Today I had an appointment to begin a portrait commission. This means taking photos of someone who is not accustomed to having a camera in her face. We had to laugh as I said, “I’m not a photographer and you are not a model. Shall we begin?”We took photos all around her office, looking for different types of lighting, trying different angles, and just getting used to the whole camera-in-the-face experience. It usually takes awhile for a person to relax into body language and expressions that are natural.

The next step is for me to sort through all the photos and narrow it to about 5 choices. The customer gets to see these and decide which, if any, are pleasing. Then, I order prints and begin the drawing process. My goal is always to achieve the best likeness possible.

Each drawing starts out quickly, and a person is emerges from the paper. The problem is that everyone has the same stuff on his face (with the exception of various forms of whiskers, vision correction and perhaps moles), so how do I make it look like the right person? It is quite possible to work like crazy and accidentally draw the guy’s cousin, whether or not he has one! So, after getting a human face on the paper, then I begin the laborious process of turning it into the right one.                              

Here is one that succeeded quite well, if I do say so myself! I followed this lovely child around her yard, and at the end of the session, she ran to this swinging chair and said, “This is my favorite place to sit!” I could tell by the delighted and delightful expression on her face! It got a bit complicated when she asked me to draw her with my cat, Zeke. So I asked a neighbor of mine to pose with Zeke, who was Not Happy about the process. Then I went through my photos of Zeke (I have a zillion or two, because I LOVE my blue-eyed boy!) and found one that worked.