Face 15 for September 2014 29 Faces Challenge

"Stephen King," by Dayna Winters

On day 13, I shared a sketch of Edgar Allan Poe, one of my favorite writers.  Drawing Poe made me think of another horror writer that I am a fan of: Stephen King.  I started reading Stephen King books in my preteens - My first encounter with his work was when I read "The Shining," and then I was hooked.  "The Shining" followed with "Carrie," "Firestarter," and "Christine."  I like some of his newer work too, like "Blaze," (which was really different from his other works," and "Full Dark, No Stars."  As of now, I have "Doctor Sleep," on my Kindle Fire, just waiting for me to read it!  Often times I lack the energy to do so (and that's in no way a reflection on King's work.)  

A friend of mine suggested using audio books and I'm thinking about it, but then I know I would miss the experience of holding a book or device in my hand to read (moreso the book.)  I love the feel and smell of books, and to curl up under a comfy blanket near the woodstove on a cold winter day with a good book is still among the top things I love to do.

The most complex thing I faced when drawing King was the features of his brow and I had to work at getting the eyeglasses just right.  But, the quote by King helped me realize that I really had to stick with a piece and see it through to the end: "You have to be faithful to what you're working on."  In fact, seeing that quote made me return to the sketch of George Carlin for face 14 and complete it, regardless of how I really felt about it. I've found that when I'm working on a sketch or painting, I don't really appreciate the piece until the work progresses and it really begins to come together.  I think when we give up on something before we give it a chance to work, we are selling our abilities short.  I can't tell you how many times I've destroyed a piece of art in progress because I wasn't happy with the result.  Now, I push through the piece and see it through to its completion.  If I like the outcome, that's wonderful, and if I don't like the outcome, I chalk it up to a learning experience and move on to the next project.

I did have one issue to deal with though - if you'll notice a small cluster of dots near King's nose - of course, they don't belong there, but I can't get them to erase.  I'm doing the sketches in a sketch book and the image before it bled through a bit.  I've realized I'm either going to have to put some kind of material between each sketch or I'm going to have to separate all of the images and pull them out of the sketch pad when they are finished.  This way, I don't have to worry about completed pieces smearing or bleeding through onto other drawings.