Man and Woman - 29 December 2010 - watercolor and India ink on paper, about 9"x12"
This man and woman heads side by side is a subject I’ve done somewhat similar versions of (for example here and here.) They usually pertain to each other, but are somewhat drawn apart, too. In this one, she’s sort of speaking/whispering into his ear… and his nose is sort of gravitationally drawn to her… but their eyes are looking away from each other. The color schemes also differentiate them – she’s more cooler blues, he’s more warmer reds.
A couple critically important notes on process:
I draw in ink, with only a general idea of what I plan to do. So I did his face first, then hers. This improvisational approach gives the two of them a bit of disassociation with each other. They’re not really planned out to interact. I read a quote that sorta petains to this, that gives me some validation! In Art Spiegelman‘s Ace Hole story in Breakdowns, Spiegelman quotes Pablo Picasso: “You have to have an idea of what you are going to do. But it should be a vague idea.”
I date the pieces when I do the drawing, then I spend a while painting, so the date is a little misleading, because it sometimes takes me months and years to finish these (I finished this one on Saturday February 5th 2011.)
