Portrait Of An Irishman

Capturing the spirit and the likeness of a person through portraiture takes a significant level of skill and understanding. This clever lady does it with pastels.

- Anita Stevens

There are times when something hits me in the eye and I know I have to draw it. The moment I saw this man’s face in a newspaper, I knew I had to have a go! As I am now a confirmed user of pastels, I decided to approach the painting from a different angle. I always seem to have difficulty using the method of measuring the different lengths and spaces required, so this time I used the grid method.

For a change, I used one colour (mainly) with just a touch of black in the eyes. The colour I chose was Caput Mortuum. I had never heard of this colour until I attended a two-day workshop a few years ago. Initially I decided to make the eyes blue … but (as you can see) towards the end I realised that they stood out too much and I reverted back to the Caput Mortuum shading.