More imaginary people...

I remember the very first realistic face I ever drew. I was quite young and my peers were still drawing circles with smiley faces. I liked loved to draw and would spend hours lost in my own little creative world. But this first face was done quite by accident. My parents told me to clean my closet, and well, you remember the story about the parrot, right? My locker was bad, but my closet was a disaster! And though I always hated having to do it, I often found myself flung into this imaginary world as things forgotten suddenly were rediscovered. On this particular day I saw a piece of paper with a squiggly line on it, just a scribble really; it looked like a profile. So I added the mouth, eyes, ears, etc., and I ended up with a very realistic profile sketch. I worked on this for hours. Putting down some pencil marks, rubbing it to get shading. Looking in the mirror the best I could, to see how it looked from the side. It was a new discovery to me, and I remember that feeling of joy.

And so began my fascination with drawing people. When I doodle, it is almost always faces. All kinds of faces. I try doodling shapes and zentangles, try to be random, but always I see the slightest inkling of a face in there and unable to help myself, I push it to become a face. I once told a friend of mine that I could make a face out of any line. She challenged me and I did it. My proportions may not always be correct and sometimes they come out a bit bizarre (e.g. the lady with the tree arms), but they are always there, found scattered about my pages.