sketches

Day three hundred and fifty-five: For those who have studied Surrealist photography, this image may be familiar. It’s a photograph made around 1930 by Man Ray of the movement’s leader André Breton. I’ve known about it for several years now, and have always found it strange and delightful. When I started sketching it this evening, I began rather haphazardly and without attention to Breton’s true features. So the eyes and the goggles are skewed, and the face is entirely too narrow. But as I continued to layer and blend tones of gray, to more closely imitate the black and white photo, I became enthralled with the process. In the end, my lack of accuracy seems to fit the silliness of the subject, and I’m as enchanted by my sketch as I am by the original.