I've decided, there will always be a need for a good portrait drawing or painting.
I've thought about this alot because with such amazing photography these days; cool cameras, and lenses and high resolution iphones, people can achieve super creative photos so easily. Kids can use photo booth, and photoshop effects to make very cool images.
But people still react strongly to the expression achieved through a graphite drawing, or a hand made painting. I think it's because it's so raw and real.
The act of drawing comes straight from the brain of the artist.
That's not to say that a good photo portrait can't achieve emotion or raw feeling. I think that it can. I just believe that we still need that old fashioned hand made painting, or drawing in the world, to help us 'see' the emotion behind the subject. Perhaps the 'motion' is the answer, the strokes of the pencil moving around the paper, the paint moving on the surface, capturing
e-motion.
The kids spent some time drawing eachother - to prepare for their self portrait.
We talked about the uniqueness in everyone. I was hoping to get the kids to look at eachothers features rather than to draw the face that they have already become accustomed to drawing.
You know, the standard face, the happy smile, the perfect almond shaped eyes...it was a challenge. We also looked at some famous portraits. I was hoping that they could see how a painting differs from a photo in many ways. That if you include a hand resting on a cheek, and eyes are looking down, it can show that the person could have been sad, or deep in thought....
I've been looking at my daughter's school picture and thinking that she looks so happy, relaxed, mature, and ready for school in the photo. But I remember that on that day, she was a bit anxious, alittle nervous, and very conscientious about her look. The photo captured quite the opposite of the emotion of my daughter at the time. I wonder if that could even happen with a painting. Could a painter miss the inner feelings of the sitter with a brush? Perhaps, maybe the painter's emotions come through instead. Maybe it's a combination. Can a photographer project her emotion on her subject too, through an artificial lens ?
I remember times through the years watching parents take photos of their kids, at odd moments when the child is sad or crying and the parents insist on having him smile for the camera. I always wonder what they will they remember about that moment, the picture showing the giant smile? Or the weeping that came just before it?
Perhaps the best interpretation in Art- whether it be a painting, drawing, photograph, sculpture or any other mixed media piece, is the one that somehow manages to capture all the feelings, the mixture that one brings to life, the happiness and the tension.
