Mr. Eastwood

If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working? Eastwood's partner Eli Wallach asked in Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1963).

During the years I made several attempts to draw a portrait of Mr. Eastwood. I never quite succeeded. He certainly is one of the most iconic faces in American movie - to catch the significance of his face in one single drawing probably was too much of a challenge.

Clint Eastwood. Drawing: Pencil, ink, charcoal, 42x29,7cm.

Lumberjack, swimming instructor, actor, director, producer, composer and mayor, multiple Oscar winner, married two times, seven children (all actors or directors and one musician) - what a biography.

A man with a straight agenda. I have a very strict gun control policy: if there's a gun around, I want to be in control of it.

Now at the age of 80 his face transformed into an amazing anatomic landscape, where blood vessels and wrinkles are forming a natural and logic grid. All the lines are continuous and somehow merging in the center from all their various directions. 

Even movie stars are not spared from the centrifugal forces of aging: it happens to everyone... Well, still Mr. Eastwood is keeping himself in remarkable good condition, obstinately refusing to carry his hearing aid (that's probably why he is squinting his eyes?).

Finally I've got my Mr. Eastwood portrait:
After cleaning up the sketch with the rubber I added highlights with ink, finally charcoal shadows on eyes, ears, nostril, corners of the mouth and on the edges of some outstanding wrinkles. 

Highlighting the eyebrows and adding tiny reflection spots in the the slitted eye sockets emphasised the eastwoodian eyes, known from so many Westerns and the Dirty Harry movies: Go ahead, make my day. 

In my bread labour as Head of Studies and currently threatened by the clerks with cut backs and educational economisation, I try to make good use of the Harry Callahan attitude. And if I had a hearing aid, I would turn it off, certainly.

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Pencil Sketch, final stage.

2. The final stage of the pencil sketch. On the shadows I started working with cautious hatching, finally merging the hatched areas with my fingertips (best if sweaty - much more sophisticated then the Photoshop smudge tool) or a very soft cotton cloth.

My favourite pencil at this stage usually is 2B, I'm working on details with H/HB and the on darker parts with 6B.  But the best tool at this stage is the eraser - you literally can paint with it, defining the lighter areas of the face.                                                                                                               

Template and first sketch.

1. Outlining and defining the face with a hard pencil (HB exclusively), the shadowy parts are drafted. Before going into details it's always good to have the overall proportions and expression.