Portrait of Young Michael Caine

I remember watching Michael Caine movies when I was very young. It may be that these souvenirs of youth made me want to draw a portrait of this well-known actor. Or may be I was charmed with the fact that Michael Caine will be 80 years old in 2013 and he still looks good and active.

Young Michael Caine wearing his signature hipster glasses

He still acts in many films. Michael Caine’s face looks rather attractive from artist’s perspective. Although he was born in a poor family, he has that peculiar British nobility in his appearance. Michael has a beautiful family and despite his solid age he even mastered Twitter. This active gentleman seems to have that irresistible aura that has inspired me to draw his portrait. So I found a picture of young Michael Caine that had been taken a year before my birthday and I used it as a reference for the portrait. Furthermore, this picture shows Michael wearing his famous hipster glasses; therefore I wanted to include this cool accessory into the portrait. I also learned from the Internet that one of Michael Caine’s favorite songs was “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. That’s why I decided that this great piece of music should be the soundtrack for my video showing the portrait creation process. I believe this song indeed perfectly fits a mature man who lived a long life of success. I hope Michael Caine himself will find this portrait and share his thoughts about it in the comment section below (well, I know it sounds almost impossible, but it doesn't hurt to dream).

Watch this video on Youtube

P.S. many people ask me what kind of pen I use for my artworks. For this portrait of Michael Caine I utilized one of my most appreciated drawing tools – a Pilot Birdie fountain pen.

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Edward John Smith (Titanic Captain)

I know that name Edward John Smith does not ring a bell for a lot of people. But if you go to Wikipedia and read this man’s bio you understand that a lot of people know him even without remembering his name. Yes, Edward John Smith was the captain of Titanic and died together with this famous ship when RMS Titanic sank in 1912.

Yes Edward John Smith was captain of RMS Titanic and the ship sank. But should we blame or hate Captain Smith for this disaster? Well, everyone has own answer to this question. But it is important to know how uneasy it was to command a ship like Titanic at that time to fully comprehend the situation and possible reasons of the disaster. RMS Titanic was one of the first Olympic-class passenger liners (extremely large ships) and the largest passenger steamship in the world. Therefore she was a unique ship and Edward J. Smith was one of the first captains to command such vessels. Although the ship was designed by the best engineers and equipped with the most advanced technologies available at the time, it was extremely difficult to navigate a huge ship during a long transatlantic voyage without today’s usual satellite navigation systems, advanced weather forecasting and high quality wireless communication systems. Such ship could be entrusted only to the most experienced and skillful captain. Now, imagine how it was to command a ship of a new class, which size could be compared to a small town, with equipment of early 1900s while managing the crew of 860 people and being often involved in small talks and dinners by first class passages of high standing to whom you cannot refuse. I do not believe that any normal person can foresee everything that could happen with the ship in the ocean. In fact, anything could have happened, and even now people who investigate the disaster argue about the real reason of Titanic sinking and failure to avoid the collision with an iceberg (or pack ice according to some alternative theories). I do not believe though that Captain Smith is directly guilty of the disaster as there were too many factors and risks which could be out of his control. Captain Smith was one of the pioneer captains who commanded the world’s biggest passenger liners and the saddest thing about pioneers is that they often get it wrong with new experience as they set their fist steps on an unknown ground without being aware of when and where the ground may fail. They reveal their mistakes for the future generations to learn from. The next Olympic-class liner Britannic built after the loss of Titanic had undergone some important design changes based on the Titanic disaster investigation. It is really sad that innovations making our lives safer cost us thousands of other people’s lives… We are all in God's hands and we must remember that we are all weak people who can control almost nothing in our lives and we can only rely on God’s mercy no matter how big and safe things we try to build.

I’ve recently searched for Edward John Smith in Google to find out that there are only a few photographs of the Titanic cap and all of these pictures are of poor quality. Therefore I could not help drawing a portrait of this brave and experienced captain paying him a tribute which he deserves. I have also made a video showing the drawing progress. I included a wonderful piece of music by Gavin Bryars called “The Sinking of the Titanic” to the video to make it as emotional as possible. I hope you are going to like the video and the portrait.

Portrait of Edward John Smith

Edward John Smith

Watch this video on Youtube

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Drawing an Ink Portrait from a Picture

Today I would like to tell you about my recent portrait assignment. It was another portrait-from-photo commission. The portrait was created for a Communication Consultant Andrew Hennigan, based in Aix en Provence, France, and Stockholm, Sweden. The man teaches people how to communicate properly and professionally. Not many people know that good communication skills are in fact the core of a success almost in any sphere of today’s life beginning from an individual’s private life to big companies’ popularity and recognition in their market niche. Decent communication skills are far from being something people are born with. Actually, I believe there are more people who constantly face annoying and life-ruining problems while communicating with other people than those who are able to speak clearly, convincingly and eloquently. A lot of people cannot verbalize their thoughts, some have fear of public speaking, and others do not like how their voices sound or they are self-conscious about their appearance. Therefore if you experience these or similar problems and want to overcome those difficulties or you just want improvements in your communication abilities, I believe Andrew Hennigan is the man who can be of assistance, especially after I noticed how good he is in expressing his thoughts in multiple languages.

But let’s get back to the portrait. As usually it was an ink portrait drawn using cross-hatching technique on an A4 paper sheet. You are welcome to watch the video below to see the whole drawing process, although I had to speed up the video in order to upload it on Youtube. Andrew was very kind to allow showing the portrait and his photograph I had used as a reference. And I hope he will love the original I sent him and will find a proper usage of the high resolution digital copy of the portrait. Thanks for hiring me, Andrew!

Pen and Ink Portrait Drawn from a Photograph (pic + video)

Watch this video on Youtube

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Free Portrait

I want to show you the recent portrait I have drawn for my free portrait group on Facebook. If you like the portraits I drew for free in this group, you are welcome to join the free portrait group, then send me a friendship request for me to get access to your photos page on FB where I will choose a photo to draw a free portrait for you. And may be one day I will draw a cool portrait for you absolutely free of charge.

The most recent free portrait

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