Portraits of Steem, a series.

Good evening everybody!

Tonight I'm officially starting a new series of paintings. It's going to be based on portraits of the amazing steemians I've gotten to know during my journey in this platform so far! And of course they are Steemians I personally esteem ;)

I'm actually a newbie in here, and people have been so kind to me since the very beginning. I can't put to words how grateful I am for them so I decided to open this little series of portraits.

It all starts with this incredible gentlemen right here, who has been so supportive to me and my art. He was kind enough to help me find my way as an art maker in Steem.

Dear Hive account@jamerussell, this is for you!

And since we're already here, I wanted to share with you the making process of this sketchy oil painting.

I still think of it as a painting practice because I didn't have the time to properly dedicate myself to it. I'm not completely satisfied with the result though, but I'm trying not to be too hard on myself (I'm an expert on that).

Everything begins with a pencil sketch on the canvas. The first stage consists of non-specific strokes on an attempt to place every element of the portrait.

Then I start to define the figure a little more.

I try not to be too thoughtful about this drawing because the most part of it will be lost when I apply paint over it.

After that, I put the first layer of paint. Acrylic paint, just to save drying time.

I tend to make A LOT of mistakes in this first layer. But that's okay, everything can be fixed with more paint.

(Yes, those are my chubby fingers hehe)

When everything is dry I make a mental note of every mistake I notice so far. In this case, the eyes are not aligned, and the left one looks a little bit off.

But no worries, now it's oil paint time!

I place rough strokes just to have an idea of value. I try to fix things, as well. This is the time to worry about likeness.

Then, I blend those strokes reducing the rough appearance, and place some smoother brushstrokes.

Finally I forget a bit about the face and work in the hair, the clothes and background.

And there it is, the most serious and badass portrait I've made.

The gloss you guys can see there it's because the paint was wet when I took the pictures.

I even ruined my shorts after that photoshoot, there was white paint all over them haha

That's it!

The real mission of this new series is to expand my Steem experience to make new friends over the platform! With that said, this is "Portraits of Steem".

Thank you so much for reading!

The artwork above belongs to me. However, the reference picture and the portrait subject as well are property of Hive account@jamerussell, and were used with his own permission.