Arianne

[David Draime]

Jean, thank you. I have been mulling lately on the tedium I sometimes experience in doing these pieces, namely...if a drawing or painting is tedious in its creation - does it follow that, for the viewer, it is somehow tedious to look at? It may not be true in every case, but there may be some truth there...I wonder how often Sargent got bogged down in an area of a painting he found "tedious"...

Heidi, thanks! Yeah, my concerns with doing obviously beautiful - or glamorous looking -subjects aren't so much about doing them justice, but are rather all about ending up with the piece looking like an illustration from some fashion magazine. To raise it to the level of "art"....there are different kinds of beauty (less obvious) that I am far more comfortable with.

[Michele Rushworth]

Garth hit the nail on the head when describing you:

an unusually fabulous and insightful artist

These are both terrific.

As to the ideal of feminine beauty, sometimes it truly is in the eye of the beholder.

[Grethe Angen]

Hello David, apart from your subject, the beauty lies in the fact that this is charcoal on paper. It takes time to reach this level of controlling the the black dust. Beautiful!

[Jean Kelly]

I've also been fighting with the tedious nature of some of my art. In your case the tendrils of hair look to be effortless, and her skin texture is flawless, the fabric is beautifully draped. I believe that most viewers will simply be stunned by the perfection, like Michaelangelo's "David". But, for the artist it may be a different story. At times I want to have a huge canvas next to me so I can just throw paint on, and paint with my whole body! (No, not like Farrah Fawcet, who rolled around on the canvas nude).

I wonder if Sargent ever wrote about his struggles also, and this may be an interesting topic for another thread.

Jean

[Mischa Milosevic]

David,

Both drawings are are in a class of their own. Well done! Let me share with you what I see when I work. When setting up a pose for a portrait one of the things I do is ask the person to turn their head ever so slowly from one direction to another. When doing this I usually find, not always, that there is a moment that really appeals to my visual and senses. As you well know setting the pose just right is part of the game.

When drawing the shapes and lines one gets so familiar with what one sees that a slight deviation than what is there becomes quite evident. Each developing stage reveals special moments for me especially as the crown is the finishing stage. If in the finish I do not see, in my drawing or painting, something that one can reach-out and touch than I have failed. Don't get me wrong I feel the same way about my line drawings. Sketches are different for me, they are my source of information and or shape and value study.

I think one can see beauty all around us especially in the face of man/woman. Like you mentioned a person does not need to be something extra in beauty to be beautiful but what I joy for a artist when we see it, capture and relate it for others to see. What a joy!! I'm so glad that you can see it David! Many will appreciate what you convey through your art.

Wishing you all the best!

[David Draime]

Michele, you are too kind...really!

Grethe, thanks! Charcoal really is a wonderful medium, the range of values, the deep rich black than you can get, and the soft passages - I just love it.

Jean, thanks for saying these things, but, with this one, I now just see the flaws, and maybe a few nice passages. And as for Farrah Fawcett - I would be really interested in seeing her painting process - her technique in applying the paint - perhaps more so than the finished painting itself.

Mischa, you put these sentiments so well...What a joy indeed! We are so fortunate, I really feel it as quite a high calling that has come to us portrait artists: to call attention to the beauty ( and frailty, vulnerability, strength, weakness, pain, love...) inherent in each person we portray; to lift the veil slightly to reveal the innate excellence and overpowering beauty of the human reality - and not through dialog or argument, but by pushing colored pigments around on a flat surface! How wonderful!! By our concentrated and penetrating gaze upon our subject, and by repeating the gaze, over and over, and finding our own unique ways of capturing those fleeting moments in paint, we can somehow reveal - or at least intimate - something of the eternal, profound mystery that is all of us. And for the viewer - to encourage this type of reflection, if only briefly - what a gift we give to the world. And - if that weren't enough - to be part of such a rich heritage - to follow in the footsteps of Raphael, Rembrandt, Bouguereau, Sargent, and all the great Masters who preceded us...my God, what a noble profession!

David