The trouble with painting/drawing portraits is everyone gravitates to the question whether it looks like the person it's supposed to be. That's a good reason — if you like doing portraits — to choose subjects who aren't well-known. Alternatively, use a camera. You might get credit for making one person look like someone else.
Here's Bob Dylan's new "Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10." And here's Dylan's long-ago release titled "Self Portrait"...
... the one about which Greil Marcus asked in Rolling Stone: "What is this shit?" (Here, please credit me for resisting making a Santorum joke.)
Comparing the 2 selfies, we see a consistent approach to the upper lip/lower lip proportion, the the Scarecrow-from-the-Wizard-of-Oz nose, the hair part deeply denting the forehead (making it look like a lopsided heart), the cut off jawline with jowls, and the un-level ears (though the down ear is now up and the up is down*). The biggest difference, other than skin tone, is in the eyebrows. Gone is the amazement of youth. The old man has seen it all, but he's still looking.
_________________________
*Old lyric that resonated (after a search for "up" and "down"):
Oh, the only decent thing I did when I worked as a postal clerk
Was to haul your picture down off the wall near the cage where I used to work
Was I a fool or not to try to protect your identity?
You looked a little burned out, my friend, I thought it might be up to me
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3 comments:
The comments are currently closed to anyone except "team members." The team members are Meade and I. Normally, I undisplay the "0 comments" notation after a post, because I don't want it to look like no one wants to comment (though, who knows, maybe by now, no one does).
I'm displaying the comments on this one, because I had something I wanted to say in comments form, something about comments:
If the comments were open, would people notice the 15 new topics raised by my post? (I didn't make up the number 15. I counted.)
Or would all those things be lost in a clamor to tell me one more time that Dylan's voice is bad and I'm going over and over old ground?
Comments can be enlivening, but also deadening.
Meade was watching the video at the first link and said Bob Dylan likes dogs (because there were dogs in the video), and I said, "Are there dogs in any Bob Dylan songs?"
Meade said, "If Dogs Run Free," and I said I love that song, but I've seen some people say it's Bob Dylan's worst song.
I do a search for "dog" at bobdylan.com and read the lyric:
I got my black dog barkin’
Black dog barkin’
Yes it is now
Yes it is now
Outside my yard
Yes, I could tell you what he means
If I just didn’t have to try so hard
Meade: I'm going to go get my black dog.
Me, 5 minutes later: Did you say "I'm going to go get my black dog"?
Meade: Yeah, I'm going to go get my dog and get him to bark.
Obviously Fifteen Topics.
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