On Tuesday my drawing instructor asked me to bring in what I'd been working on lately. "There isn't much," I told him, but upon rounding up six different sketchpads I found more than I'd remembered. Here is the best of the lot, a sketch I did late at night while genius burned and I was supposed to be sleeping. It's left-handed, as most of my best stuff usually is. The original is a portrait of Mrs. Wilton Phipps by John Singer Sargent, c. 1884. The man is far-and-away my favorite portrait artist. This challenge was to open the book anywhere and draw what I found.
The lift of her right eye (on our left) is wrong and makes her look less awake than she is, and the smile I gave her is not nearly as sweet at the one Sargent gave her. I have her face a little narrow overall, and her ear too small and too prominent. But for an hour's work I'm fairly happy with it. And I really like her hair.
