Portrait Process

This portrait was created to be the cover of A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood. For those of you unfamiliar with the book or the movie based on it, I highly recommend them! The trickier part was to create a face different from Colin Firth's as I wanted my own approach on the character. I think I made him younger too....oh well... My main focus were the eyes. I had to show a face tired from grief, loneliness, missing his better half, a man who has given up on life, yet still holds up pretenses as he cannot publicly express his feelings...

Now, more about the process... I drew numerous faces from different angles to create the face i needed. The bone structure, hair, as soon as those elements are set I focus on the shading and gesture of the face. Afterwords I stylize it. Block out the dark areas and shapes. Then I transfer my finalized drawing on the watercolor paper. After choosing my color palette and making crude color studies -not displayed as I accidentally threw them away- I begin layering the watercolors. Then comes the inking ....and voila!