I'm finally back from California and I'm getting back into the swing of things with a portrait of Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow.
And I'm discovering that capturing the undefinable Johansson-ness of her face is incredibly difficult. I've drawn her face over and over and
only a few have turned out even remotely successful.
Now I have dozens of images of lovely women who look nothing like Scarlett Johansson...
...and a handful of sloppy looking heads that somehow resemble Ms. Johansson far more than the more carefully modeled sketches do.
Picking out the minute differences is careful and tedious work. For example, here's one face in particular that I like very much, but which looks like someone else. And here's the reference picture I'm working from.
Some careful observations and a little more shading improves things slightly, but it still isn't quite there.
A little bit more work gets us closer, but I'm still not sure it's really recognizable as Scarlett. Try as I might, the lips still need work.
I want to make sure that someone how doesn't know who it's supposed
to be can look at it and recognize it without being told. I'll post updated sketches as the project progresses.