To legitimize the portrait...I've planned to take a photograph emulating the drawing for use as his player photo. 7/20


What a terrible first task. But alas, it would make sense to use those skills I'm most comfortable presenting, in a comfortable setting, with a comfortable being as my introduction to sfØ.

After a not-too-pleasant bike ride in the San Francisco sun and over her hills, I met up with Bryce at a local coffee shop frequented by the denizens of the Haight, and, these last few weeks, by an array of European tourists. The meeting would precede our second time attempting (once again, to no avail) to complete the Decathlon in a Tree.

I ordered a black iced coffee and sank into the cool, dark leather couch overlooking the eccentrics twisting through the busy intersection. I drank quickly and collected myself.

Flipping open my notebook, I told Bryce I would draw his likeliness. He said that he had never been drawn before, intentionally, as to leave nothing behind. I thought that was silly.

A foreign family of four sat in the sofa across from us. Their interest was slightly piqued, and the father spoke loudly of the art on the walls and waxed poetic on its place in society.

I chose to draw Bryce’s literal portrait in coloured pencil. Portraits seem to be the only subject in which I can keep a consistent style. When illustrating faces, I gravitate toward a limited, saturated palette lacking natural tones and absolutely no black or white. For this sketch I decided to use simply yellow, orange, red, violet and indigo (applying in that order). The pencils proved portable and fit his features more than markers, the only other option on me. I take a backwards approach using colour when I draw and when I work with makeup; instead of building from shadows first and later piling on highlights, I prefer to start with the palest shades and later define in darker colours.

Bryce was surely a fine first time model, albeit having to tilt his head up countless times from the journal he scribbled in. He started jotting down the pieces of a face as well but quickly abandoned that feat.

An hour or so went by, and the chatty family was replaced by a nuzzling couple of late twenty-something-year-olds. They were indifferent to the other patrons and nattered over a mutual distaste for alcohol.

I penciled in his hair indigo and we left the café when the sun was highest in the sky. Looking in my notebook, he appears more adult in my drawing, but I am satisfied with it.

Thank you for being a lovely model, Bryce. 7/18