Snap Shots By Hand Day 4

Line versus color, which one wins. Each approach has it own rules and results, but which one is better. I have been asked that a lot

With line, or black and white, you are limited to expressing the scene in two maybe three or at the most four values. Add to that the time I have to draw the subject and I quite often limit myself to the persons face to work on. And even then I sometimes eliminate some features to concentrate on the emotion of the scene.

With color I sometimes have to do the opposite, show more. Still with the time constraints I often stick to the face. But, now I have to contend with a myriad of values. With Black and white some things are implied with color it is "LIVE". You do someones skin tone wrong and all you can think about is "There's something wrong". I have gotten better with the color work - still often the color is applied at a later time. It forces me to look hard at the subject and commit to memory what I see(or take a real snap shot to reference later).

Either way, B&W or color, I have to really think through the drawings. Check out the drawings below.

 A brother and sister riding the bus late at night. These two got on and as soon as they sat he began to nod off. When she reached over and guided his head to her shoulder I was hooked. The scene touched me and I tried to get the emotion of it

 
The original of this is about an inch and a half tall. I did her to fill a spot on the page. In her case it was her bizarre hair style that had me drawing her. Seeing it blown up this way reminds me that some of my best work is done tiny.