Portraits without environments are boring

Boring Portraits

Why are we so convinced the human form is the start and end of expression?

Portraits have always seemed kind of silly to me. Like only drawing half the picture.

I for some time have wondered why I find drawing just people or faces or bodies quite boring. People who draw I am told are meant to love drawing this stuff, there bread and butter. I listen to countless interviews of comic book artists and they say the same thing.
But not me, i had different ideas.

We are a function of our environment. We exist and are molded, shaped by everything around us. From the stick that pokes into our face eventually making a scar, or the torment of parents, every action exerted on us is a function of everything around us.

This is why I found some art classes boring. Drawing someone’s face over and over. Yeah I know I need to learn this to get better at drawing, especially emotion, but ooh damn it seemed about as much fun as poking myself in the eye.

Then I started drawing people within environments. Holy smokes that is fun. All of a sudden they are connected to the land around them. Shaped by it, them shaping it. Which is kind of funny in a way because my comic, about the First Australians, is exactly there outlook on life. They believe they can’t be separated from their land, they are one and the same. Very cool people. Maybe you become what you study?