About eyes and studying

My sisters question

My sister is maybe the person who is looking at my art better than anybody else (no offence to other fans). Some weeks ago I gave her some little books that I have made. It's my intention to make one every month this year.

She came up with this remark and question:

'It attracts my attention that the eyes in your portraits differ from one person to the another and have a different appeal. Eyes play an important part in your work anyhow. They can also stand on their own, without a person. Do you sometimes study or practice for a longer period of time for instance on a body part?'

A lot of things immediately came to my mind while reading this.

First of all that I'm glad that there is a different vibe in all the faces I draw or paint. That's exactly what I'm always afraid of: that the characters can become too much alike, drawn automatically. So thanks, sister, I consider this a compliment.

The stand alone eyes are coming back more and more in my work. I tend to think of them in different ways. As an artist my eyes or more specific the looking is very important to me. My eyes are the funnels through which impressions and inspiration enter my brain, more or not so very conscious.

Sometimes a stand alone eye in a drawing wants to say something like: I'm watching you or looking out for you. So it's more of a feeling of being protected or having a witness.

Studying the reality.... Always a difficult one. I did some courses around portrait and figure drawing which I loved a lot. However I never or hardly ever draw after reality by myself. Sometimes I make a start, for instance drawing a flower, but I loose interest very fast and go on drawing in a free style. I felt very guilty about that for a long time, because... well... an artists needs to study reality by drawing. That is what we're taught as artists: draw, draw, draw and draw some more after reality. After that you can do whatever you want.

Right now I tend to think that I studied and still study reality by looking at it a lot. And that by now I have a big internal databank in my head that I can draw from.

Thanx, sis, for asking these questions!