Facial expressions are tricky things to get right, although the quirkier the better. Personally, I find attractive, sensible faces almost impossible to draw to my satisfaction, certainly less interesting, but that’s me. I do find myself pulling silly faces in the mirror as an immediate and convenient source of reference although it has to be said, as my son has observed, these are the kind of expressions I make when I shave (apparently).

Actually, I had my neighbour’s builder wondering about me the other day. It was growing dark and I hadn’t got around to pulling down the blind. He was a roofer enveloped in scaffolding aloft the house opposite doing what roofers do best…having a fag and taking a good long look into as many people’s lives as possible – well, those of us who hadn’t drawn the curtains yet. Anyway, he had a birds-eye view of me at my desk. The angle was such that he could see I was crouched over the drawing board but didn’t know I was painting. All he could see was me looking intently into a mirror with much mumbling (I have a habit of doing this when I work…don’t ask),  together with the vigorous waving around of a hairdryer. (Let me explain that I use a hairdryer to speed up the drying of the paint).

Well, I don’t know how long he’d been watching me but once you know you’re being looked at it’s difficult to ignore, but I couldn’t break away from the painting to close the shutters straight away. He was more or less in silhouette but his body language seemed to suggest an element of alarm.

I guess he thought I was blow drying my face…

 

 

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