Mothers Day and other thoughts...
Mother's day is coming up fast, so I've been working on a gift for my mom. I told her a while ago that I had an idea in my head for a family portrait, based on what I call my "angry style" (a very angular and distorted style in harsh black and white I mostly use when I am feeling extreme emotion). More recently I asked her what she wanted for mother's day, and she said "How about that family portrait you were talking about?" I replied "Really? You know it's gonna be kinda creepy..." And she shrugged and said "I'm sure I'll like it..." So that's what I'm working on.
And it has been a challenge. Translating someone's real face into a distorted cartoonish version that is STILL basically recognizable is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I have new respect for caricaturists and political cartoonists. It's kinda been fun, tho, studying the plains of my loved ones' faces and trying to figure out how to translate their complex appearances into a few lines. It's nothing new for me as an artist, it's just been interesting to realize that as intimate as these faces are to me I never noticed the exact shape of my mother's jaw, or the length and width of my father's nose, or the shape of their eyebrows.
I have to say my father was a lot easier than my mother. Maybe it's because he has a huge beard covering half his face. :P Still, it's a fun project, and I'm glad my mother asked me to do it for her Mother's Day gift, or I might have never found the motivation to do it at all. Hope she likes it. :3
And it has been a challenge. Translating someone's real face into a distorted cartoonish version that is STILL basically recognizable is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I have new respect for caricaturists and political cartoonists. It's kinda been fun, tho, studying the plains of my loved ones' faces and trying to figure out how to translate their complex appearances into a few lines. It's nothing new for me as an artist, it's just been interesting to realize that as intimate as these faces are to me I never noticed the exact shape of my mother's jaw, or the length and width of my father's nose, or the shape of their eyebrows.
I have to say my father was a lot easier than my mother. Maybe it's because he has a huge beard covering half his face. :P Still, it's a fun project, and I'm glad my mother asked me to do it for her Mother's Day gift, or I might have never found the motivation to do it at all. Hope she likes it. :3