3:11 PM: and here is the drawing of britten. as with bethany, i had to do a deep search to find the right image, where she doesn't have that happy, smiley look.
1:53 PM: the completed drawing of bethany halbrecht. i'm now moving on to the next to last portrait, of the artist brittany. the toughest candidates for portraits are people who want to make sure they are always smiling or looking happy in their photos. so you search and search for a moment of truth, when they have for an instant let go of that need to look bright and sparkly. i had to do lots of work to find that moment for bethany as well as the next portrait of britten.
this makes me have a deeper appreciation for the series of portraits and full figure paintings i made in the '70's of greek construction workers. with them, the problem i just spoke of did not exist whatsoever. and they were so princely and elegant, so present in their utter simplicity that i grew accustomed to it; considered it the norm.
12:21 PM: i had a bit of a struggle finding the right image for bethany. she smiles a lot, which is fine, but not for a portrait. i started drawing one, but it just wasn't right. so i continued to comb the internet, looking for videos, where i can start & stop until i find the right expression that tells me "this IS bethany!" since we haven't met, i need to get a sense of her, and this video, which is really about thailand, gave me a brief glimpse of her in the intro. that was enough. in a moment between smiles, i saw her as i know she must be in real life. here's an early stage. work continues, and i'll post updates as they occur.