Studio Notes: Tackling a difficult subject

Portraits & figures

I was mostly avoiding figures and portraits as, of course, they are notoriously difficult subjects to draw. At the same time I always felt that it is only through the human as a subject I can express some of my ideas, especially in my recent work with words (after all, what is more human than language?).

Words

But as I was not really practicing, I was unhappy with the results and, hence, I practiced on increasingly rare occasions, which didn’t help as you may guess. So to break this vicious cycle I recently acquired the book “Expressive Figure Drawing” by Bill Buchmann and started doing the various exercises he offers in it (highly recommend to check it out if you are interested in the subject!).

What I realised when reading the book is that my previous struggles stemmed from me trying to learn all the proportions and following specific step-by-step frameworks, but what I really needed was Bill’s approach to drawing and his explanation of the process. It is of course all about seeing the shapes, relationships, proportions - but you have to find a way that suits your particular learning style and only then the message will truly sink in. It turned out that classical approaches, such as constructive drawing just weren’t doing that for me, but Bill’s expressive and free attitude opened my eyes to the existing possibilities. Also - repetition (a lot of it) and not fighting your own “handwriting” and style - are crucial.

Some of my favorite exercises from the book include blind contours, gestural drawings with inks, and mapping out big shapes first - all these are good for eye hand coordination and understanding the proportions of the human body better. These and similar exercises (e.g. I’ve been using tracing paper to study a reference photo) help me to relax and detach from the result, focus more on the subject. What is especially important for me - this approach also helps to create interesting visual effects that I wouldn’t otherwise come up with, which means more expressive results.

I also realised that I haven’t really been giving names to my artwork! So I started playing with names and phrases, thus, bringing together these studies and my desire to use words in my work in a more intentional way. I think I already decided the theme for my 100 days project 2026 - blind contours & giving them names! It would be so fun to see how the collection of 100 quirky scribbly portraits and figures comes together (let’s see if I change my mind haha).

Btw, maybe we’re planning a fun something for December with Citla Flores, so stay tuned!

Thank you for reading and being part of this space. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to give it a like, leave a comment, or share it with someone who might appreciate it. I always love hearing from you in the comments - what’s your approach to a difficult subject?

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Until next time!

Lisa