How it turned out? I drew a painting of Sargent with pastel pastels.

Hey guys, I'm Sergey Gusev. Welcome to my studio. Today I will demonstrate how to paint a portrait of John Singer Sargent. I will give my instructions and explanations how to start a portrait, how to find the right skin tones, and how to finish every detail of the face to make your painting look like the original one at the end. I will also explain how to avoid the most common mistakes beginners always make when painting portraits. I'm using pastels in the video, but I'm giving my recommendations for both techniques, oils and pastels. I hope so much you'll find this tutorial helpful and educational. Let's get started. I believe the best and the most simple way to start a drawing is by drawing the big spots of light and shadow. I covered most of the face and neck with one simple tone, dark brown, because this color is very close to the semitones of Sargent's painting. Then we can add light colors to make the lights on the face and darker tones to paint the shadows and semitones. Using the carbon black pencil, I'm adding some strokes into the iris and around the eye to darken it. You can also use amber burnt pencil for that. Working on the eye, we should remember the anatomy structure. The eye consists of the eyeball and upper and lower eyelids. To draw the upper eyelid, I took my carbon black pencil and drew the thickness of it, which is almost invisible because it is in the shadow. The next step is the light on the upper eyelid. The lights are always lighter than the shadows, and there it is so too. Dark brown is good for the first layer, and later we will add lighter tones also. I think it is time to remind you that the eye is basically a sphere. The sclera is the white of the eye. It may have a tinge of blue or yellowish color. Actually, the sclera is not entirely white. The color varies a lot because of changes in the light. When the eye turns away from the light, it gets darker tones, and it gets lighter tones in the strong light. The iris is the colored ring which is seen through the cornea. It functions as an aperture, dilating and constricting to control the amount of light. Entering the eye through the round opening of the pupil. The pupil is located in the center of the iris. It appears as a black dot, becoming larger in low light situations, letting more light in, and constricting to almost a point under strong light. To depict the iris and the pupil, I am using the charcoal pencil. It also helps me to darken more the upper eyelid and shade under it, to show the cast shadow on the sclera. Even though it is difficult to see all those small details, like the thickness and the cast shadow, we must know that they exist and demonstrate that to become professional artists. With the help of the same charcoal, I start to outline the eyebrow. The most common mistake in drawing eyebrows is that beginners make them completely dark or even black. But actually, the eyebrow has its own curvature, and so its tone changes with the changing of the eyebrow's direction. After the eye, I start to work on the lips, making the silhouette clear. The dark brown pencil is good for that. The upper lip is usually darker than the lower one. It happens because the light comes from above and makes the lower lip lighter. An ear is as important in portraits as eyes, nose, or lips. It has its own features, and ears look very different from person to person, even though they have the same anatomy structure. It is very important to make it alike, especially in profile portraits. Usually, beginners do not pay enough attention to drawing ears, and it is very obvious when looking on such unfinished portraits. That is why I always tell my students to draw ears very carefully, and do not forget to always compare with the original ones. Never mind if you are drawing from a real model or just a photo. The other thing you should be careful with is that the ear in Sargent's painting is in front, and that is why we should make it look sharp and in contrast, otherwise it will look flat and toneless. This stage with layers is quite important in the painting process. The final result depends on how good or bad the stage was done. Try to find the right skin tones, draw the details, and look for as many semitones as possible, because they will make the image volumetric. Thank you for watching, guys! I hope this lesson was interesting and helpful. To download the full version, please visit my webpage. If you have any questions, I will be happy to answer them. Good luck with your paintings, guys! See you in my next tutorial!