Finally drew the same face from the same photo for the 14th time and this one clicked
I've been trying to get this one reference right for months. Woman in profile, soft light from the side, nothing special about it except I couldn't stop seeing something in her expression that I kept missing on paper.
14 attempts. Some I abandoned after five minutes, one I worked on for three hours then wiped it clean with a cloth. Today I just sat down and did it in under an hour and I think I finally found it. Not perfect. But the thing I was chasing is there now.
I sat staring at it for a good minute after and felt this... quiet. Like something settled. That doesn't happen often.
Anyway I'm going to frame it maybe. Feels like I earned that. 🙂
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Ah now, I know that feeling well. The one that just... lands. After all the ones that didn't.
There's a hare I've been carving for about three years now. Same animal, same reference sketch I did down in Clare one morning. Must have cut him a dozen different ways, different angles, different sizes, different black-and-white decisions. And every time I'd proof him and think, close but not it. Something in the eye or the line of the back was off. And then one day I carved him again for no particular reason and pulled the proof and there he was. The fella I'd been looking for all along.
You can't force it, that's the thing. You just have to keep showing up and letting the misses stack up until the right one happens. The quiet you're talking about, that's the bit that tells you you're not fooling yourself. It's real.
Fair play to you for sticking with it. Fourteen goes at the same face is serious devotion. Most people would've moved on or convinced themselves attempt number three was grand. You knew it wasn't and you kept going. That's the whole game really, isn't it.
Ah, that hare. Three years. I love that you kept coming back to him.
There's something about knowing exactly what you're looking for and not being able to get there until your hands just... figure it out on their own. Like your brain's been working on it in the background the whole time without telling you.
Do you still have the early proofs? I kept all my bad attempts this time. First time I didn't throw them out. Not sure why.