A tribute to my brother Ton

[Clasje]

Hello everyone,

I have not been posting in WetCanvas for almost a year. A lot has happened in that time. My youngest brother, in his 68th year, passed away very suddenly in October. As part of the grieving process, I am trying to do a portrait of him in coloured pencil.
I will attempt to download first a photo of him and then show you how far I got with the portrait. Please give me your honest critique on this portrait. I had a very hard time with getting his mouth to look believable. Did I succeed? Thanks for looking and commenting.

Clasje

[douglass]

What a great start on a difficult portrait! I cannot fault the mouth (after seeing the reference photo). really looking forward to seeing this develop to completion...good luck. condolences on the passing of your brother...it is hard.

[smudged-blue]

Wow this is looking great, I really like the skin tones, keep going as it will look fantastic when it's finished. Hope you will have a better year this year. Sorry for your loss, must be very difficult.

[Reinhard1]

Wow, really good indeed. On my screen it seems that the lips come together earlier on OUR left side in the reference than in the drawing. This might throw you off a bit as far as the mouth is concerned. If you drew a straight line up from where the lips meet in the reference I think to see on my screen that this is somewhat between the tip of the nose and the nostril, while in your rendering this line hits the tip of the nose rather in the middle. Additionally I think to see on my screen that the upper lip on the reference comes a down in a bit steeper an angle. Could you be so kind and check?

[clydeine]

Sorry for your loss. This is a very special work of art. The skin tones are very nice and the rendering is excellent. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

[Clasje]

Thank you very much for your nice comments and words of sympathy Lynette and smudged-blue. Thank you so much for your observations Reinhard, I double checked and you were spot on, it is unbelievable how much difference a millimeter here or there changes everything. I have made some changes and will post again once I am a bit further along. Thank you Clydeine for your nice words.

[yiluren]

OK good！！

[Jayde]

Sorry to hear of your loss Clasje. Your portrait is coming along beautifully.

[George924]

So very sorry to hear fo your loss...it is never an easy thing to go thru.

Your colors look tremendous and the eyes are very well done, love the piercing gaze that you have achieved. The mirror will tell you all that is wrong with any portrait piece, it as a way of pointing out flaws that are not seen otherwise. I flipped this image in photoshop and found that it looked great, there were no issues that was obvious.

I found that photos lie all of the time and when I get to a certain point I stop looking at the photo and just go with what I know about portraits. I can't tell you how many times my clients have said that they look more like themselves in a painting then they did in the photo.

Will you put in a background and if so what are you thinking...me personally think this piece would stand strong without a BG color.

Also, if you are using Prismacolor pencils, have you ever used the neon colors to fulminate the colors? If not I would not try it on this piece because they can get out of hand fast...but something to think about for a later piece.

Really looking forward to seeing this complete...

[Mikenoss]

Very sorry for your loss. You have some top-notch people helping you here and I'm sure that this will become a treasured possession because you have started so well. Cheers from Australia.

[Clasje]

Thank you yiluren, Jayde, George and Graham for your nice words of sympathy and encouragement. It really helps me.
I also want to thank George for the in-depth comments and advise.
I was able to spent quite a bit of time with the portrait and pencils over the last few days and this is how far I got as of today.

Thank you for looking and commenting,
Clasje

[63forgetmenot]

sorry for your loss but wow that a lovely drawing.

[Pingpongfan]

Your drawing is pretty close to the photograph. It is coming along really well and just doing this will help you remember all the good times you had together.
Vena

[imaginationcounts]

His eyes are the piercing blue, and beautiful , I am sorry for your loss... good job on your drawing.... he looks like a gental soul... remembering a loved one all the funny stuff they did and putting a smile on your face.... hugs to you in your sadness...

[sbrunner]

May I add my condolences for your loss Clasje this is a wonderful tribute.
Steve