320 Portrait of Miles Davis



After this photo

Yesterday I was watching this video by Stan Miller

In his video he keeps saying that you shouldn’t focus on color, but on tone while doing watercolor. It doesn’t matter if you mix a good skin-color as long as the tone and the contrast is good, it will be alright..

Well… I tried it.. With Miles Davis as a victim – and this is my first time with this approach (and also, it is hyper-loose, maybe it could have been a bit more precise) That considered, it think it turned out alright. I do have problems getting dark enough sometimes though. maybe it’s my watercolors that are not rich enough on pigment. I also tried avoiding using black. Perhaps it’s not a good idea..

Stilistically, I think it looks cool.. But maybe just a little bit too jazzy.. I suppose it’ll take a lot of experiments before I find the point between realism and abstraction that i like the most. I’ve been using stumbleupon a lot these last days, and have stumbled across a lot of cool paintings and drawings, but all in all, i think the work out there for the “popular demand” is a bit too generic and.. similar.. You see tons of those half-expressive colorful portraits, or watercolor-faces with “runny” eyes.. And while all that is cool, I think that it lacks a bit personality for the most part. Anyway – I’m not trying to make that kind of art.. If it ends up looking like it, it’s only a coincidence.. I promise 😉

Here‘s some more Miles Davis portraits