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One of our photographers once asked one of our portrait artists at the studio in Barcelona how long
it took for each drawing. He simply said, "Oh, just fifteen years of daily
hard work!". That’s their key; discipline, experience and tons of talent. As with most portraiture, drawing portraits in a realistic style has two main aspects we have to get right: the resemblance to the person (or pet!) and bringing out the beauty, life and magic of their face in the portrait.
Artistically, the resemblance is the easy part and it’s just a matter of getting the dimensions right. So, from the photo we use a craft similar to silk screening to get the basic measurements of the face. This way we get something poor and unmarketable, but it gives us the right dimensions of the face and therefore, the basic resemblance.
From there, with a style proudly unique to this group of artists(1), the artist starts adding the magic of a real face. This is the talented, creative part and it’s done with pencil, sepia bar and dry powder from quality trademarks —such as Caran d'Ache and Cetacolor— plus loads of talent and years of experience.
We know we're far away from most of our customers but we also know that Barcelona is a trendy travelling spot, so if by any chance you are in town, please feel free to contact us to visit the studio. We’ll take you for coffee as well!
(1)Description by a sculptor friend of ours to his colleagues, after visiting the studio: “The artists work totally differently than I had imagined and expected. They start by putting down a layer of fine chalk powder and then they take away from that, using dry paint brushes and something like a pencil made out of compressed cotton wool. So they start by drawing portraits in reverse! taking powder off, which is how they get these lovely soft highlights in the skin and hair. Then they work over it with pencils to get the amazing detail in the face, hair and clothes.”
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A little bit about how we draw your portraits...
