For Christmas I made a portrait of my daughter, Anastasia and her fiance David.
Stashi's face I knew pretty well because I use to draw her when she was young but David's features were new to me and I had to learn to draw his face.
I did some preliminary sketches to get a feel for their faces and to decide what I wanted.
Though I use to draw Stashi I had to become familiar with it as it is now, as a woman's face. Her beautiful big black eyes are the same but her chin has grown and her face has elongated.
I want to show her relaxed butr with a slight Mona Lisa smile. I'm really happy with this sketch and wish the rest of them came out as good but as an artist I've learned to make my best effort and except what I get.
I'm not familiar with David's face at all so I need to study his features. I really love his big smile in the picture above where he proposes to Stashi so I try to capture that. It proves harder than I thought and the first sketch looks more like a caricature than a portrait. I wanted to capture his smiling eyes and excited smile but instead got a clownish caricature. Sorry David and Stash. This picture is not at all a comment on your good looks but just a terribly distorted drawing and testament to my lack of ability. But again, I work with what I get.
