WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!

Man the lifeboats go to your duty stations, women and children first. That’s the traditional alarm of a sinking ship and it could well be the same for an artist who finds himself in trouble when trying to render the human face.

Why bother to do people at all? They don’t place well or at all when it comes to finding a market for art, they seldom win the top award in shows, so who cares? And even if you did care, why would you want to do women and children?

First things first, why do people? Because we are people before we are artists. People make up the single most fascinating subject on the face of the earth. Would the Mona Lisa be so famous if instead of that curious smile Leonardo had painted the Pisa tower? What about the despair in the face of Rembrandt’s self-portrait or the wild jumble of Picasso’s Head of a Woman what would they be if they were landscapes or flowers? Ever try passing a mirror without taking a quick peek? That’s why.

And by doing people an artist demonstrates his mastery of the materials he uses. Again, would we revere Picasso so much if he hadn’t had a strict constructionist period before his departure into Cubism? He was the complete master of the tools of the trade before he decided to break all of the rules.

There have been times in our long history when the portrait painters were the most respected members of the craft. Now photography has usurped much of that glory, but photography cannot show the soul inside of the subject. Even now artists like our own Susan D’Amico still find the face the most satisfying and challenging subject.

So we’re back to the why of women and children. To steal a line from another discipline; “Man who catch fly with chop sticks do anything” and so he can.

Children, God love them, are still putty for most of their lives, they change like the weather and the very best any artist can do is capture a moment of time. And babies, it’s like the art school teaching aid, drawing a bowling ball to learn the art of shading. Their little heads are so round that it takes a deft hand to get the look of three dimensions when working in two.

Women don’t have round heads. No they don’t, but as a society we have filled their heads with the notion that there is something called “Real Beauty” and that they can buy it at the local department store. They spend hours trying to erase all of the lines and wrinkles an artist needs to give shape and character to a face. It just ain’t fair.

And if that weren’t enough the shape of the faces of women and children is so shallow that there’s nary a surface to catch the light and if there is too heavy a hand with the shading and you have the bearded lady of the tyke with a five o’clock shadow.

Any one can manage a male face, all sorts of shadows and surfaces and if you are lucky a beard to give a bit of texture to the face. Children almost always draw dad when they work at their art. Why? Because they can, mom is just too difficult to get right.

So women and children present a special challenge, but is it worth the effort? Yes, and yes and maybe even yes again, manage a child’s face and the rolling hills of any landscape become so easy you wonder why it used to take so long. Get beautiful women rendered in perfect depth and the flat surfaces of a ship or building become a snap. Even the complex rigging of a sailing ship offers no test if you get the shading right on a girl’s face, so that she doesn’t look like a side-show freak.

The next time you find yourself in the studio and nothing seems to speak to you try doing a face or two. You’ll be shocked at what it does for your other work, but don’t tell Monte Rogers or Susan D’Amico that. Did I mention they do people all the time and you see how it has worked out for them?