"Facebook Portraits" 3-189, Ivy H.

Today is Sunday, January 27th. The start of the 4th week of this project I have embarked upon. I did finish the third portrait in the third week. So I'm on schedule as far as I'm concerned.

For the third week, it was another ex-coworker, Ivy. This one was quite special to me because without her, I wouldn't be where I am today in my career. You see, I was the one that replaced her old position at CURE Magazine.

When I started my career as a graphic designer in 2006, my first job was laying out oncology journals for a company called Cancer Information Group which was a sister company to CURE Media Group, publisher of CURE Magazine. I had been working for CIG for about 11 months when Ivy decided to part ways with CURE to pursue another opportunity.

They wanted to look internally for a replacement, and I really didn't intend on working for CURE since I was pretty content with what I was doing. I was poked and prodded to apply for the position by other people in CURE, including Ivy. So I did, and I've been there since.

The random number that was given to me for the third week was 189, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was Ivy. Ivy is happily married so I thought I would pic a photo with her and her husband. Luckily, according to Ivy, the one I chose is one of her favorites photos of them together. All the better. =)

I estimated that this one took around 13 hours. There were lots of details and adjustments involved in the production. Over all I'm pretty happy with the result.

18" x 24", graphite and charcoal on paper. Ivy H 3-189.

It's still not perfect, by any means. There's certain nuances that I see between the work and the photo. I don't use any grids or anything so it's something that I have to train myself to notice these things while the work is in progress. It would also probably help that I am finally getting an drafting table soon. I will finally have a place to work on portraits.

One final thought, I have been posting the progress of each portrait on Instagram, which feeds to my Twitter and Facebook. The response has been great, and I couldn't ask for more. Hashtags makes sense now =). Follow me on Instagram or Twitter, both @FlipFlash21.

On to the next.

GZ

"Facebook Portraits" 2-121, Taylor B.

Here is the second piece for Facebook Portraits. The random number that was given to me was #121, and according to my Facebook friends list, it was Taylor.

Now I consider myself a pretty confident person, but I sometimes I still get nervous doing certain things. One of those is drawing another artist. Since artists and creative types know what to look for when they are looking at something, I set a higher level of expectation from the work I present them.

Taylor is one of those. She's an art and design student. She's creative. And she also happens to be related to one of my mentors... my boss. Talk about pressure. =) So when I learned it was her, I admit, I kinda freaked out a bit, but I sucked it up and got started.

I thought her current profile photo was perfect. So I didn't have to look far into her albums to find one interesting enough. I turned it to black and white just to make it easier to see the shadows and light.

She's the one on the left.

I am trying to make a point to start on a portrait on a Monday. For this one, I couldn't wait. Ok. To be honest, I was bored. So I got started the Thursday after I finished the portrait of David D.

This one took me 12 hours total. I do get distracted, and since I don't have an actual place to be able to draw properly, I have to take many breaks because my right leg always falls asleep from sitting in an awkward position while drawing on my bed.

18" x 24", graphite and charcoal on paper. Taylor B 2-121.

It's not perfect by any means, but I'm working on getting better. I see some nuances on the portrait that I could have done better. Sometimes I see these things after I take my eyes off of it after a while.

I'm also working on getting faster. At the rate I'm going, the last portrait of the year might take 60 hours. lol

This was a lot of fun to draw. It's on its way to Taylor as I write this. Can't wait for her to post a photo with it. On to next week's portrait.

"Facebook Portraits" 1-441, David D.

A new year comes with a new set of challenges and resolutions. There's only one for me, and that is to get back to doing what I love the most. Drawing. Portraits, mainly.  There's just something about a person's face that's intriguing to me as an artist.

The irony here lies in the fact that I did most of my portrait drawings BEFORE I became an art major at UTA (The University of Texas at Arlington). Once I became focused on being a graphic designer, all my work became computer based. Being busy with school work, working to pay for school and playing guitar with my friends became more important than sitting alone and hammering out a piece.

This year, I'm making a point to draw more. Then I started thinking, "Why would I draw photos of famous people? They don't mean anything to me." So I posted this on my Facebook wall. Just to see how people would react to it.

"I need people to draw. So, from now on, instead of drawing actors/actresses, I will be picking a random friend, look through their photos and draw a photo I find interesting enough. I will post the finished piece, tag whoever it belongs to then send the original to that person. My goal is one piece a week. All I ask is in return is to have that person post their photo on Facebook holding their portrait and tag me on it."

And the reaction I got was overwhelming. First, I needed to figure out how to randomize my selection process. I noticed that when you go to your Facebook profile, click on friends, your friends list shows up in no particular order. Seems random enough, but if I just chose a friend to draw, it still wouldn't be random because its my choice. So I went here:

http://www.random.org/

I typed in the set of numbers I wanted it to choose from. In this case, a number between 1 and 523 (the number of friends I have on Facebook). 441 is the result. I then went on my friends list and counted 441, and that led me to my first person to draw. David D.

The only choice I allow myself to have is the photo of theirs to draw. So I went on to his profile photos and chose this.

Interesting enough. Good expression.

2 nights and 11 hours later....

18" x 24", graphite and charcoal on paper. David D 1-441.

Not a bad start for not having drawn in 12 years, I think. Now on to the next. =)