Monday was the fourth session of this course. We arrived to discover that the model had cried off at short notice due to illness, so a subject planned for a later session was substituted. This was portrait drawing and Saied first gave a 20 minute explanation of what was involved and what we should look for. Saied talked about asymmetry - looking for similarity - seeing dissimilarity in what appears similar. He talked about the primary axes and secondary axes, also accents and focus. This was not all and the history of art came into it and much else. During this time he wrote on a whiteboard and also did a drawing of the head illustrating the points he was making. I forgot my camera but took some photos on my new phone but - to date - haven't discovered how to transfer them to my computer! One of the main points he made is that people draw what they think they are looking at without actually seeing what is really there. To be brutally honest some of this stuff was above my head although I got the main drift of what he is trying to communicate. I don't think I'm alone in this even though the majority of the others have been to him previously.
We were then told to draw in pairs, facing each other. Pat and I faced each other and started to draw. He said that it was better to remove glasses, where worn, but after I tried this I had to put them back on. The basic idea was to draw the other person moving the head as little as possible, just moving the eyes. This is incredibly difficult, especially if - like me - you wear varifocals. Pat was struggling to draw me and I her, but she complained in a good natured way - well slightly irritated - that I was making it difficult by moving my head! I think we all had problems and the eraser came into play as often as the pencil. This whole process lasted over an hour and we both struggled to get a decent likeness. My initial attempt, while a decent drawing, did not much look like her, amongst other faults I made her look much too severe. Once again we were told to look at the other paintings from time to time. I don't know if anyone remembers a comic many years ago with a character called Dan Dare. The villain was called the Mekon and had a bulbous head. That was what I initially looked like. Pat was not keen on my interpretation of her either! However after constantly erasing and restarting I managed a final drawing that looked okay, although not a great likeness as she still looked far too severe. This was partly to do with the restrictions we worked under as we couldn't really take measurements or anything like that. Saied said my final version was better and that he could recognize her- just.
!st Drawing
After a break Saied asked us to pick someone else and draw them quickly in 20 minutes, basically chancing our arm. The lady opposite me kept moving her head up and down, back and forth, like a yo yo but I concentrated on her eyes and hair and managed the following.
2nd Drawing
Actually this isn't a bad likeness, not 100% by any means but recognizable. Saied said if she laughed at the drawing it was okay and she certainly laughed.
By this time less than half an hour remained and the lady I had just drawn had to depart - not because of my drawing I was assured. As I was left with no partner it was suggested I pick someone out and do a quick sketch. I selected a lady about 10 feet away and off I went.
3rd Drawing
This is not a bad likeness, when I showed it to her she also laughed. She was actually drawing someone opposite her at the time..
When Saied inspected our work from time to time the main criticism was that we were not always `drawing' but making random marks and gestures. At the end it was well dones all round so we proceed to next week which is the half-way mark, then there is a weeks break. At the end we again looked at all the work. While some are good there is certainly not a huge gap - if at all - between Pat and I and some of the others, about a dozen all told, despite some having been here before. This is no cause for satisfaction or complacency but neither is it a cause for despair.