Here’s another brush pen and ink sketch of Alun Armstrong.
A wonderful set of dundrearies. Are they talked about as a set ? What is the related hairstyling vocabulary?
Well, something to ponder, along with that wonderful hairdo.
#MarchIsSketchAlunArmstrongMonth
Love these sketches! Love all your sketches!
Roz, do you have a rough estimate of how many portrait sketches you have done in your lifetime? What is your average number of head studies per week? They are all so colorful and characterful!
Richard it’s an interesting question. I have just under 2,000 journals that I’ve kept and filled with sketches of everything; hundreds of sketchbooks that I’ve kept also through life, and which in the 80s began including life-drawing sessions where I normally draw faces instead of whole poses. And many loose sheet journals (usually one or two 9 x 12 x 3 inch boxes a year which hold about 250 sheets of thick paper) where things like watercolor and gouache portraits go, many of which are portraits. And then stand-alone paintings. And for clients I’ve done hundreds of faces (usually famous scientists) for print.
Before cataract surgery I would sketch 4 to 8 hours a day and at least some of that would be faces. So I don’t know what the estimate would be, but it’s a bunch. I even like a lot of them!
After cataract surgery I’ve tried to do at least one portrait (person, dog, bird) a day, and I know it won’t be possible to go back to high productivity, but I feel I get to keep my hand in at least a little.
Let’s just say I’ve gone through a lot of paper.
(I should point out that in the journals, a lot of the portraits are usually quick studies of people I see when I’m out and about and in the waiting room at the allergist, and stuff like that. So a lot of this is not what I would consider finished portraits, but always a chance to practice likeness.)