Phew, some transformation! Look forward to seeing some paint on him now, or will you leave that until the torso is adjusted?

Phil

23. Day, November 7, 2021


Time to paint a little!

And as always, I'll start with the hardest part - the eyes!

I just need that to get a relationship with the miniature - only when it has eyes does it "speak" to me ...

As for the eye color, I have to take a little detour:

Color photography already existed in 1941, but it was a very exclusive technique, the films were just complex and expensive to produce - and developing was also very time-consuming.

That is why there is not a single color photograph of Simonov from the period in question - he did not take any himself during his service because the Soviet Union had more important problems than color photography in the summer of 1941 - and Simonov's clients were primarily concerned with the documentary value of the photos.

So what color was our hero's eyes?

There are post-war photos of Simonov, but they are not in color either!

But what helps are these two lithographs ...:



They are both slightly different - but the eye color is clearly visible on both: brown! And although people change their hair color during their life, the color of their eyes always remains the same!

To be on the safe side, I looked at pictures of his son Aleksej, who looked strikingly similar to his father:



Here you can see Aleksej Simonow - now also a very old man - in 2009 with the Russian interim president Medvedev during a memorial event for his father in the Kremlin ...:



And a portrait shows: He had the same eye color as his father ...:



So brown!

I painted the eyes with these colors ...:



The irises are painted with a translucent mixture of "Chocolate" and "Dark Flesh", the "white" in the eye with "Dark Flesh", to which I have added portions of "Brown Rose", the pupils in pure black.

Only the tiny reflex points are really painted with "white", which - as always - almost drove me crazy.

Et voilà...:






Cheers

24. Day, November 9, 2021


Let's start with the skin!

I decided to work with this lithograph due to the color photo problem ...:



The other one seems too "beautified" with the bronze skin tone that is visible there!

In addition, my role model comes very close to the skin tone of Aleksej Simonow, so it seems plausible ...:



I mixed the tone from these colors - a little more "titanium white" for the lights and more "burnt umber" for the shadows ...:



I was extremely cautious about the wrinkles on the forehead; Simonov didn't have many in 1941, as the photos of him show.

Where the peak of the hat casts a shadow on my forehead, I worked very "in the dark" - but I couldn't get myself to a downright hard shadow ...:



The forehead, temples and eye area are painted.

At the moment it is still very shiny, but that will go away ...


Cheers

I agree, the first lithograph is a bit overdone, plus the facial shape is too rounded. The second is much more accurate to the photos. Good start with the flesh Martin

26. and 27. Day, November 10 and 11, 2021


I was absolutely dissatisfied with what I had put together so far!

So I changed a lot yesterday and today!

Our hero's forehead now presents itself smooth, but nonetheless structured. Much better suited to a younger man!

The lad doesn't squint any more either - the position of the eyes has been revised.

And what had bothered me the most: The bags under the eyes were far too dominant! I've changed that too.

So now I think this is a much better basis to get on with painting ...:




Cheers

Yes - I can see what you meant. It does now look much better.

Phil

27. Day, November 13, 2021


The cheeks - that in the end our hero will turn his head slightly and keep it tilted to the side is taken into account ...:







After drying, when that disgusting shine is gone, our friend will of course get a shadow of a beard ...


Cheers

28. Day, November 14, 2021

Today I actually wanted to paint the chin area - when my inner "rivet counter" reported back to worrt:

I've already corrected the bags under my eyes, but that's still not enough! They are still too wide - and visually widen the eyes, which are already very narrow.

It doesn't stay that way!

So I dug out my modeling kit and carefully reworked the lower eye area again. Otherwise I would be annoyed until the last day for not having done it!

Now our hero looks much younger - and above all a bit more similar to his role model ...:



Cheers

29. to 31. Day, November 15 to 17, 2021


The face is finished except for the eyebrows and beard shadow!







For the lips I used these colors ...:



The second lights are still missing on the neck.

It is not the turn of the ears until the hair is done.


Cheers

Martin your attention to detail,historical accuracy and documentation is mind blowing and the same goes for your archive and commitment to this hobby.Always a pleasure watching your creative processes.

Oda.

32. Day, November 18, 2021


Corrections.

Since I forgot to paint the corners of the eyes, those are my turn first today!

I make the corners of the eyes towards the nose with a mixture of ...



Then carefully towards the iris - and becoming lighter - with ...



... glazed.

The same thing happens on the outside - but there I add a little "Light Gray" to the mix ...:



Finally, the eye gets a super thin line of "Brown Rose" directly above the lower lid.

And finally, I correct the eyelids with oil paints on both sides.

Result: The two unequal eyes now appear much more even - and the "white" no longer pops so "white" out of the face.
It was much more natural.

The second correction concerns the chin!

It has been significantly reduced in size and rounded towards the bottom. That corresponds more to the model.

Results...:





Cheers

33. Day, November 19, 2021

And now - the hair!

But first of all we have to determine what color our hero's hair was. And this is exactly where the difficulties begin:

During the war, color photography was still in its infancy! The production of suitable color films was time-consuming and expensive, the development time-consuming.

Nothing to be used at the front - and besides, in 1941 the Soviet Union had other things to do than make color films!

Despite an intensive search, I have not found a single color photo of Konstantin Simonow from the entire war period!

There is a single one ...



... but this is a later hand-colored version of this black and white picture that Simonov shows in conversation with his colleague Yevgeny Petrovich Katajew on the Karelian front in the winter of 1941/42 ...



Katajew, known to a broad Soviet public under his pseudonym "Evgeny Petrov", was also a writer and journalist who - like Simonov - served as a frontline correspondent during the war and was killed in action on July 2, 1942 during the fighting for the Don metropolis of Rostov.

What we can look at the existing black and white photos is:

Simonov started the war with dark hair ...



... towards the end of the war they began to turn gray ...:



Here is the earliest real color picture that I have found of him - it is from 1947 and shows Simonov already completely grayed out!



However, there is still a back door!

The life of Simonov and his wife, the actress Valentina Vasilyevna Serova, who was very well known in the USSR at the time ...


... was filmed.

With such semi-documentary film adaptations you can absolutely rely on Soviet directors and prop masters, they were very careful with the details!

The actor who played Konstatin Simonov in the film has dark brown hair!





And this is how I paint them too:

With these colors ...



... the hair is glazed piece by piece - the brightest are of course on the head, where most of the light comes.

Finally I paint the ears - and put a final light on the chin ...:







Except for the beard shadow, our hero's face is done with it!


Cheers

Amazing how it has now come together, and resembles very closely the man in the first of today's B+W photos. Nice work sir!

Phil