I drew this from a photo

[lunatica]

In the National Geographic. I used gray colored paper and charcoal. It was from a story about the Basques.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Love it!

[polmaven]

2. Talent!

You did that extremely well!

[lunatica]

3. Thank you

I liked the challenges of the strangely hunched over person and the foreshortening of his hands. I think I rendered them passably.

[Ohiogal]

4. Very nice!

Using colored paper and light and dark pencil or charcoal can be tricky. You’ve mastered it very well!

[lunatica]

5. It's an old drawing

Now I think I would try to add the yellow glow of the reflected match flame.

[JDC]

6. Looks great.

[LiberalLoner]

7. Gorgeous work!

I love this! ❤️❤️❤️

[secondwind]

8. Wow!!!

[UTUSN]

9. Heart, lots of heart.

[Freedomofspeech]

10. Amazing!!

[femmedem]

11. I don't know how you do it, but it seems like you captured their personalities, not just their forms

Especially the man in the foreground. Although I also love the angles on the second man's face. That cheekbone!

I don't know if I'd have had the patience to tackle all those fingers and knuckles but you make it look easy.

[lunatica]

12. The photographs that attract my interest

are always ones that I feel show something about the subject’s personality. When I do paintings or drawings of well known people it takes me a long time to find a photograph that satisfies me. I’m very picky and choosy in this process. If it looks like it’s posed I reject it. So the personality is already evident in the photograph.

And I prefer to tackle poses and gestures that are a challenge. They force me into my right brain, or as I refer to it as ‘the zone’. When I’m in that zone I cease to see hands and see only interconnected lines. Then I take a look at it when I’m no longer in the zone and it looks like hands. There’s a lot of switching back and forth between my right brain and my left brain. You need both to create art.

[Duppers]

13. Excellent! K&R

[bif]

14. Wow! Fantastic!

In a way, it reminds me of something from the Great Depression. It has a Dorthea Lange quality to it.

[lunatica]

15. Thanks

I see what you mean. I think that’s what appealed to me when I first saw the photograph. It tells a story that made me wonder and I wanted to capture that. The subject matter that fascinates me the most is people. I have always watched people. When Malls were big at the end of last century my favorite thing to do was to sit unobtrusively and watch them. It has been a lifelong thing. I’ve never tired of it.

Your observation is quite a compliment. Comparing my work in a positive way to Dorothea Lange’s incredible and timeless work, even in a passing way, is stunning. It blows me away!