A self portrait I drew this evening.

[femmedem]

After a decades-long hiatus, I started drawing and painting again this past year. I feel like I've had a breakthrough with this one.

[TrunKated]

1. very nice!

[femmedem]

2. Thank you!

And welcome to DU!

[Ohiogal]

3. Nice work!

[femmedem]

5. Thank you! n/t

[flying rabbit]

4. I like it

Keep it up!

[femmedem]

6. Thanks. I'm trying to draw every day.

And Mr. femmedem and I are taking drawing lessons.

[pandr32]

7. Awesome!

Happy to meet you!

[femmedem]

8. Likewise!

And thank you.

[FM123]

9. How wonderful! Both the portrait and your return to drawing.

[femmedem]

14. Thanks. It's made a huge differene in my life.

I do love drawing and painting, but even better than that is how I'm seeing the world regardless of whether I've got a pencil in my hand.

[alittlelark]

10. Wonderful !!

[femmedem]

23. Thank you!

[Karadeniz]

11. You've got talent...glad you're cultivating it..keep showing us!❤

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

12. I like it... a lot! Nice job!

[femmedem]

24. Thanks so much!

[ZZenith]

13. Really nice depth - I am getting a strong sense of the space you occupy.

I love three-quarter rear view drawings of people because it allows a resemblance while maintaining a lot of mystery.

Keep going!

[femmedem]

21. Thank you! I also like three quarter rear view drawings,

Although this is the first I've drawn since I was on my early twenties. I liked the neck and shoulder structure from that angle.

[SCVDem]

15. Very nice!

I have taken to baking bread.

[femmedem]

22. Baking bread sounds wonderful.

So many ways to be creative.

[people]

16. Your drawing

Did you look in a mirror to draw yourself? That would be hard given the angle of the drawing. It's a beautiful drawing.

[femmedem]

20. Thank you. Yes, I used two mlrrors.

One large mirror and a hand mirror in which I could see my image in the large mirror.

[PatrickforO]

17. Really gives a sense of you as a person.

The vertical lines surrounding you are interesting - almost like the vibrations of an astral aura, particularly around the eyes, nose, mouth and throat. It makes me wonder at your emotional state when you drew this self-portrait. Just rhetorical, but what were you feeling at the time? Were there strong feelings going in, perhaps, and then you got in the zone and finished almost automatically?

It is very good.

[femmedem]

25. Thanks. I was feeling calm but energized.

I'd had a long day at work but I was excited about drawing from this angle with the bone structure so clearly visible. I had just watched an online lesson on Russian academic drawing which made me want to be more intentional about the marks I used for shading.

[secondwind]

18. This is wonderful!

[femmedem]

28. Thanks, secondwind. This morning I'm seeing that I gave myself a giraffe neck

but I'm still happy with it.

[LiberalLoner]

19. Wow, very nice!

[femmedem]

29. Thank you.

I'm in my 50s and it feels good to be learning something at this age.

[Freedomofspeech]

26. That is amazing!

What a gift you have!

[femmedem]

30. Thanks so much! If you saw my earlier drawings--even from a few months ago--

you'd see that it isn't a gift, though, just practice and study. I believe that anyone whose vision is ok (and mine isn't great, just ok) can learn to draw.

[chia]

27. Lovely :)

[femmedem]

31. Thank you!

I'm so glad I posted this--I've sometimes wondered about the value of the nonpolitical forums and groups but they really do help build a community here.

[lunatica]

32. It's inspiring.

I draw portraits too and like you I’ve started doing art again after decades of doing very little. I also paint. Your portrait inspires me to do more art. My preference in portraiture is in drawing people, and not painting so much. So to me drawings are finished art also.

[femmedem]

33. I find your work inspiring as well. I love your New Mexio stormy skies.

It wasn't quite like riding a bicycle again, but I was surprised at how relatively quickly I regained some skill. Looks like it was the same for you.

An added benefit: my husband and I are both finding that it's good for overall brain health and mental acuity. I posted shortly before Christmas about buying my mother a robotic cat to give her something to love while she has advanced Alzheimer's. I didn't mention then how terrified I am of developing dementia, too.

[lunatica]

34. I think you should take a life drawing class

with live nude models. You can really hone your skills and educate your eye. In the early 1980s I took classes in the local junior college. They are three hour classes usually held on Saturday and established artists go to them to practice their skills.

My interest was in depicting their faces so while other attendees concentrated on the bodies I decided to tackle facial likenesses. As you probably know it’s very difficult to render accurate portraiture that actually looks like the model, but it really paid off for me. Recently, after 40 years of having them in my closet I took them out and really looked at them. They are pretty good, so every so often I post one on DU.

[femmedem]

35. Yes, I very much want to work from live models!

My husband and I are working up to it. He hasn't drawn much and he feels intimidated by the thought right now, but we are taking biweekly drawing lessons and I know that it won't be long before our instructor goes with us to a three-hour long open drawing session (long pose) a few towns south of us.

I'm impressed you still have your drawings from forty years ago! The only existing art I have from my teens and twenties are the ones my parents saved.

[lunatica]

36. 40 years ago I was in my 30s so I had learned to

care about and for my art. The stuff I did before that is pretty much gone.