Peacock pens

I promised to do an update every now and then on my drawing challenge, namely drawing 1000 faces or portraits in 2024. Actually, it’s not really about the challenge, but rather the search for a motive, a push in the back to keep practicing, to discover things and learn from mistakes. This continuous process can’t help but lead to better results. When the going gets tough, the tough get going…

I still remember the words of a teacher in Business management, during high school, that setting a challenge is not that simple. A challenge has to give you the courage to go for it, so it has to be achievable. On the other hand, the bar should not be set too low. As you can see, it’s actually a kind of balance exercise. Challenges need to be reviewed and adjusted so that they remain a challenge. So I think my challenge to make 1000 sketches should be just within reach. At the time of writing this post, I’m still on track. Happy me!

Now, just drawing because you HAVE to is not really a motivating thing to do. So I try to find variety by using different techniques or combining them. It has to be fun, that’s why I decided to draw clowns. Pinterest is usually the source of inspiration for me, but also your friend Google can provide you with plenty of great examples.

Technically, drawing a clown is tricky. That smiling face has a few things to hide. By that I mean that the parts of a face are often hidden behind a layer of make-up, this to give the clown a different facial expression. When drawing, I quickly realized that I had to be extra careful and not be seduced by the happy face of the clown, slob! The eyes are different, the smile is bigger, so there are a lot of pitfalls.

Maybe I can say that the opposite of a clown is a skull? Hence some skull drawings. The difficulty here is that suddenly, yes, only the bones remain. Proportions are different, no more nose or lip shadows…actually there is no more facial expression. Here again, drawing it requires a different approach. The common thread is draw what you see and don’t let yourself be guided by drawing what you think you see. Be patient and do it step by step. So just flipping the switch in your head works quite well 🙂 Throughout this post I have added some pictures of my attempts. Feel free to rate them, give comments, advice or ask questions… just shoot!