The 10-year Art Challenge

A recent social media challenge suggested that artists could pick a painting they had created from 10 years ago (or thereabouts), and re-do it again now, to see how they had changed/improved.

Back in the early 1990's I was very much in love with Johnny Depp and obviously he was going to dump Winona Ryder and marry me instead. In the meantime, I had to live with a poster on my wall from the popular teen-mag, Just Seventeen.

I had a few attempts at drawing him back then, and was fairly pleased with my rough sketch and colour drawing. For some reason I kept these drawings with the poster and they have travelled with me over the many house- and county-moves throughout the last 30 years.

I saw the challenge and thought, I wonder if I can recreate and improve upon the pictures I had done way back when? So I unearthed those original pictures. I felt that I needed to experiment with drawing people, having spent the last few years refining my skills in fur and feathers. If I was going to stare at a photo for some hours (or days, or weeks), it should be someone I wouldn't get bored with...;o)

Digging out the graphite pencils, and my recently discovered paper stumps for blending, I took it to art class and got started. His features came together quickly and quite well. With a few tweaks here and there, I was pretty pleased with the result!