I like to present my students with art work that feels modern but was actually done centuries ago. Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) was a Scottish portrait painter with a modern, romantic sensibility. In our fourth drawing class we were working from Raeburn’s portrait of one Robert Brown of Newhall (1790’s), about whom I know nothing, but Raeburn must have seen him as self-confident and introverted at the same time.
Now, the catch is that we drew Mr. Brown upside down from a b/w Xerox copy.
This is a difficult assignment!
It’s difficult because, even looking at it upside down, you know it’s a face and that means you want to do it justice. You want to get it right. You know, for example, that the grayish smudge you’re looking at in the Xerox copy is actually representing an eye. An eye is a highly intelligent feature and it’s super important in getting a likeness.
As you can see, this student could not resist the temptation of drawing a clear face with clearly articulated features. It’s interesting that Robert Brown’s keen intelligence somehow comes through in Justin’s line drawing.
But, alas, the assignment was not to produce a line drawing but to observe and duplicate the various shades of gray. So difficult, takes so much patience and detachment. We will have more exercises like this to practice.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Raeburn
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artamaze by Katherine Hilden 