Here’s the second sketch from my failed project. It’s of Brady Rhoades, our editor. This time I was drawing from one of my own photographs, which I prefer to do. It’s much easier to work from an original photograph than it is from someone else’s image. I learned this lesson many years ago when I offered to do a wedding portrait of some friends. I used one of their wedding shots as the primary source and it took me months to do. It never turned out right either, but I gave it to them anyway.

I think the reason I have trouble with it is because I’m working off someone else’s art, so to speak, and because I’m a strict documentarian when it comes to the aesthetic I feel like I’m using too much of the other person’s material. I really admire the work of artists like Shepard Fairey because he’s able to transform someone else’s image and make it his own.

With Brady I feel like I had caught him in a moment of solemn introspection — he seems to be wondering why I was so insistent on taking his picture. I don’t blame him for wondering. It does seem like an odd process. But I think Brady, like many of the other subjects, wished I had done more flattering pictures featuring them in a happier moment. I think most of us would want that. I’ll post another sketch tomorrow. Feel free to tell me what you think.

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