Drawing Virginia Woolf
2014-05-05
I've been studying, on my own, how to draw the human face and have several Chinese drawing books. I've copied almost every face in those books. So now, I set myself the task of looking at and drawing from a photograph not in the books. I started with Virginia Woolf, whose novels I have been struggling to read. Incidentally, Amazon.com has a bilingual edition Chinese/English of Mrs. Dalloway, one of her best known novels. I have a great respect for her and she has such a compelling face. When I began to put pencil to paper, however, I ran into trouble. Looking at her, I thought I would have no trouble. Paper after paper was tossed. Many drawings have been done of Virginia Woolf through the years. Some look like her and some don’t. She has a haunting look. I try again with a fresh piece of paper. One of the Chinese books suggests putting dots where features are to map the face. I start doing that. The eyes look so much like those in Pre-Raphaelite paintings. No doubt the resemblance is that of her mother Julia Jackson who modeled for the Pre-Raphaelite painters. I dismiss the full face and go for the profile. Well, there is less of a face here; so it must be easier. I start with the nose. She has such a long nose. Oops, not that long. It seems like a sharp nose. I want to leave it and go to a man’s face where the nostrils are larger and less complicated. The delicate features on a woman's face are difficult. My lines must be shorter and fewer. I keep overdrawing. Too much. I erase. Too little. The contours of the face only seem to come forward with fewer strokes. I frequently show my drawing to a mirror to get the reversed image. I know immediately that I’ve made a mistake. The eyes are too far apart or too high up; or the face is simply not following the shape of the skull.
Hopefully for my next blog I will have finished my drawing of Virginia Woolf. I will share it whether successful or not.
Best of luck with it! We look forward to a photo of your drawing.
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