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Technique

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Illustration portraiture

Creating a stylised male portrait

Illustrator Evgeny Parfenov explains how to paint a digital portrait using techniques based on geometrical rules
I create a diverse range of illustrations, but I enjoy portraits the most. As an illustrator, Im attracted to Expressionism, particularly the work of Egon Schiele and Wassily Kandinsky. This style has certain features that appeal to me a great deal. Pictures are extremely stylised, with deliberate deformation, and theres a tendency to render objects in at areas and employ sharp, dissonant colours. This is the approach I try to use in my own work. In this tutorial Ive outlined my approach to creating stylised portraits. The image Ive used as my example was produced for my online project called tss Magazine. Every month I create a cover or two, illustrated with events or people I nd especially interesting. I hope that you nd my techniques useful Make a rough sketch of the person you want to paint. Set the main features and proportions, leaving the details until later. Try to stylise the image decide what you want to accentuate and emphasise unique facial characteristics.

01

Decide on a colour scheme and the direction of the light. The colours must be in harmony and express a mood. I wanted to create a dramatic, nervous effect, so I chose dark red and blue. Paint the main shadows in several shades, using soft, rounded brushes.

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Evgeny Parfenov Based in Moscow, Russian artist Evgeny has been working as a freelance illustrator since 2002 for clients including Rolling Stone magazine. Previously

he worked in various creative agencies as a web designer and art director. To nd out more see http:// evgeny-parfenov. blogspot.com.

Time needed 2-3 hours Skills Composition Sketching Applying Expressionist styling

Put down the half-tones and paint over the lit areas using the main colours. This style doesnt call for maximum realism in fact, you should make the at areas of the face look more chopped-up and angular. Use the same brushes as in Step 2.

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Blur the colour strokes with a medium-sized brush, making sure you only blur the areas youve dened, and use a minimal gradient.

05

Add contrast to give your drawing more life. With a small brush, paint darker strokes onto the shaded areas and lighter strokes onto the highlighted sections.

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Staying within the main colour scheme, add more contrast I used shades of warmer reds and colder blues. Dont use a simple black when working on dark areas, because it will make the shadows too at.

06

Carefully blur the brush strokes and work on the details, paying particular attention to the eyes, nose, lips and other features.

Add more details (wrinkles and small lines), correcting the balance of light and shadow too. Try to achieve the most harmonious combination.

08

When youve nished the face, paint the main tones of the hair. Next start working on the background it must not steal the show, so paint it with one of the main colours and mark some bold folds with dark strokes.

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Add contrast to the dark areas. Try to make them equally saturated for example, if you deepen the shadows on the hair, make the same changes in other shadowed areas, such as the chin. Paint in the locks of hair and use a similar colour for folds in clothes.

Accentuate the features further carefully paint the eyes, the angles of the nose and the wrinkles. With this kind of style every detail must have bold shapes.

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Add thin strokes to outline locks of the hair. Always remember where the light is coming from. Add more details to the forehead; I suggest one strong vertical wrinkle and a few horizontal ones to create a more dramatic expression.

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CV Visualgu ide to

In pictures: a rk of the career and wo iters wr ue niq ch Te r ou

Evgeny Parfenov
The Russian illustrator shares some of his favourite portraits
Fruteland Jackson 2006 Drawn for Asha, one of the biggest Russian entertainment magazines.

Focus on the secondary details. With a small brush add blur to the light strokes of the hair and make the shapes of the forehead wrinkles similar to the curves of the locks of hair.

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Solaris 2007 The above was drawn for a calendar in which various illustrators made artworks based on their favourite movies. REM 2008 One of my more abstract pieces, this illustration was created for Rolling Stone (Russian edition).

Add smaller details around the eyes to draw the viewer towards the face. Despite the stylisation, every feature must look natural, rather than over-transformed or out of proportion.

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Work on the background and the clothes. Take care not to go into too much detail the face has to remain in the spotlight.

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Cristiano Ronaldo 2008 Created for my tss Magazine project, just before Euro 2008.

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To make the background folds less prominent, reduce the saturation and contrast. The aim is to make the colours less bright.

Finish the background by carefully blurring the folds Try to make them look like an ornamental frame for the portrait.

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Jores Alferov 2008 Commissioned by Sobaka, a Russian magazine based in Saint Petersburg.

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