Part 3 – Jan 17 – Drawing Emotions:

[ Don’t get your hopes built up. Anything can happen. ]

We’re getting into the actual scenes now. Not just reading through it, but doing the scenes over and over. Looking for the best way to imply emotions. To show the undercurrents. The drawings come out less like portraits, and more like versions of the characters. I find when the actor is playing younger, (they often switch between addressing the audience ‘now’ and what happened ‘then’ within the same scene), the drawing also comes out younger. It’s the same people – but I’m drawing them smaller, more vulnerable. I didn’t start doing it on purpose – it just happened.

[ They found her dead? In Lawson’s Bush. ]

Sketching from life usually involves exploring a city, drawing architecture. Maybe sometimes drawing people doing interesting things – usually it’s people doing something work related. It’s not often that you draw people in emotionally charged situations.  Drawing these actors, I’m seeing expressions of anger, shock, disbelief, grief. A greater range than I’ve ever drawn. Perhaps not the ultimate truth, (they are acting after all, and you can tell they’re holding back some juice for later on) but still – emotional situations a sketch artist just doesn’t usually see.

[ I couldn’t think of anything sadder in the whole world. I still can’t. ]

[ The Father arrived in a belligerent manner asking why Steven had been picked up. ]

The great thing about the actors in rehearsal is they give me the scenes over and over, rewinding the action, trying on a slightly different attitude or emotion. (They actually make rewinding noises, walking and talking backwards speedily re-setting to the start of a scene. Really. Not kidding.)

This experience has been much more interesting than any drawing workshop. I get to draw the thing from life, but I also get three or four tries at it.

[ Eight to one. Upheld his conviction. ]