Portrait of Mrs. Sanchez

Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)

This is one of my early drawings from High School. This was my language art teacher Mrs. Sanchez. She wanted to be a singer, but had to settle for teaching. I used to always doodle in the side of my composition book. To manage the chaos, she gave me my first sketch pad, and first drawing pencil. I made that portrait on a slow day. 

I cannot say this meant much at the time, or even now. I was bored at school, and this was something to do. She was standing still a lot, looking at a movie or something, so I made this portrait. She saw it and liked it. I am not one to keep tabs with people I saw in school. I also do not make sketches of people. This is just one of the few portraits I made. 

I also did one of my brother, and one featuring my father and mother. As for self-portraits, I have an incomplete one I never bothered to finish. I do featured my animated self in my mangas. I even make a brief appearance in one of my fantasy books. People may think of it as self-serving, but it is a Spanish thing. The writer Unamuno stared the trend in Niebla or Fog. 

He made his character see him in the "real" world, and then had him kill himself by eating too much. Showing up in one's own work is an odd commonality in the Spanish written world. This has nothing to do with the drawing. I remember my teacher had a lot of junk in a notice board. Whatever I could not see from my desk, I made up. I even included a little poem in the background. 

The central theme is that artists got to start somewhere. School is a great spot to begin. I did not make anything interesting in art class. The people there have a way of making drawing boring. They make you sketch fruit, and other boring items. There is a good reason why still lives rarely get done. Fruit are unimpressive. Flowers would have been a better alternative. People like flowers, specially Van Gogh.