Quick Sharpie sketch of Patrick McGrath as photographed by Sally Soames, taken from the book Writers. (Mostly because I didn’t have time to do a full start on the next page of Drawing the Head and Hands). No roughs or anything; just a straight sketch. While there are obvious errors, the hardest part was figuring out what to render as black or white against this fairly dark black and white photograph:
A direct comparison shows there’s no easy way to line up what I drew with what was actually there. The nose and mouth fit best, leaving the hair and chin almost not terrible, but the cheeks are lopsided, the eyes too high, the forehead just … wrong … and the left shoulder shoved down while the right shoulder is up, I think because the hair came down too far. Not sure how I missed that, but it’s just way off.
Also that weird “1 line out of 3-5 goes kazoo” is in full force, though in reality it’s more like 1 line out of 20-30, lulling me into a false sense of security before the chin goes all wonky just when I think I’ve got it all under control.
This is why roughs are important. Next time (when I’m not already up late due to work).
Drawing every day.
-the Centaur
