Vasileios

This is another in the series of portraits of colleagues - those poor guinea pigs of my retirement art hobby.

Generating these is getting a little easier, because it is more formulaic:

• note that these steps follow the “draw the rest of the fucking owl” meme and I’m sorry, but that’s how it is
• wash the lightest flesh-tone over the entire face ears and neck except for the eyeballs
• overlay red, violet, brown etc. to match the complexion and facial contours
• add eye details until it looks like real eyes
• add eyebrows
• add ear details until it looks like a real ear
• carefully add lip color until it looks like real lips
• add facial hair - obviously not required for female portraits
• add head hair
• round out with neck and clothing approximations
• stop - you’ll just make it worse since watercolor is unforgiving

Of importance is to accentuate the features that are distinctive for the face, in a kind-of caricature, but without too much exaggeration. In this Vasileios case, it is the upper lip pointed “V” shape, eyebrows and dominant mustache. I don’t know if anyone would recognize him if he was clean-shaven.

Color match is difficult. The original photograph was taken in shaded summer light, which gave him a more ruddy complexion than usual. So, I mostly ignored that, and instead went with my gut feeling of an olive skin base, with sun reddened highlights. It might have worked, but it could be a bit more vibrant with a little more courage on my part.

He asked, “With or without glasses?” and I said with, because he is rarely seen without them. This presents a slight challenge to get the shape correct in perspective. and I have to admit, I could have done a bit better. It is what it is.

Data	Description
Title	Vasileios
Artist	Derrick Oswald
Medium	Watercolour on acid-free, cellulose, fine-grained, natural-white paper
Dimensions (w × h cm)	29.7 × 42
Date	2023

original photograph of Vasileios