The doodles went a little weird this week, but I'm kind of digging it. After all, I was going to talk about why I choose to focus on certain subjects, so it's the perfect time to change. I usually avoid trying to justify anything I draw simply for the sake of it, but hopefully we can avoid any amount of artist wank-speak along the way.
One of the common questions people ask me about art is why a lot of creative types are obsessed with drawing human bodies. I don't know of any universal rule behind it, but for me it's as simple as being a subject matter I know better than any other.
Faces in particular are perfect for practice, as we're hard-wired to recognise any imperfections or odd proportions. Drawing a face means that I can immediately tell what's wrong with it before going too far and creating a monster. It's why I'm actually a little bit proud of any doodles you've seen that looks like everything is in the right place, because there's very little room for error.
At the same time though, it's fun to tweak features even the slightest bit, as they are immediately identifiable as out of place. Creating a weird and wonderful caricature of a human face is made much easier by the fact that we all easily see where the distortions have been made.
Consider the alternative, of creating an entirely fictional being that has no reference point and is a new image for an audience to interpret. They won't know if the eyes are too high on the face, or if the jaw line is too wide or off-balance. You could doodle any kind of mess and sell it as the perfect rendition of a fictional creature, and nobody would be the wiser.
The same goes for human bodies. Life drawing is a lot of fun as I find it extremely challenging, but more accessible than a lot of other subjects. It's like I'm able to get out of my way a little, because I understand what I'm drawing and I know what kind of shapes and forms to expect. However, getting everything in the right place and to the correct proportions requires enough precision to make it incredibly difficult.
Now, I'll be the first to tell you that none of my doodles and drawings manage to succeed in the task of realistically reproducing a human image. Although, I'm always excited when I look back on a random doodles and all the features seem to be exactly where they belong. Thanks to our inherent skill at recognising facial details, it only takes a glance to figure out whether a face is a little off kilter. Fooling that highly tuned skill and creating an image that our brains find believable is the goal, and getting close to it is always exciting.
To sum it up, the reason I find drawing human faces and bodies more interesting than other subjects is two-fold. Ultimately these are organic shapes that can be extremely challenging to reproduce. However, this is only true because we are excellent scrutineers of human forms, which makes it easier to spot mistakes and learn from incorrect marks on the page.
Plus, the more I continue to paint random faces on canvas, the more I realise just how useful these doodles have been. I'm fairly confident that I could knock out a basic face without too much effort these days. Usually the terrible ones you see here are the result of trying to do something a little different, like a strange angle or unique configuration.
At the end of the day it's all about challenging ourselves and focusing on the things we find interesting. I'd go mental if I tried drawing still-life all day, because I can't think of anything more droll and boring. People are much more fascinating and I'll always be interested in the pursuit of creating believable faces with nothing more than a pen on a blank page.