I put another few hours (about 2 hours) into the portrait last night.
I started putting colors down.
He has pink areas in the center of the face, but the rest is pretty much pasty white. I'm trying not to give the skin tone too much hue, but keeping it pale.
The feel of this piece will be classical, noble & quiet yet strong. So far, I see first three keywords being covered (well enough for this stage of the project), but not the last one. It is lacking the strong presence of the subject, which is the primary purpose of most portraits. Hopefully, as I layer more colors and add details, more character will be added.
The next step will be to put down more dramatic darks and lights. It might have been easier if I did this first, but I guess I got myself caught up in studying the skin tone. So, I'm going to make myself go back and work on that. A huge no-no in the traditional Japanese art principle. Darks and lights first, details later. Ya ya ya, I know this. I had too much fun doing the skin tone and two hours were passing by like crazed bike messengers downtown. Bad me.
The other thing I noticed is that his hair needs to be taller on the top. Depending on the photo you find of him, but his hair is usually done in the 80s rock star style, longish, biggish... Will fix that.
Because I'm not using a single photo as the reference, the process has been less simpler than eyeing and recreating what I see exactly. The hair would be a bit of trouble for me, I know. But can be fun at the same time.
Stay tuned and follow the progress.
