Raven portrait in progress 4 - The importance of landmarks

1

Raven's forehead and around the eye-socket on the left side are finished. I’ve put in Raven’s center white stripe down his nose as a “landmark” so I can get the right side symmetrical after finishing the left side. Raven has such a symmetrical face, and the lighting is very even. I want to make sure the shape of his face and head doesn’t end up looking lopsided. Often the lighting is stronger on one side of a subject’s face and the shapes and values (lightness/darkness) are not symmetrical. But in Raven’s portrait they are. The lighting on his cheekbones, forehead, eyebrows, ears….is very even and symmetrical on both sides of the face. That’s unusual in a reference photo for a portrait. So to maintain that perfect symmetry, in this portrait I’m measuring everything out from the center line. 

In my last post I shared an album explaining that centerline and how I was using it. That’s an important tool in this portrait. Not something the client will ever be aware of. But it’s something I’m using to give her the most perfect portrait I can. 

2

Now I'm filling in the shapes around Raven’s right eye (below). All of the complex shapes that make up the upper and lower eyelid, the eye socket, the eyebrow, and where those shapes attach to the forehead above, the bridge of the nose to the left, and the cheek below. 

All of those shapes represent structures that are actually present in the anatomy of the dog's face. They are abstract shapes (artistically) but they mean something. They all lend themselves to the dog’s expression. If you don’t understand what those shapes represent, and how they affect the expression, it will be hard to get the expression just right.

To keep myself oriented with what I see in the reference photo, I create "landmarks", like the dark shadow of the cheekbone below the eyesocket. And the curved highlight of the upper and lower eyelid. Then I fill in around those landmarks, gradually attaching all the shapes together. 

3

This is how the whole portrait looks now, with the upper part of the head finished.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Sand” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 16 x 20 inches.

“Raven”

Conant’s Raven Nevermore CDX RN

Commissioned by Cathy Nearman.