This blog will be rather minimalist - any blogging time must come from my "drawing time." So bear with me, but I hope to continue posting my sketches each day.

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