It takes me about 12 hours to pull someone out of a blank sheet of paper. I start with the eyes because that creates a sort of partnership – it’s hard to have that until I can see the eyes. Sometimes my brush strokes on the his forehead were too angled and he’d spend the next few hours looking angry at me, other times the shadow under his mouth would be too dark and he would pout. But he slowly emerged pretty much as I’d intended. It’s sort of like child birth without the pain, anxiety, hormone fluctuations and college fund.
Toom would come by and look at my drawing. He’d point at the noise, “nose not good” then point at the photo “make like this”. I asked if I could move on to old people next. He said. “you very good student, but you too fast for old people, you slow down, do another child”
Since we closed Cymbic in 2002 my minimum effort has exceeded the expectations of the places I’ve worked. The bar just kept getting lower. Until it got to the point where showing up was good enough and merely stepping over the bar exhausted me. I think the energy available to me is proportional to the challenge put before me. It feels good not to be good enough.
I think he has a quizzical and bemused look, like he’s thinking what is this american doing staring at me so intently. he’s trying to figure you out Russ.
see my comment on previous post–I hadn’t even looked at this one yet—-now make that comment to the 87th power.
AMAZING Dad!!!! I love seeing what you create 🙂