Enduring Plum

If nothing else, this drawing class has got me drawing again and rebuilding my confidence at tackling my subjects on the scale and with the amount of detail I enjoy. Behind the cut are two self portraits, one done in about forty minutes on December fifth and another done in around two hours on December ninth.

( Self Portraits )

Much of the difference between the two drawings has to do with confidence level: the first one is the first portrait I've done since some time in 2002, but it also has to do with pain level; on the fifth I was having a lot of fatigue, pain, and muscle burning, but I felt pretty good yesterday, so I was able to sit for much longer and observe myself better. When I look at the second self portrait, I can still see the errors, but I also recognize them as errors I could have avoided if I had taken a moment to step back from my work and observe it from a distance, so they don't bother me too much. The first self portrait is so inferior to most of the work I do that it's not even really worth noting the problems in it, but it did serve to make me want to do a better job on the next portrait, if nothing else - I think of it as a warm up.