16. Day, March 30, 2018
Today I started my painting work with a little fine tuning!
I've been revising all the things that have been said or emailed to me in the past few days - and/or those that have caught my eye as "in need of revision":
1. The forehead has been revised
2. The eyes were reworked; the bags are now clearer and the smile lines in the
eye wrinkels I have again mitigated something.
3. The highlights on the yoke legs were reduced, but set a bit clearer.
4. I have softened the nasolabial folds - before that there was only a dark line.
5. On the cheeks, the reddish area was pulled up to the cheekbones, as in the template.
6. The nose was a bit too purple - now it looks dark red.
All this took plenty of time - but now I am much happier!
Then I have with these colors ...
... painted the eyebrows.
Maybe I should write better of "eye scrub", because our friend has there a real wood of hairs!
In the picture they appear pitch black - but if you look at a real older man with such eyebrows up close, then you notice that slowly but surely a few gray hairs have spread ...:
That's how I painted it.
The next step was the painting of the mighty mustache of Artjom. It is white-gray.
I did that with these colors ...:
However, if you look closely, then you cann notice over the mouth a few yellowish hairs!
These are of course no remnants of formerly blond hair, no, these are discolorations that are caused by nicotine!
Because our friend not only likes to drink, as his nose tells us, but he also smokes violently!
The - in Europe new - tobacco smoking was at that time with the Cossacks great fashion, without his "Burulka" was a Zaporozhian, so to speak, only half dressed.
Here is a contemporary illustration of Zaporozhian Cossacks, the guy in the middle holds such a "Burulka" in his hand ...:
And here is a drawing that shows such a pipe ...:
Incidentally, "Burulka" means "pipe" (literally "tube").
These were hand-made pipe pots made of baked clay, in which a hollowed wicker or reed was inserted.
These old "Burulka" heads are shown in the Cossack Museum on the Dnjepr island of Chortyza ...:
Of course, Ilya Repin also considered the "Burulka" in his painting! Ataman Ivan Sirko is just using it...:
And with heavy smokers, the nicotine in tobacco smoke will discolour the mustache over time, albeit to varying degrees, as these three pictures show us ...:
So I grabbed those colors ...
... and the nicotine discoloration in the beard also painted, clearly visible, but yet restrained.
That's what our hero's face looks like now ...:
Next step will be his mouth.
Cheers