November 1st is my good friend Alain ’s birthday who is a Cultural Minister in France. This photo was taken last year when we were invited to the mayor’s home. At that time, I promised to give him a drawing of mine as a birthday present,  so I decided to choose this photo of him  as a reference.

Alain loves Chinese traditional cuture very much. and has a much deeper understanding than many of my chinese friends, so I first chose the Chinese dragon as a background with an angelic light and he is reading an old Chinese story.

After finishing the basic draft, I found his body to be a little short, so I made it longer. Meanwhile I was thinking if I give him this drawing as a gift, what about his next birthday? What should I take?  I’d rather give him the Chinese zodiacs as a background, this year is the cow , next is tiger, and it will be much more funny, so I change d the dragon in to a cow.

All color was done by hand, my tools are markers.

I begin with his face dark and set the basic brightness.

After this foundation, I give it a hint of color — a little light red which was much more close to the skin.

I think the key to a portrait is the eyes, but i didn’t ink the right eye well. This mistake made the right eye a little bit bigger.  I just had to leave it there and adjust it after finishing.

He has a classic westerner’s face, nose and eyebrows.

His face was almost finished at this point.

I begin to paint his clothes, first setting the basic colors.

I pave the basic brightness.

I wrote his name, and then, I accept my wife ’s advice by titling the book he is reading “Lucie”, which is his wife’s name. The cow is drinking a cup of milk, and holding the brochure of our art exhibition.

Add more bright color

Detailed and in depth

Designed the text: Alain, 2009, Year of the Cow, Happy Birthday, Nov 1st.

Done!

This took me almost 6 hours.

Alain, happy birthday!

I realized hadn’t shaved so I took the photo once again.

My old friend, happy birthday!  Let us enjoy a healthy body and heart, as we need them to save the world!

Daxiong

6 Responses

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1. 

   Tiamate

   That is just so sweet . Happy Birthday Alain!

   November 1, 2009 at 6:50 am
2. 

   Jasrah

   The cow is very funny xD !

   November 1, 2009 at 12:50 pm
3. 

   free ads

   Thank for this great story, nice to read and i enjoy so much… happy happy to you

   November 19, 2009 at 1:15 am

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