Page 131 - sarah-simblet_sketch-book-for-the-artist

Portraiture

IN PORTRAITURE W E MEET PEOPLE, usually strangers from past times, who, having been

documented and preserved, look directly at us, or past us, or whose eyes can seem to

follow us around the room Portraiture is a constant, live, and lucrative genre for artists.

The truth is that we all like looking at faces and observing the billions of variations that

make us individuals. We are also reassured by keeping records of ourselves. Halls and

palaces are filled with pictures of the mighty and significant. Our homes are filled with

images of our loved ones and of those in our families who have gone before.

Past rulers sent painters across continents to bring back a likeness in advance of

a prospective royal marriage. The returning image was of crucial consideration in any

proposal. Portraits can be highly or loosely detailed, single or of groups, abstract

or figurative, and satirical or metaphorical. We can mold and animate qualities of

expression out of objects and fragments of disassociated things—for example, Man

Ray's self-portrait of scored lines, bells, buttons, and a handprint (see p.139). To create

a face is to see and interpret the essence of an identity. W h e n drawing a person, the

meaning of their face, their stance, and their posture can be changed with just one

line. Equally, a single line can deliver an entire expression.

Goya, in a miniature self-portrait magnified opposite, gathered all that he knew

about himself, and in a few scrolling rafts of pen lines and stubbled dots, is here

FRANCISCO DE GOYA

Visionary Spanish painter, to both meet and look through us. Self-portraiture gives every artist a constant,

draftsman, and printmaker.

Goya's works include many compliant subject to scrutinize. Rembrandt's famous multitude of self-portraits, made

royal and society portraits,

historical, religious, and secular as he passed through the ages of man, became more poignant as he progressed. For

narratives,and social and

political commentaries. This centuries, painters have dropped discreet records of themselves into commissioned
enlargement of his miniature

p o r t r a i treveals t h e speed narratives so that they can remain a face in the crowd. Movie director Alfred

and agility o f his p e n and

his changes in pressure and Hitchcock similarly signed his films by playing a fleeting role: he walks through

length of line. It also reminds

usof both the intimacy and a scene as an extra, or a glimpse of him is caught in a photograph used as a prop.

scrutiny of an honest portrait.

Beginners often draw themselves as a way of establishing their practice, and it is

very rewarding. In this chapter, we use the delicate medium of silver point to look at

foundation structures of the head, neck, throat, and shoulders. Once you understand

Self-Portrait in a Cocked Hat and memorize the basic structure that we all share, you can capture the subtlety,
c. 1790-92

4 x 3 in (102 x 76 m m ) character, and expression of the individual.
FRANCISCO DE G OY A