Portrait – Abbas
As a gift for my husband, early in our marriage, I used two black and white photos of his father to create this portrait. I used my husband’s skin tones, but accounted for the commonality of fading complexions in the elderly. I also used my husband’s eye color. The framed original is affixed over the mantelpiece, above our fireplace. One of the features of which I am proudest is that, if you can see the eyes, they seem to be looking at you – regardless of where you are in the room.
Abbas Dianaty
Bruynzeel colored pencils on cold-press illustration paperboard.
Wow, Denise. You have been hiding a talent. This is marvelous.
Thanks, Pryde. This portrait may actually be my best work.
As for hiding my artistic skills… well, I have shared my visual art works in my posts when they fit the theme. For example, my work is included in the poem, “Sepulchre Seduction” and my acrostic poem, “I Love You.” 😎
That's really very good :-) Particularly the eyes, the wrinkles, the shading gives a sense of character.
Thanks so much.
Thinking back, as you were creating it and you saw it start to take form, was that the best moment for you, or was the best the moment you gave it to your husband, or, is it when you see it still hanging above the fireplace?
I ask, because with me, the best is while I am creating it. Afterwards, I always seem to feel a bit let down, as if something inside me is telling me I did not achieve all I should have.
Usually, I find the process exhilarating. And, I often have a problem finding the sense of completion in a project – I too often feel that urge for a little tweaking here or a touch more something there… but, getting a piece to that finished point, that’s the real moment of pride for me.
This piece was a bit different, though. The portrait was made about a year after his father had passed away, in Iran, just after my husband had been home to see him for the first time since he’d left decade before. Just weeks before I drew the portrait, his sister had mailed the two B&W 5x7 photos I used, and he talked about having them blown up to portrait size – that’s what inspired me to create the portrait as a gift. I admit, when I was drawing it – and it was going so well that I was certain it would be one of the best things I’d ever done – that I was filled with a sense of expectation of the pride the completed portrait was always going to give me. It turned out to be my personal masterpiece. But, when I presented it to my husband, one small tear fell as he smiled at his father’s face… That’s what invariably comes to my mind ever since when I look at that portrait.