Posts Tagged: portrait
David
David
Meet David!
Dr. David Solzman is a professor emeritus (geography) at University of Illinois Chicago Circle, an art photographer – the man behind The Affectionate Eye, an author of a book The Chicago River, a talented piano player and a friend of ours. My husband has been friends with David for almost 40 years and I can claim half of that. Oh, we can tell you stories… but we won’t, not here! I will certainly not share the compliments I have received from David through the years, some of which now belong to the annals of family legends, they are that… umm… creative! A true Renaissance man David is, we have a wall in our place dedicated to his art. At the same time while being a person of such great renown he is not opposed to babysitting our cat when we are out of town.
On September 19th we went on a day long boat tour on Chicago River guided and narrated by David. We went out of the river mouth, south on Lake Michigan, up Calumet river, through Cal-Sag Channel, the Sanitary and Ship Canal, connecting to Chicago river again and completed the circle. How can anyone talk for 8 hours, not repeat himself even once, and keep it rivetingly interesting all the time? The amount of Chicago history that David brought to us during the ride was astounding. Here I caught him with his mouth closed for just a second.
#18 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
Arturo
Arturo
By now it seems like everyone in my drawing class knows about my sketchbook project and a goal of 40 portraits. My classmates and even the teacher oblige me and let me photograph them for portraits, be that a bad hair day or not. Some with quiet resignation and a sigh, some with a smile and jokes about fame and Louvre, others informing me that they are making a great exception for the sake of Art. Be that what it may, people are helping me out and I appreciate that.
Arturo wasn’t all that thrilled about an impromptu photoshoot during a break between classes, but being a kind man and a true artist he felt obliged. Here he is studying figure sketches he has just done. They appear not to his liking… I find them to be pretty good.
#17 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
Allison
Allison
Meet Tinker Bell!
She goes by Allison these days, but this doesn’t change anything. If you are too grown up and as a result do not believe in fairies, you should come to my clay class in the Drawing Workshop and meet Allison in person. As is suitable for fairies, Allison makes puppets for theater productions and acts them. That’s her job. She is also very good with stilts, but this must be easy for those who can fly. She even has a website, One Flea Circus, where you can check out her puppets. A very 21st century fairy she is.
So if you driving streets of the Windy City late at night and while waiting for the light to change notice a girl flying by your driver’s window, her pants constructed entirely of colorful patches, red cape fluttering behind her, bicycle helmet on her head, remember the pixie dust and make a wish. It is never too late to believe in fairies.
#16 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
George
George
Meet George!
George Sotos is a founder and a main instructor of The Drawing Workshop, a private art school in Chicago. I found the school by chance Googling drop-in life drawing sessions, came in one evening, talked to George and stayed. You know how sometimes, not too often, rarely in fact, you come across a teacher or a mentor and something clicks between the two of you, and you know he is special. That’s what happened between me and George. He is an amazing teacher, and what’s more important – he is the one I can learn from.
George has been teaching art for 30+ years. He was a part of Tree Studios in Chicago when it still existed, was a faculty of American Academy of Art for gazillion years, and then started his own art school. He developed a methodology of teaching artists to SEE, a unique program, something that I have never encountered anywhere else. George’s methods are not for the fainthearted. He reminds me of art teachers and masters of the old world – praise for the sake of encouragement is not in his tool box. What you get is an abandon of critique, merciless truths, endless corrections, and the clearest explanations along with the vision George has for each of his students. He wants to teach you. It’s priceless.
I am taking two classes with George: Basic Figure Drawing with live model and Developing Visual Vocabulary which consists of sculpting a human skeleton in clay, building it up bone by bone.
#15 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
Cousin Joe
Cousin Joe
Meet Cousin Joe!
Cousin Joe is the youngest of Aunt Marie’s children and the only one who lives in Chicago. Not only he lives here, he serves and protects. Cousin Joe is a detective with Chicago PD. I am majorly impressed by that. Joe is wonderfully honorable and trustworthy, you can depend on him when the going gets tough (we know – we had to at one point), and he is very kind. I tried bring these things into his portrait, but didn’t really know how. My drawing teacher says that sometimes you just need to hold something in your head without trying too hard, your eye and your hand will find the way to convey it on paper. Excluding the know-how, without intellectualizing, leaving the all-so-important brain activity out of it. So that’s what I did. You tell me if it worked.
As it happens Cousin Joe and his family are the only family of our age group who live close and by proximity available for barbeque party, beach outing, or back yard beer tasting and shmoozing. What’s not to like!
#14 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
Self
Self
I drew this one pursuing two purposes at once. I wanted a self-portrait for an intro page of my Sketchbook Project. And Linda Halcomb announced her self-portrait non-challenge about the same time. Thank you, Linda!
For more of my Sketchbook pages click on the Sketchbook Project 2011 tab.
For more self-portraits of various artists click here and go to the comments section. Other artists, who participated, have left their links there.
Cousin Barbara
Cousin Barbara
Meet Cousin Barbara!
Cousin Barbara is Aunt Marie’s second daughter. I hear family stories that Cousin Barbara was called Barbie at some point. I can see why. Whatever you want to call her, she is gorgeous, and that’s all there is to it.
Here Cousin Barbara in her full party mode is having fun at Aunt Marie’s birthday celebration, the party that she herself organized and put together. Long distance! Complete with prizes (I won a centerpiece :D) and goodie bags with Italian cookies to take home. Barbara is a lot of fun. But let’s not allow the party air make us forget that Barbara is an astute business woman, a successful entrepreneur and a wonderful mother.
#13 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook.
Cousin Pat
Cousin Pat
Meet Cousin Pat!
That would be Patricia, actually, but she never uses her patrician name. Cousin Pat is Aunt Marie’s daughter, the oldest of her three children. So we have three cousins. I hope to introduce you to all of them, brace yourselves.
Cousin Pat understands animals. Horses and dogs are her best friends. As well as anybody who has fur, feathers or scales. If you, dear reader, have wings or hooves or a tail, you have it made with cousin Pat. Oh, cousin Pat tolerates humans as well, but I wonder if it is more like an afterthought with her. I am disappointed that she lives out of state, I think we could have been friends, even though I don’t have feathers or scales. I do have a proper mindset however.
It was very interesting to draw cousin Pat immediately after her mother’s portrait. The family resemblance was fantastically apparent. I could literally feel it in the lines and marks I was putting down.
#12 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook
Aunt Marie
Aunt Marie
Meet my Aunt Marie!
On that day of September 4th Aunt Marie was celebrating her 85th birthday. And we all were there helping her. What fun it was! And how tasty! Many wonderful returns to you, Aunt Marie!
Aunt Marie is from Italian branch of my family. This reminds me how at Dr. Goldberg’s outing there was a trivia discussion about what to eat where in Chicago. “Where do you go for the best hot dogs?” We didn’t know and were informed of a hot dog stand on a corner of Devon and Milwaukee. “Where do you go for the best pizza?” and a pizzeria downtown was named. “Where do you go for the best Italian?” That we knew. “You go to Aunt Marie’s!” my husband and I exclaimed in unison.
Dinners at Aunt Marie’s are epic. You start early, at about 2 in the afternoon, so that you can lie down and rest between changes. Really, after the appetizers (mushrooms stuffed with Italian sausage, breaded artichoke hearts, shrimp cocktail – to name a few) you don’t need any more food for 2 days. But then pasta with red sauce, meatballs and sausage is coming which is just too good to pass. And just when you think that you are done eating for the rest of your life, there is tiramisu and cake and fruit, and men are loosening their belts. After all these years I know not to wear tight jeans to Aunt Marie’s. Then we usually go for a walk to get our tummies settled, but upon return we find the rest of the family at coffee and chocolate and ice cream. And Aunt Marie with her usual question “Do you want to take some food home, my dear?”, this is when she usually wears the expression you see here. We always want to.
Aunt Marie, we love you!
#11 of 40. Graphite, Moleskine Cahier sketchbook
Leslie
Leslie
Meet Leslie!
Actually many of you know Leslie already! Leslie of Leslie Paints is an artist, an art teacher, an art blogger, and a friend of mine.
I keep thinking how the world is changing before my eyes. I remember times when people wrote letters to communicate, I remember having a pen-pal. I hear people still do the pen-pal thing now, but it has become a sort of creative anachronism. What people really do now is Internet. As do I. I met Leslie in blogosphere and we became friends. End of story. We never met in person, not yet, but I think of her more often, communicate with her more frequently, get more out of our connection than from a number of people I say Hello to in person in the hallway. Communities of Internet age… an interesting subject… I understand it is part of today’s Social Anthropology taught in schools.
If you haven’t met Leslie, go and check her work on her blog Leslie Paints. She is very good. Well, she is a professional. Which makes me very much unsure of myself posting this portrait. How does a novice make a portrait of a mentor… On top of being wonderfully talented Leslie is a generous, sharing, thoughtful person. And she is so beautiful! Which presents yet another challenge. Beauty is so exact and elusive, a millimeter off here or there and beauty is gone in a puff of eraser debris. I hope I did Leslie justice here.
For this portrait Leslie wore a Chicago shirt – in my honor. I truly appreciate the gesture, Leslie. So I had to acknowledge this thoughtfulness by showing the letters on the sketch. It took forever!!! Leslie sweetie, let’s have a plain shirt next time please… 😳
#10 of 40. Graphite, pastel (for letters), Moleskine Cahier sketchbook