Man's portrait

My model has amazingly beautiful antique lips. At school, I often painted such at plaster statues in the classroom for academic drawing.

The nose of a man is large and with a fairly wide bridge of nose. Deeply set eyes under the wide eyebrows.

The shadows in the eye sockets will give expression a look. We leave the glare of light in the dark eyes.

We paved the shadow under the nose, the shadows in the eye sockets, the shadow from the lower lip, the shadow on the cheek and chin, indicated the direction of the strands in the hairstyle in large strokes.

Visually, the distant eye now seems to be out of place. But everything is correct. Chiaroscuro will take away this illusion.

Temporarily put the pencil aside. Take black watercolor and darken the background.

Everything became more spacious, the face immediately lit up. If you want a spectacular portrait, draw on a dark background. Your model will immediately seem alive.

Now we need to make the face even more voluminous.

To do this, we lay a shadow on the neck, then a shadow in the hollow from the nose to the mouth. Do you see the reflex on the lower plane of the nose? A reflex in the shade on the upper lip? They illuminate the face.

Dark lines emphasize the nostrils, ear, eyelids, the line of the joint of the lips. This gives the work a complete look.

That's all, the portrait is ready. As often happens, I like it more than the original. And you?