Sergio, you're on fire. Hot stuff!

Truly beautiful. What a thrill to just sit and look at. Marvin's right, you're on fire. No pun intended.

Thank You John,
Very touched by Your comment
in fact it is hard to do something else when we realize something so precise... So kind of am in lack of inspiration since...

Very honored Marvin by your notice.

In fact this pastel was a preparation for a bigger oil portrait...
which still need to be done...

Hope one day be able to learn a little bit more from your technique!

Dear Garth,

To answer to your very technical questions:

Magnifying glass
I do not work under magnifying glass, because I'll loose the general perception of the painting.

Pencil sharping
Indeed I sharp extremely well my Faber Castell pastel pencils and especially keep them in a dry place. The sharping of the pencils took me around 50% of the time I've spent on this work... Meanwhile I sharp them, I glaze at the drawing and think about it.

Hand trembling
Shall never start the work before my hands are trembling so the process of the sharpening helps. To finish the eyes had to fix my hands in such a way that only my fingers could move and like in shooting from guns, draw only from Expiration.

Concentration
But to tell the truth, to succeed the eyes like that I had to be in an extreme concentration. I was about to finish a huge 77"/99" group portrait so it was easy to get to a smaller scale. However in order to finish, for 3months...

3 months of total isolation
I had to close myself in Seattle in a basement with just a branch of Cherry tree coming to my window and receive food from a hole outside... Our house is surrounded by (what I call) tropical rain Forest so that monumental American nature and energy from the source (Vulcan's and Indians spirits) helped me to take the shock...

And of course the little squirrels, blue birds and my two little always laughing boys...

:):)

Hello Carlos,
the Flemish side is too much may be...
I would rather associate this drawing with the Persian Miniature Tradition.

Hello Patricia,
Unfortunately I must consider myself also as a Student yet in Art so comments from other Students are just welcome.

Sergio, I find her eyes mesmerizing and I am amzed at your skill of rendering them so lifelike. The eyes remind me of Luis Royo's women's eyes, but I think you have even surpassed him.

By the way, Luis Royo does fantasy art, beauties and beasts in surreal settings.

Sergio, I am drooling. Stunned and drooling.

Hello Enzi,

Thanks for the comments.
In fact I WAS very inspired by Persian Portrait Traditions of the Shahs of the 19 Century... (Along with Russian Icons and Ingres). There is a HUGE & magnificent piece in the Louvre representing an oil portrait of the Shah... made in the miniature-decorative style.

Also was very impressed by your website... The portrait of the Black Gentleman is very intriguing!

As what concerns Louis Royo's illustrations... as an enthusiastic Icon painter find it not exactly in my philosophy... Would prefer to discover some rest of Zoroastrian frescoes instead!

Hello Lisa,

Thanks for visiting my pastel portrait...

I LOVED YOUR PAINTINGS!!!!
I consider that to achieve that lightness in Art is one of the most difficult stuff... I imagine it must be something linked with your character...

Your Football players or classical portraits of men sitting in chairs are giving me hopes that one day I could be also so "easy riding" in paintings...

May be we must live in the South for that?