A seven year old boy caught my eye and heart. I knew his grandfather. As the charcoal of this child emerged from the gray laid paper, I saw his grandfather’s face as a youth come through. I didn’t know his grandfather when he was a youth. I only heard stories he told about himself. The rare photos of the grandfather from pre-World War One held the same gaze as this young boy. The strength of character is what this child inherited from his elder. This child will be uniquely sane. I can say that from knowing the grandfather. Finding grounded personalities is a treasure I hunt for actively. When this child emerges from his youth, the hidden power will drive him to diverse thinking with rationality.
As an artist, I am occasionally intuitive to the model to the point of catching bits of real knowledge. This is what I caught this day for this boy.
To pose a child for a portrait, I placed him in front of the TV to zone him out. And I had to work quickly. This one took about an hour to complete but the child didn’t have to sit for the entire time.
When drawing children in street fairs, I take no longer than 10 – 15 minutes. Zip zip and done done. There aren’t many lines in children’s faces so children make it easy to draw them. The focus is on their facial proportions and how they relate spatially to each other. Those relationships are what makes or breaks the likeness of the portrait to the person.
After a charcoal is completed, I spray it with workable fixative. For this charcoal, it was only a very light layer. More fixative would have grossly darkened the subtle areas and wiped out the white. Many a charcoal has been ruined by too much fixative. When you use the fixative, make sure you have a consistent spray. If not, blots of fixative can dot the paper and never be removed.
Children are gentle lines and easily sloped cheeks. When I study a child’s face for a portrait, I feel there is a mild intrusion. It’s almost as if I have antennae feelers to find out which lines to choose and what gradient of slope to heighten. Some children are too shy to draw as models. Those get photographed first. This boy was fine with being looked at closely….just as long as he was closely watching Nickelodeon.