While going through a family album it is always interesting to observe yourself how much more you are interested in the faces you know then the ones you don't. Why are we so much more interested in something we know? Shouldn't it be more like, ah I don't know this guy, who is this?
Drawing somebody seems to deal with a similar issue: The choice between that what you see and that what you know. When political cartoonists start off on a new prime minister they seem to agree quite quickly on certain features. I always enjoyed the process and the little surprise asking myself who that is until half a second is enough to recognize what took me quite a moment in the beginning. Like in the already mentioned family album the prime minister turns into aunt Otilie.
In the course of the years I worked occasional on portraits and every time I had to work on somebody I never met before, the work was similar to the object, but they say passport pictures are similar as well. Lets face it; they are only really interesting when you know the guy on the picture.
And then there are the faces you watch while sitting in a café or waiting at the doctor. Sometimes really interesting faces that seem to have quite a story to tell and sometimes we can't take our eyes off this enormous ear lobs. Half an hour later you have a hard time to remember even the ears.
The work you see here is done during meetings, afternoons in cafes and a very few being commissioned. Sometimes a photo of a celebrity pushed me to give it a try. And then there is my selective memory enjoying being very, very subjective.
