I've been meaning to post some of my sketchbook pages from time to time. I don't draw nearly enough—I started the sketchbook from which this page is taken in 2006—but I still enjoy doing it, and a chance discussion led to me making a drawing in a very old style, using vertical shading in graphite, that I still obviously enjoy.

I've made three drawings in this style I really liked; one was a drawing of a dear friend's mother, at the friend's request; another was a portrait taken from a photograph I myself shot, and third, which hangs in my studio, in contrast to the other two, is a fantasy.

Today's effort is no great shakes, but it is an advance, however small, on the other two examples in that it's not from a still: I made this drawing during President Obama's state of the union speech, which I considered to have nearly ideal conditions for several reasons:

• the president stood fairly still
• I knew in advance how long the ‘pose’ would last
• the time available was nice and long, over an hour
• I was still looking at a 2D image, rather than a 3D person
• the image was simplified for youtube
• I'm familiar with the subject's features

I'm terrible at drawing from life when the subjects are moving, so this was very nearly ideal conditions. And I think the president is recognizable. But compared to the sketch I made the day before (from a photograph), it's clear I have a long ways to go before being able to render folks from life, on the fly.

Upshot: President Obama is much better at giving inspiring and highly articulate speeches (with Star Trek references—‘unity in incredible diversity’ no less!^[1] ) than I am at sketching people.

One final rumination, continuing on from my rant in the intro: though slender men draw my eye, once into that mental space of translating what I see into line and shadow and color, any person becomes fascinating. Beautiful, also (Well, if I'm doing my job right, that is, and I think that's where the whole beauty of soul comes in: if the model were a horrible person, I couldn't connect emotionally, and find those good qualities, do you see?) I began to understand this in a visceral way when looking at Larry Rivers’ Double Portrait of Birdie, a nude of a subject generally reviled in our society, an old fat woman.

It was beautiful.

I had this experience myself, at the Scarab club; I went there a few times to draw, or paint, and one time the model was clothed, and fat: not just fat, but morbidly obese. She had on this rainbow colored loopy (i.e. highly textured) sweater and white tights and floral hat, and I was none too thrilled. My first effort was terrible: I was way too fussy, trying to capture the texture of her sweater. But then I started abstracting—I don't know where that watercolor got to, but I do remember leaving much of the white area blank, except around her knees, and the whole piece jelling; becoming a beautiful painting of a woman I admired very much for her forthright comfort in her own skin.

Drawing, photo, file, 28jan; post completed 29jan10.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.

Sylvus Tarn