Faldoni, parts 2496 - 2499

 2496. But even though it seemed that the profile shape would be easy and quick to draw, he encountered unexpected difficulties. It is true that it was a simple matter to trace a line of the face going from the forehead down to the chin, and he made his line turn in and out in all the correct places. He even noticed the two little quarter circles the show the edge of the upper and lower lip when seen from the side.

 2497. But he soon discovered that even if he had all the ins and outs in the right place, it was possible for the nose to be too big, and the v shape of the eye too small. It was possible to get all the shapes in the correct places and yet the head in its entirety seemed to him to be somehow melted, stretched out and distorted.

 
2498. His drawing of the profile of a face was just like those maps of the Americas drawn by ancient mariners, where they have carefully picked out all the ins and outs of a coast line, and yet the entire impression is not only wrong, but somehow comical. 

2499. Nevertheless, Faldoni liked his profile drawing of the head, and painted it in with his colors on the plaster as best he could. This was his third painting and at this point he made a vow to himself to never destroy anything he did and furthermore to find a way to be pleased with it despite all of its obvious faults, or perhaps because of them.