A Smile across the ages
A Smile across the ages
The Brief
In this picture I was asked to create a drawing of the clients’ late mother and his granddaughter. His mother had passed away some time ago and had never met her great grandchild. He wanted me to draw the two of them as if they were looking into each other’s eyes. I knew this was going to be a challenge as I would have to match two photos of differing quality, put them together and make the quality of both drawings exactly the same. The photo of the grandmother was low resolution as it was taken from an old disposable camera and the grandchild’s photo was a much better quality digital photo. The client wanted the drawing to have a “vintage” quality to it, almost like an early twentieth century sepia photograph. There had to be no discernible solid edge to the drawing.
The Result
The result I believe, is a drawing which does almost look like an old black and white/sepia photo. I used the “Sfumato” technique in this drawing to excellent effect, as the skin and hair really do look dewy and lifelike on this. Only the most subtle change in tone and shading was needed to convey the feeling of real skin on this drawing.