Portraits

[pegkerr]

I read this interesting article on the blog Jane Austen's World [janitesonjames] about the making of silhouettes, which was hugely popular and inexpensive way to capture likenesses before photography was invented. Those of you who saw the movie "Sense and Sensibility" may remember the scene where Marianne creates a silhouette of Willoughby, using a candle and graphing paper.

It made me think about the human impulse to capture the likeness of loved ones. I do this by having pictures taken of our family, and as you know, they have given me a great deal of pleasure. I've mentioned previously my family's connection with the artist Richard Serrin, and the picture he painted of our family, placing us all in a piazza in Italy.

Besides these instances, I sat for a portrait with an artist when I was nine years old. Mom and Dad commissioned one of each of their children when we were on vacation in Rockport, Massachusettes, and the four portraits hung on the wall in our family room for years (Mom and Dad, do you still have those portraits? They're not hanging on your wall in your new home presently, I believe?) I remember very well sitting for that portrait, and being so fascinated by how the artist captured my face (I thought) so exactly. When it was done, my parents decided that they didn't quite like the color of the checking on my dress (it was lavender) and so the artist re-touched it, changing the lavender striping to blue. I remember thinking how strange that was, to have such an exact replica of my face and yet to change the detail of what I was wearing. Sort of a non-photographic version of Photoshop.

When I was in my teens, my dad took a sketching class, and he invited me to come to one class to act as the model (fully clothed, honest!) One of the artists gave me her sketch of my face when the class was over, and I've kept it in my genealogy box, as a picture of myself at that age.

Then, of course, there are the caricatures I've occasionally had made at amusement parks, parties, etc.

Have you ever sat for a portrait, in oils or pen drawing or otherwise? What was the occasion? Were you happy with the result? Can you post a picture of it? What do you think is gained by having a portrait in an artistic medium other than photography?

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

All the pictures of me I know of are photographs. I've had a number of shots of me done in studios by friends, and deciding which are "portraits" and which are "snapshots" (that happened to be taken in a studio) is highly problematic even for me, and potentially socially fraught I suppose (apologies to any friends who think their shots of me should be on my main "portraits" page! Maybe they should, too). Ones taken by strangers for money are more clear-cut somehow; also entirely old (the latest dates from 1972).

I've collected the formal portraits of me here.

[pandarus.livejournal.com]

I had a caricature done in Budapest, as did the two friends I was travelling with. All 4 members of my immediate family have also had their caricatures done by the same artist in London (Covent Garden), over the course of several years.

More to the point, though, I love to draw, and for preference I always draw portraits. Generally based on photographs - the more detailed the better, so I tend to search through copies of the National Geographic, or through expensive and pretentious magazines, looking for really detailed photographs where all the texture of the skin is visible. I generally work in pencil, ranging from 2B to 9B, although occasionally I have a crack at coloured pencils or watercolour. (If it's watercolour, though, I generally DON'T do people.) Over the past few years, since I've got back into drawing, I've accrued a stack of portraits of total strangers whose faces have captivated me. (I've also had people commision portraits from me, a couple of times, which was rather wonderful and nerve-wracking all at once.)

[eeknight.livejournal.com]

We had to do them in grade school. Light used to make tracing -paper template, then template used to make a black silhouette out of construction paper. I believe my mom still has it.

[tanaise.livejournal.com]

We actually have a couple of sketches of me at my mom's house--there's a pen and ink sketch of me when I was 3 or 4 I think that I remember nothing of, and a pastel that I remember sitting for--there was a Quaker gathering at Lehigh University that my grandmother took me to when I was 10 or 11, and for some reason that I don't quite remember, I ended up modeling for an art class, and the instructor gave us the pastel s/he'd done of me.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

One of the assignments for my painting class in college was a self-portrait. I did mine in monochrome blues, with a field of stars in the background and what looked like a v-necked sequined dress that faded into the field of stars. It was my favorite of the paintings I did, and I thought it was a painting of me and not just a painting of what I look like. It's at my parents' house still, stored in the basement somewhere. Between the color and my non-professional painting skills, it was not the exact replica of my face that you describe. But it was recognizably me, and thinking carefully about what I wanted to show about myself was interesting.

There are also photographs that are pictures of me and not just pictures of what I look like, I think. dd_b has gotten more than one.

My best girl friend from college was fond of having amusement park/boardwalk/etc. caricatures done for awhile. I was not impressed with them. They tended to use stock props rather than props that would have anything to do with gaaldine's personality, and I thought that a good caricature exaggerates the person's features without being mean. These didn't look like an exaggerated version of her to me, they looked like an exaggerated version of someone else. So that seemed pointless to me, but I was glad she enjoyed comparing the different ones she got.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

I remember sitting for my mother to do silhouettes when I was a kid; for a few years when I was very young (younger than 8, as my sister had not yet been born), she did one every year at Christmas. She'd set up in the kitchen, setting a lamp from the living room without its shade on the kitchen table. My brother and I were posed so that our shadows were thrown on the closed door to the laundry room and Mom drew the silhouette. I hated having to sit still for so long; it was boring. I don't know what ever happened to those, but I rather suspect that they're in scrapbooks in my grandmother's closet.

[tassie-gal.livejournal.com]

I know my mum has a pen and ink sketch done of me when I was about 4 by a friend of hers, and I had a sketch done of me when I was about 20 in Edinburgh. I know the former is in a album somewhere, NO idea where the latter is.

[pazlazuli.livejournal.com]

I took a peek at the Richard Serrin Art website. Beautiful.
I have never sat for a portrait, however, when I was a teen my mother had a portrait done of me from a picture and currently my husband is doing one of me from a picture. So... would these be psuedo portraits?