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This is The Cowardly Lion, the final character portrait in my series of Oz paintings.
Bert Lahr gave us an indelible portrayal of the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz. His vocalization alone is likely imprinted in the minds of everyone who has seen the film.
Pencil drawing progress for the Cowardly Lion portrait.
As with the earlier three portraits, I first did a pencil drawing of the face on an 8"x10" canvas. I did rough measurements from the reference photo using my pencil and thumb (you know, the way we do when drawing from a live figure) to make sure that I drew the facial features in proper proportion to each other and in proper position on the face. I also worked to make the three adult character’s faces roughly the same size (Dorothy’s features are smaller, she being younger). I did tilt the lion’s face a little more than it is in the reference photo and I used a second reference photo with a slightly different pose for some features and for color reference. I finished the painting with water soluble oils.
Having completed the portraits of all four characters, I went back to the first portrait in this series to make a few adjustments. I wanted to add some more detail to Dorothy’s hair, adjust the color in her skin tone, and add a blue sky to match the other three paintings.
The updated painting of Dorothy.
All four competed portraits.
This was a fun series to paint. Each of the 4 characters brings a smile to my face. I caught myself actually chuckling at times as I was painting them. I hope they help to brighten your day a little as well.
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