I spent some time drawing yesterday evening, partially inspired by a desire to clean up an older sketch. This portrait of Julia Roberts isn’t new, but it’s actually one of the largest drawing I have ever done (around 2′ X 1.something’). I think I’ve actually improved on some of my pencil techniques, so I went back to this one and fixed some areas I viewed as weaknesses in the piece. I know that’s a dangerous thing to do with art, and probably not something most artists would recommend. But I figured; why not? It was just sitting around anyway!
I don’t really have a good answer as to why I drew Julia Roberts. She’s a pretty solid actress I suppose, but this isn’t a tribute from a superfan or anything. My wife does sort of look like her; in fact my oldest daughter just said, “Oh look it’s a picture of my mama.” I think the main reason though is that she has interesting and unique facial features, and I thought that would make for a good close-up portrait. Actually, now that I think about it, I really haven’t done many drawings of my favorite famous people. You would think I’d be churning out Dirk Nowitzki, Dak Prescott, and Mike Patton sketches left and right! Maybe that’s a good future goal, drawing more of my favorite athletes, musicians, etc.
