Sleeping Son, in Graphite
April 10th, 2008 by Leora
This is the only finished artwork I have of one of my children that was done completely from real life. It is considered preferable to paint or draw from a real subject, as opposed to using a photograph. But how does one get a child to sit still, even for five minutes? This son in particular was an extremely busy four-year-old, the age he was when I did this drawing. So I captured him asleep. And as one of his teachers reminded me recently, he still has a hard time sitting still.
I really like the drawing of your son. People are difficult to do at least for me. That’s why I usually stick to doing flowers or animals. Would you like to exchange links?
Beautiful!
It’s so nice to wake up in the morning and get two new commenters! I realized I have visited both of your blogs before (palette48 just yesterday). I added you both to my blogroll.
palette48, a lot of drawing people is just practice, practice, practice. Get a good book on studying the proportions of the face if you find your drawings look off. But it’s mostly just looking very carefully.
You are amazaing.
This is a lovely piece…
What a cute story, too. It is tough to get kids to sit still for a portrait. Capturing him asleep was a good idea!
Jill
Batya, thank you.
Jill, you have this boy as a student. When doing art, he can sometimes be “entranced” and totally sit still. But he has his buddy in your class, so the entrancement probably doesn’t happen.
You know, I think I can see a bit of a resemblence between your son and the picture of you when you were a child. Does he look a lot like you?
People tell me he does. I see my mother-in-law’s face, which I also see on some of his cousins on my husband’s side.