Perfume Bottle drawing by Amy Guidry; SOLD; Done when I was 16 years old
I recently posted a few photos of work I did as a kid up through high school. Funny, it never occurred to me that someone would be interested in adding one to their art collection…I guess because even though they are art, somehow I only considered work done during my “professional” years to be of interest. That is until someone expressed interest. I was also surprised by the enthusiasm people had over these once I posted them to my Facebook “Fan Page.” Even though they were all pieces I did on my own time, they were still part of my “sketchbook” assignments (even though they were not just simple sketches) which I had to turn in weekly to show that I was working on my art. This was standard for those in the Talented Art Program. Every week I would show what I worked on, usually adding more to the same drawing, and wait for approval. In some ways, it’s not all that different from how things are today. So I think this serves as a great reminder that we shouldn’t be so critical of our own work- on the whole, if it’s good, it’s good, no matter how old it is, no matter the imperfections that we think we see, no matter how many times we had to start over. No one else sees that, they just see a great work of art.
This is one of my portfolio pieces from high school. I thought it might be fun to post work from my “early days.” I drew this from an ad for Ralph Lauren’s Safari perfume. I remember it being a hit in my art class. I actually still have it buried away in one of my many portfolios. You can see where the paper buckled from all my wear and tear on it as I was coloring in such a dark section. The small glass pieces were fun to do. I treated each one with individual attention. I also liked drawing in the lions.
I blocked in the length and width of the bottle in my original line sketch, and then filled in the squares of glass. So actually, you can see how the piece is not perfectly symmetric, thanks to my freehand work. Somehow I managed to squeeze it all in so the patterns still fit within the bottle. And one side is narrower than the other. Still, I’d say it’s not too shabby for a teenager.
This was during my black and white stage- everything I did was in pencil or charcoal. Black and white photography was fascinating to me, so I used those concepts in drawing. Now, obviously, I love to work in color. You can check out my new work at www.AmyGuidry.com.
![Early work from high school portfolio](https://artistcommentary.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/perfume-bottle21.jpg "\")