Gaze 4

To hair or not to hair.....

I'm feeling some busy-ness created by the detailed hair. The reference, an accidental pocket selfie, shows reams of hair cascading below the face. It is tempting to tightly render that detail, but at this point my instincts tell me to use broad marks reminiscent, but on a much larger scale, of the lost edges created by sunlight on the glass lens. I'm leaning toward big and bold wavy marks. A loose approach to the marks on the paper to convey the fullness, and wild windswept feel of the mane. The hope would be that the dichotomy of the intense gaze thru the lens and the untamed feel of the hair, invite the viewer to imagine a narrative for the subject. I need to fight a tendency to do the "safe" thing and create tightly wrought detail that competes with the subjects subtle, obscured expressiveness. The abstract shapes that make up the reflections, and edges lost to the sharp sunlight, have already mostly broken my, sometimes, oversafe inclinations. It's all hell in a handbasket now........

Tormorrow, if life leaves me alone with my paper and page, we should be done.