Creator, Creation, and Creativity

Drawing is an act of worship for me- a time when I can sit quietly with my Creator and an image of His creation and, with much striving and exertion, try to reproduce a shadow of this image onto a two-dimensional surface.  I've drawn dozens and dozens of portraits before- for commissions, presents for friends and family, for my own enjoyment, and for school assignments.  No prior work of mine has been more difficult, more meaningful, and more enjoyable than drawing Molly.  What a joy it was to try to find her as I moved my pencil across the paper!

The most difficult part of the task was to choose a photograph to work from that captured her "her"-ness.  I've seen her a thousand different ways in hundreds of kinds of light making dozens of kinds of expressions. How could I possibly choose one photograph that made me think, "that is so her."??? I suppose it should have been a picture of her sucking her thumb and pulling on her ear.  That's what she looks like %50 of the time she is awake.

But...then I wouldn't get to see much of her face.  And I can draw hands, but I didn't want anything to take away from her sweet face.  It needed to be a photograph after she turned at least nine months old.  Any time before then, babies look very "baby"-like.  They start to come into their own look after that I think.   I like drawing 3/4 views or profiles because then I can capture the shape of a child's face, and I also don't have to get bogged down with the difficult task of making eyes exactly symmetrical.  And it needed to be a photograph that would also remind me of a happy memory. So all of those requirements helped me narrow the field of thousands of photographs of her considerably.  

I decided to use a photograph that my friend Ang took of her.  It was from the day we got Molly dedicated at church.  That day, to me, was a big deal.  It was the day I told God that her life belonged to Him and not to me.  I hope that the picture will remind me of that promise I made to Him.  

(note the thumb and ear)  :o)  

These were all taken by Ang at our little luncheon we had at my in-laws after church:  

So with photograph in hand, I sharpened my Prismacolors (Sepia, White, Terra Cotta, Ultramarine Blue, and Sienna Brown) and married pencil to paper.  

Sometimes I work upside down, so my brain will disassociate shapes and shadows with objects like eye brows and cheekbones.  It's always fun to turn the drawing right-side-up and see that I actually made a face and not just an abstract drawing with shadows, lines, and highlights.  But for Molly's drawing, I was deliberate to look at each feature for exactly what it was:  her little nose and sweet lips and an ear that is shaped just like her daddy's.  

And drawing her bows reminded me of how many times that day I had to keep putting them back in her hair when her brother would rip them out, look at me, and laugh.  

I put the drawing in a frame just like the one I bought for the wedding portrait I drew of me and her daddy.  

And here is the finished result:  

My sweet Molly Grace.  

And here are our pictures together as a family of three...  

What a sweet, special time I had re-creating her image, worshiping my Creator as I did it.  

On Thursday, we're going to find out if in the near future I'll be drawing a portrait of her sister or her brother!!!  I feel so blessed.