This is the actual scan of the pencil portraits, which is much clearer than the photo I took of the finished piece.
If anyone is interested in prints of this, let me know. I have a Zazzle store and would be very happy to offer it in a way you would enjoy it (prints, cards, mugs).
Getting much closer to finishing the piece. But I was still playing chicken with Alec Guinness’ face. Shortly after I took this picture I admitted to myself I’d have to deal with the face. I couldn’t fill in all the background and then deal with the face. So after this point, little bit by little bit I worked on that face.
I was pretty much satisfied with the end result, of course. As I said, it took me about six hours to complete the double portrait. But considering I hadn’t done one in a very long time, I felt it was well worth the labor.
Every little bit makes things come clearer. But I’m still uncertain about Guinness’ face.
More with the negative space. Might as well start building up the darkest spots.
Once the general shapes of the faces were in place, I had to start making choices. Guinness’ face was still stumping me, so I gave my attention to other details: the shape of his hat, his scarf, and the background.
My rule of thumb: when you’re having a hard time “seeing” the positive shapes and spaces for the drawing, work on the negative ones.
Finally getting around to posting the in-between parts of the Smiley & Karla portraits.
THIS PREVIOUS POST shows the earliest point I took a picture of. I had blocked out the positions for the heads and had sketched in the basic negative spaces on Patrick Stewart’s face.
This was the next stage —
Finding the planes on Alec Guinness’ face was harder, so I just very lightly marked the negative areas as a starter.
The photo I was working from for Guinness’ face was very dark, and the shape of his hat was not clear. The amusing thing is that although I’d been watching both Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley’s People while working on this sketch, for some reason, I thought Smiley had a bowler hat, not a fedora. Hence it is blocked out more roundly at this point in the process.
At the moment, I still haven’t figured out some key things about the ComicsPress template…. so for now, this is a regular post. Which means that although I have pictures of the intermediate steps in the drawing of Guinness and Stewart from Smiley’s People, and they are uploaded to the blog’s library…. you’ll have to wait to see them.
In the meantime, the finished drawing. It took six hours to do.
I’m not entirely happy with it — both faces should be a bit longer, and Stewart’s ears aren’t even. But considering I have not done a pencil portrait of anyone in years, I’m rather pleased with the results. Alec Guinness’ face is not easy to draw, because it doesn’t have the distinctive planes that Patrick Stewart’s has.
I’d be interested in reactions —
I’d watched my DVD copy of the Alec Guinness Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy on Saturday, and got inspired. I watched the second piece, Smiley’s People today, and while doing that also did a pencil portrait of Guinness as George Smiley, with his nemesis, the Russian spymaster Karla (played by Patrick Stewart – though he didn’t have many scenes – and no lines!) behind him.
(I’m also using this post as an occasion to start familiarizing myself with the features of the ComicsPress options.
Here’s the beginning sketch.
There’s still a lot about the ComicPress format that I haven’t quite mastered. But since I now do have a certain amount of material scanned to my computer, I can begin posting it.
The above piece was originally done in pen and ink, as a column filler for the journal Mythlore. As you can see in the signature date there, it goes back a while. The coloring of the piece was done recently in Photoshop (still learning to master that).
I tend to like saturated colors, so this would be pretty standard for me.
The effect of the moment is meant to reference Frodo in The Lord of the Rings musing on the things that Bilbo had said about where The Road might lead one. Where does it go, over those hills?
So, more of my “playing” with Photoshop.
It’s stimulating to do these, but I do need to get back to work writing. I gave myself the weekend and holiday off from that.
In the meantime, I give you these two smaller pieces that were not so much labor to color as the Taliessin one was.
First up — “The Road Outside”
And then there’s this little thing — “Elf Queen”
I have recently created a Patreon page, where I will be posting about my works-in-progress, and indeed sharing draft chapters as things move forward.
I want to express my deepest thanks to those who have joined the Gold Level of my noble Patrons.
Bradley Rader
