Perspective

I've had to halt shooting, orders, and drawing freely this week in order to catch up on commissions. So I don't have much to show as far as my progress for those quite yet. Although the other night I found myself immensely inspired by Drew Struzan. I was watching a documentary titled The Man Behind the Poster, which takes into account Drew's life work and struggles in the industry. I'm incredibly familiar with Struzan's work, but never so much with his life. It was admittedly great to know that Drew spent years in poverty, starved for his family, yet never stopped drawing. So at 11pm that I picked my up my tools and started doodling while Netflix flickered in the background. 

For some reason I instantly felt that I needed to draw myself. I've only ever done it once for practice noses and a very difficult angle once, but it otherwise never occurred to me to use myself as a subject. 

Self portraits are a little weird for me. I don't mind them done by someone else. It's a different perspective entirely. I think the problem, or my problem, with self portraits is that we don't really have a good idea of what we really look like despite seeing ourselves every day. There are too many conflicting ideas about what we think we look like, what we want to look like, and how others see us. Too many perspectives! That's why it's easier to draw from a photo. Not to mention a little lazier. Maybe someday I'll be able to sit myself down in front of a mirror and explore my perspective with hands. Like this.

This is a 30 minute sketch. I don't plan on doing anything else to it.