Marsha Drawing

I have done a few drawings of Marsha over the years. She is getting the haircut in The Back, and, of course, she is at the center of the Scan Series. In these drawings, however, her presence is more incidental. She is simply the model. When Marsha considered having me work on a drawing for her father’s birthday it was clear she wanted something that would be a bit more distinctly her. Marsha (and I) decided that working from a photo from 2009 would be best. I took this particular photo originally to catalogue some peculiar dermatographia that had begun to appear with the onset of her illness. In the midst of this somewhat clinical photo shoot I also seemed to capture something more. The pose has a bit of that glance-over-the-shoulder-on-the-red-carpet to show off the celebrity gown (not to mention butt) quality we all have come to know; but I think Marsha’s pose is more a way for her to slightly hide behind her own shoulder - and hair. There is the seductress shoulder and excess hair. But more important for me is the set of the mouth. This has much of that reserve that many of her closest friends will recognize. There is a hint of judgement and maybe even a bit of sadness. I could go on. What was finally important was that Marsha seemed to be actually pleased with the result. The drawing itself was not a hugely complicated affair. The heavy lift was simply getting the extreme shadows balanced enough that the direction of the hair became clear. There is really not that much contrast on the face. No direct light is making her nose cast a shadow like a sun dial, so I had create a bit contrast from a more flat set of mid values. The result was more aggressive and almost expressionistic. In another context I might have been quite put off, but here I liked the way that it seemed to match similar expressionistic features in the hair. The way I work in markers is the reverse of what most artists do. Others will often start with the lightest tone and then build up the shadows gradually until they finally get to the blacks. I, on the other hand, set all the values completely in advance in the draft. I apply the black first and then gradually work to the lightest value. Some of the blotchy overlap marks are a result of this idiosyncratic technique. I have gradually come to like these marks. They now seem the equivalent of hearing musicians fingers sliding up and down the frets of a guitar. One has to be sure of the values though. You really have to commit. There is no erasing or chance to paint over a mistake. In almost every drawing I often start to believe that I have gone much, much too dark. And by the time I reach the darkest of the mid values I can get into a panic that I have really blown it this time. This was probably the most extreme case of worry about having gone too dark I have ever gone through; but thankfully - as with almost every other time - I realized I had been right all along.

Drawing:Marker on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:19 W x 23 H x 0.1 D in

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