I have drawn four total sketches of my wife. From what I can see looking at these previous drawings, I don’t think I’ve ever quite captured her accurately. Years ago, I did one of me and her together, and it wasn’t bad. I also did a rough sketch I used for my proposal, which looked like her but was no Rembrandt in terms of realism. Then, much more recently, I made one of our family with all four of us. Although it was probably the closest to being accurate of any, I ended up basically ruining it by trying to add color (we all looked like zombies…it was my first color attempt). Then, the most recent was one of my wife and our girls, but that one really looks the least like her; she’s almost not recognizable, the more I look at it.
It’s sort of an interesting phenomenon; I’ve found that it’s deceptively difficult to sketch the ones you love the most. I’m not sure why that’s the case. Could it be self-imposed pressure? When I’m drawing my wife or our kids, I sometimes find myself thinking, “easy does it, don’t mess up this line.” It’s like when the subject is more important, I get too focused on doing it right, and it doesn’t come together. This is a lesson I’m learning time and time again with this drawing stuff; loose and easy is good. The sketches I just jump into and let flow usually seem to work out the best.
So, I decided this was a great thing to work on next. I did some brainstorming, and came up with two to work on. The first of these features my wife, her sister, and our oldest kiddo. In this one, my wife is helping her open a package, while her sister watches the show. I tried to stay loose, and part of that was compelling myself to move faster. I think you can see byproducts of going possibly too fast in how the box looks; the lines are not even close to straight. Interestingly though, I really like how this one turned out!
My wife and her sister both look fairly true to life. In some ways, this sketch of my wife was a cop-out, because she’s not even looking up. But consider this baby steps leading up to the big test up next, which will be a close-up drawing of her and our two kids! At least, that’s the plan unless I mess it up too bad.
As a bonus, here’s a looped time progression .gif of the sketch. I enjoy seeing these on other artist sites, whether they’re animations or still images in series. It’s fun seeing how art comes together.
Update: I finished the second sketch in this series, which is a close-up sketch of my wife and our girls. I captured some interesting expressions, and I think it actually looks like everyone!