Custom Portraits

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For a long time I stayed away from trying to draw portraits and I am not sure now why. Drawing people is no different then drawing any other subject. It is just shapes and shading like all my other charcoal drawings or pencil drawings. Yet for what ever reason drawing Portraits intimidated me.

Once I learned to concentrate on the shapes and shadows they created drawing portraits became exciting and interesting. I do not try to capture every little detail but rather try to capture the feeling the person portrays at the time.

Try a little experiment, take a photo of some one you are very familiar with and take a quick look at it. Now that you have that image in your mind take the same photo and really study it look at all the details blemishes facial expressions eyes now is this the same picture you have in your mind more then likely it is not.

When drawing portraits I try to portray that first image the basic shape and expressions and do not try to put all the details that you see should you take the time to study them. If I start adding all those details you are constantly changing the drawing it seem like every time you look at them you see a different side or feature.

I believe that the first impression is a lasting impression and that is what I try to capture in my charcoal drawings of people

Do you have a favorite photograph that you would like to have depicted in a charcoal drawing? I would be glad to do that for you as well. Email me the highest resolution photo you have of your subject and I will transform it into a hand drawn charcoal drawing for you. Sending two or more photos of your subject will assist in getting all the details that make it so special.

You may have captured that special moment on film only to find out that the subject’s eyes were closed or they were not smiling. With photos of the subject’s eyes or smile I will be able to draw a drawing that will represent the look you were hoping to capture.

The drawings below are portraits that I have done. The quality of some  of these are not as good as I would like as they were sent back to me recently when I requested their permission you use them on my new web-site. They do give you an idea of what they may look like however. The portrait of Wanting Eyes is one I drew to give you a better idea as to how your drawing will look. It was drawn from a photo I found on the internet and it just caught my eye.

   
             Original Photo                          My Drawing

Original Photo                          My Drawing

You can check out the drawing by clicking itfrom the list at the top of this page

My prices for a custom drawings are as follows: Price list

I will add background but the price will need to be negotiated once I have a chance to see just what the background consist of.

Email me at russ@charcoal-drawings-prints.com
and I would be glad to discuss the details with you.