The last week of the drawing class we took from Katie Gilmartin was devoted to portraits. First, another profile (my previous one, of my daughter, is a couple of posts back). I’ve drawn a lot of self-portraits over the years in a high school for the arts and then as an art major, but I’ve never drawn a profile, so I took a lot of pictures of myself in profile and drew this.
Like Katie, I find that I begin to fall in love with whatever I draw. Not the person, but the way they look. Drawing myself was healing that way. I snapped the photo, sighed at the incontrovertible evidence that I have a saggier neck than I might prefer, and then set to drawing, and soon that sag was less a violation of societal standards of beauty, and more a lovely curve with delicate shadows that I just had to capture in graphite.
Then, our assignment for the last week was a standard self-portrait.
I got to something like “finished” an hour before class and just could not bear to erase and re-draw my left (picture’s right) eye, even though it is too close in. But I may yet redraw it, and the nose, which is nicely done but a little narrower than in reality. Or just make another drawing.
Sermons in Stones 
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July 14, 2020 at 6:29 pm
Karen Skold
Your profile portrait is very good–it is recognizably you. The face-on portrait doesn’t look anything like you. I wonder why.
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July 14, 2020 at 7:46 pm
Amy Zucker Morgenstern
What is so hard about portraits is that the drawing can be very good, but if the mouth is just that bit too narrow, or the eyes that bit too wide-set, or the face just a bit too square, it’s not a good likeness, and that’s all we’re looking for.
I think it’s the eyes’ being too close together and the nose being a little too narrow that gets in the way of the likeness, but maybe that’s not all. All in all, I’m happy with the drawing. I got a lot of things right, especially the light and shadow on the chin and cheeks.
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July 14, 2020 at 8:19 pm
Anita Morganstern
You guys are just sooo talented. I am amazed at the skills you each have. I think thy both look like you, except you made yourself look older than you actually are. Part of that is the black and white rather than color always ages. But you certainly drew two very close images.
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July 14, 2020 at 8:29 pm
Amy Zucker Morgenstern
I’m older than I was when you saw me last. 😉 But yes, Katie says “Drawings tend to add ten pounds or ten years.” Maybe mine added both . . . 😀
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July 15, 2020 at 6:10 am
Madeleine
Love the profile and its smile! The straight ahead portrait looks like you are standing guard for all of us against the hard times. Thank you for doing that.
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July 16, 2020 at 6:05 pm
Amy Zucker Morgenstern
LOL! It’s my privilege to do so. Halfway through drawing this, I thought I’d try drawing a smile just once. It’s hard posing with a smile because it just seems to turn into a grimace after the first few seconds (which is why I made sure I was smiling in the photo for the previous assignment). But you can see it there! See? Very subtle departure from my Resting Uber-Serious Face.
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