Day 4. Face it!

Portraits & Protest

hellooooo DrawTogether & GUT Peeps! Did anyone watch the US presidential debate last night? Whew, it fried my nerves! I think an adrenaline ride like that is great reminder to FOCUS. When so much is clamoring for our attention and distracting us, let’s to our best slow down, take a breath and keep focused on our longer term creative work.

Today is Day 4 of DrawTogether in Action. Yesterday we explored Collage with Corita. The day before we played with text to convey messages. And today we’re diving into… PORTRAITS.

Reminder: If you haven’t signed up for the zoom on Sunday yet, def click here and do that TODAY. And register with Vote Fwd to participate. I’d LOVE to see you there. And without further ado, let’s turn our attention to…

FACES! Portraits & Protest

Did you know our brains are hardwired to seek out faces? An entire region of our brains are dedicated to finding and recognizing faces: it’s called the fusiform gyrus, or “fusiform face area.” This is why we see faces on movie posters, on ads, and we see them in the clouds! Since our brains are constantly scanning for faces, when we want to grab people’s attention, using an image of a face is pretty smart way to that.

Pareidolia (from the Greek word “wrong shape”) is a visual phenomenon in which people see faces in random patterns. Finding patterns like faces in our surroundings helps everyone reduce uncertainty and makes sense of an unfamiliar object or landscape. How many faces can you find in the cloud?

But let’s keep in mind: unless we’re talking about imaginary cartoons or manufactured AI, every face is also a real actual person. And who that person is, their identity within a social context, their emotional expression — all that carries meaning.

Portraits can be used to create empathy and elevate a person or a group’s visibility. Portraits can also be used to celebrate or to criticize a person or group. Portraits can be used ironically and with humor to poke fun at a person or group. Hence the long, long history of portraiture in art, and the history of portraiture in activism. And I have seen people use portraits in some powerful, profound ways.

I’ve also seen people use portraits in a way that feels pretty inconsiderate and even downright objectifying.

Responsible Portraiture (especially in activism!)

When we are thinking about how we’d like to employ an image of a person in our artwork, we need to take a few things into consideration. The points below are kind of like LadyFingers LetterPress’ list of considerations for making a posters, for these are what I think about in terms of making portraits:

1. Subject: Do I have the permission of this person to use their face? If I cannot get a hold of them, does it align with and support their expressed goals?

2. Personal: How do I personally relate to this issue, and what does it mean for me to represent this person in relationship to it? 

3. Legal: If I am working from a photo, do I have permission from the photographer? (Unless you significantly alter an image, you need the photographer’s permission to publish something you drew based on their photo.)

4. Accountability: I like to imagine that I will inevitably always meet someone I draw. I ask myself, how would they feel about how I used their face?

Once I’ve answered these questions, I decide whether I am going to move forward or not, feeling pretty solid that if the answer is yes, it’s the right thing for me to do. You may want to ask yourself these questions before you embark on a drawing. Do you have anything else you think about or consider?

Before we get into “How to Draw a Portrait”, let’s look at a few examples of artists who have used portraits for social impact. 

Portraits as Protest: Examples

Ben Shahn drew ink portraits of three young people killed during the Civil Rights Movement as they registered Black people in the south to vote. These were turned into a print run, and I’d bet my right hand Shahn sold them to benefit the ACLU.

Prints by Ben Shahn

Shepard Fairey’s infamous portrait of Barack Obama that was such an iconic, catalyzing image during the election. It’s also a great example of an artist using a photo without permission, and how that shakes out: a tale we can all learn from.

Obama / Hope by Shepard Fairey

Next is one by me, featuring a drawing of the great John Lewis. I based it on a photo by John Applewhite (do as I say, not as I do, friends!) and incorporated Ben Shahn’s lettering style as sort of a hat tip to the history of political portraiture, and one of my favorite artists who continues to be a huge influence.

Drawing of John Lewis by yours truly. Available as a print.

You may have seen this powerful painting of Breonna Taylor by Amy Sherald (most known for her painting of Michelle Obama.) It’s striking, beautiful, arresting, and demands respect and justice without saying a word.

Breonna Taylor, by Amy Sherald (and Amy Sherald) photo via New Yorker

This next portrait is titled Sharecropper. It’s a Lino cut (print made using a carved linoleum block) by artist Elizabeth Catlett, who died in 2012 at the age of 97. The granddaughter of enslaved people, a big focus of her work was female African Americans laboring in the fields. In Sharecropper, Catlett removed all background and depict the sharecropper as heroic and strong. We literally look up at her, and her strength. While this image hangs in a museum, many of her portraits were printed as posters and distributed widely in Mexico, where she lived much of her life, and the USA.

Sharecropper by Elizabeth Catlett

And this last one is by Carson Ellis, who is joining us on the zoom on Sunday for a bit!! (She also has a book out this week! Congrats Carson. It’s called One Week in January and it’s so beautiful.) Carson made this drawing in 2020, I believe, bringing to light 20 people of color whose lives were cut short, and whose stories did not get the time, care and justice they deserved.

And with that, let’s think about how we can apply our topic today image of people, or a particular person.

Assignment #4: Political Portrait

Okay, so today we are all drawing portraits. BUT DON”T WORRY. I’m going to make it easy and fun.

But first you need to think about HOW you want to use a portrait to support the concept you are focusing on. Is there a particular person that represents it? Or is there a group of people? Or is there a generalized kind of person that a stick figure could be best for? All these are great directions. You choose what feels right and most fun and challenging to you.

And then you are ready to draw a portrait.

How to Draw a Portrait

There are so many ways to draw a portrait! You can always do it the Ivan Brunetti way (popularized by Lynda Barry and shared with DrawTogether community on our podcast for kids!) Or draw my favorite, a blind contour! And check out this lesson I gave in DrawTogether a couple years ago (time flies).

Drawing a portrait that “looks” like a particular person can feel tough, but it just takes practice. Carson Ellis (of the afore mentioned new book One Week in January) did a great “How to Draw a Self-Portrait” piece in the NYT and I think it’s a great place to start today.

I’ve included a gift link to Carson’s lesson below so you can use it if you want.

So find a photo of the person you want to feature and use these guidelines to draw a portrait. (Yes, I know I said you should have permission, but this is my art class and I say no rules when we’re learning.)