This set of articles is not a course on making a Roman mosaic portrait but they will cover some of the main points.

 

One way when you are making a portrait and you want to get your shade graduation correct is to first, set all the darkest areas, ie black, dark brown. Then set the lightest areas, those areas where it is determined that the light is shining on the most prominant features or on areas with no impediment to the light.

 

Take a look at these images of original Roman mosaic portraits and you can see that I have outlined the lighter areas. See how they are all fairly consistant in that there are areas on the cheekbone, the forehead, the line of the nose and an area around the chin.

 

 

It is very important that you understand why these areas are lighter. The light source falls on these areas with nothing to impede it, ie no shadow falls over them and, generally they are on more prominent areas.

 

When you grade your colours between the dark and the light areas it is very important that you ensure your shading changes due to this anatomy and not as a result of any artistic preference.

 

You can structure your portrait in a number of different ways but you must always be aware of the underlying anatomy. It's very easy to get caught up in the shading whilst forgeting what this shading is trying to show.