And welcome to DU!

Keep it up!

And Mr. femmedem and I are taking drawing lessons.

Happy to meet you!

And thank you.

I do love drawing and painting, but even better than that is how I'm seeing the world regardless of whether I've got a pencil in my hand.

I love three-quarter rear view drawings of people because it allows a resemblance while maintaining a lot of mystery.

Keep going!

Although this is the first I've drawn since I was on my early twenties. I liked the neck and shoulder structure from that angle.

I have taken to baking bread.

So many ways to be creative.

Did you look in a mirror to draw yourself? That would be hard given the angle of the drawing. It's a beautiful drawing.

One large mirror and a hand mirror in which I could see my image in the large mirror.

The vertical lines surrounding you are interesting - almost like the vibrations of an astral aura, particularly around the eyes, nose, mouth and throat. It makes me wonder at your emotional state when you drew this self-portrait. Just rhetorical, but what were you feeling at the time? Were there strong feelings going in, perhaps, and then you got in the zone and finished almost automatically?

It is very good.

I'd had a long day at work but I was excited about drawing from this angle with the bone structure so clearly visible. I had just watched an online lesson on Russian academic drawing which made me want to be more intentional about the marks I used for shading.

but I'm still happy with it.

I'm in my 50s and it feels good to be learning something at this age.

What a gift you have!

you'd see that it isn't a gift, though, just practice and study. I believe that anyone whose vision is ok (and mine isn't great, just ok) can learn to draw.

I'm so glad I posted this--I've sometimes wondered about the value of the nonpolitical forums and groups but they really do help build a community here.

I draw portraits too and like you I’ve started doing art again after decades of doing very little. I also paint. Your portrait inspires me to do more art. My preference in portraiture is in drawing people, and not painting so much. So to me drawings are finished art also.

It wasn't quite like riding a bicycle again, but I was surprised at how relatively quickly I regained some skill. Looks like it was the same for you.

An added benefit: my husband and I are both finding that it's good for overall brain health and mental acuity. I posted shortly before Christmas about buying my mother a robotic cat to give her something to love while she has advanced Alzheimer's. I didn't mention then how terrified I am of developing dementia, too.

with live nude models. You can really hone your skills and educate your eye. In the early 1980s I took classes in the local junior college. They are three hour classes usually held on Saturday and established artists go to them to practice their skills.

My interest was in depicting their faces so while other attendees concentrated on the bodies I decided to tackle facial likenesses. As you probably know it’s very difficult to render accurate portraiture that actually looks like the model, but it really paid off for me. Recently, after 40 years of having them in my closet I took them out and really looked at them. They are pretty good, so every so often I post one on DU.

My husband and I are working up to it. He hasn't drawn much and he feels intimidated by the thought right now, but we are taking biweekly drawing lessons and I know that it won't be long before our instructor goes with us to a three-hour long open drawing session (long pose) a few towns south of us.

I'm impressed you still have your drawings from forty years ago! The only existing art I have from my teens and twenties are the ones my parents saved.

care about and for my art. The stuff I did before that is pretty much gone.