CHARCOAL PORTRAIT ON CANVAS

So this 16" x 16" charcoal portrait on canvas is pretty much done. I have a couple of touches to add, but I decided to post him today rather than waiting. There is a little bit of the hat and shirt cut off in this picture, but it's good enough to show the face and hat. For detail, just enlarge by clicking on the picture.

I did this piece from a photo that I took around 8 years ago, when my daughter and her family were here with us, visiting from Mexico where they lived at the time. This is my grandson who was around a year of age, maybe a bit older. "Mats" as we call him, always loved his grandfather's hats, and when there was one similar to Grandpa's for sale at a mall nearby, my daughter bought it even though it was rather large for Mats. He wore it all the time, and eventually grew into it. (The hat was a deep blue corduroy.) Don't you love how very young children's proportions are so different from adult's? The big ears, the huge eyes, the chubby cheeks...all gone now as he grew into those features and beyond. Time flies, but I am grateful that we have memories both in pictures and now in painting.

HUICHOL GIRL - a portrait in charcoal on canvas

Further to my last post, here are the stages that this portrait went through before coming to completion.

As I added layers and layers of charcoal, her face became smoother and smoother, and the curves of her face became more and more realistic.

Light and shadow are important elements to pay attention to, as well as value. This whole portrait is built with only value - lights and darks.  

 Another thing to be aware of when you are doing portraiture is the direction of your strokes. When you are doing the cheek, for example, you want to think about how the skin stretches around the bone structure underneath, and follow that with your brush strokes. The same applies for the hair...how is the hair flowing? Follow it with your brush strokes.

In the case of hair, and especially with children, it should look soft. In this photo, you can see the beginning of building up the layers of darks and lights, and the softening effects I've been able to achieve.










And here is the final result:

HUICHOL GIRL
16" x 16"
charcoal on canvas