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willMy daughter married a guy named Will.  His parents call him William.  We call our daughter Jennifer.  He calls her Jen.  Anyway, he’s a very cool guy.  Everybody loves him.  He is so much fun.  When a big game comes up, we go with him to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch it on a large screen t.v. and eat wings.  We’ve gone to lots of concerts with him and have traveled together in Europe and all over the country.

I did a portrait of his wife (see my October 26, 2009 post “Jennifer”) and wanted to do a matching portrait of him.  He’s not nearly as pretty as she is, but he is very handsome and has a great personality.  I wanted to portray the sparkle in his eyes and his fun-loving personality.

Look at his eyes.  On the right side you’ll see white highlights.  They travel clear over to the left side.  Look at at the right side of his face.  It is closer to the light source, so is painted very light.  On the left side of the nose and face you see darker paint, representing shadow.  That gives dimension to the face.  Note the smile wrinkles at the sides of the eyes to give personality.

3

charcoal-sketchYou can do a great drawing just by emphasizing value and light.  Here you see a five minute drawing of my wife, Norene, with charcoal.  I drew very basic shapes — head, lips, nose, eyes and hairline.  Next I squinted to see the shapes of the shadows.  I blocked them in — the right side of the face, under the chin, under the bottom lip, the top lip, above the eyelids, then the hair.  On the left side of the picture you’ll see dark shading right next to the hair.  I always put that against the side that is lit.