these portraits of leonard are simply personal versions of photographs that can be found in various places. it is helpful for me to have an idea, though not a lot of thought goes into their production, no real energy spent on planning - mostly spontaneous stuff while listening to music, anything from clara butt to justin bieber - at the moment 'we come alive' by waykap. the cohen pic above was pencilled on the back of an ice lolly box. while on the subject of music: it was a mistake for leonard to record the embarrassingly titled 'don't go home with your hard-on'. it is neither clever nor funny - only banal. what he was thinking, i have no idea - but it did him no favours and failed to earn him much respect. i never play it, and am sure he must have later regretted it. i don't mind filth, love his 'beautiful losers' novel due to the use of original metaphors, but that song of his is beneath him - just boring.
i think you are onto something credible with the 'filling in the blanks' theory. john lennon's minimalistic self portaits are easily recognisable, as indeed are those by leonard - but this is helped by their inclusion of a caricaturistic element. for a portraitist looking for guaranteed success when making an interpretation of a known person it is imperative that they begin by working from a well-known photograph. as their competence improves they can move onto lesser easily identifiable photographs, perhaps with a more unusual camera angle that makes it more difficult for one's brain to 'fill in the blanks'. this is an area to which i have not given too much consideration, because to someone with no ambition 'guaranteed success' is a long way down any list of priorities.
we know what leonard looked like, and to draw his features close-up is therefore a challenge. it is much easier to draw a picture of jesus than of leonard, simply because no one knows what jesus' face looked like. i doubt that anyone unfamiliar with leonard cohen would realise just from seeing photographs that the man pictured early in his career is the same man pictured towards the end of his career.
--------------------------------------
taken today, posted so that one can see what i look like.
28 december 2021
