Head Study of Bram

Surprisingly, considering how much I draw my dogs, this is the first sketch I've done of Bram in the nearly two months he's been a member of the family. How odd.

When it comes to my work, even just the studies, sketches and journal pages I put here on this blog, I tend to see nothing but the flaws, the mistakes, the things that could have been done differently or improved upon. I'm really bad at not giving myself very much credit for what I do, and I seldom if ever toot my own horn when it comes to my art work, neither the serious stuff nor the lesser stuff. But that said, I have to say that I think I really nailed his tiny mouth here. I really do. Bram has a crooked and funny, slightly turned-down little mouth that looks exactly like the tiny rabbits in the Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Christmas special. You know, the stop motion one from 1964 with Hermey and Yukon Cornelius and the Island of Misfit Toys (which always makes me cry because they're all so unloved sitting out there alone in the cold, cold snow waiting for Santa each year)? Well, in the scene where Rudolph walks Clarice home after he's been booted from the Reindeer Games for being different (now there's the spirit of Christmas in action, eh?), the bridge of the song "There's Always Tomorrow" is sung by two little rabbits and two little raccoons and Bram's mouth looks just like the little rabbits' mouths (especially the one on the left). At least I think it does. And I think I did a smashing job of capturing his funny little lips in this sketch.

So there. And now if it ever comes up I can say I actually said something positive about my work. At least once, at any rate. And it was about something I love: Bram's odd little mouth.

Head Study of Bram Ebenezer, graphite on paper, 2009