Outlander portrait art

My newest portrait is of Claire and Jamie from the show, Outlander.

As I prep for my sabbatical and travel, this portrait has been a great project to have on my drawing board. Every few days over the past months I’ve been able to set aside booking travel, cleaning, other work, homeschooling, and cooking… and just draw.

Drawing for me often feels a bit like going down underground into a cave. I often like to feel like everything else is caught up, I know that my brain will take me deep into another level of almost meditative concentration.  This time is calming, I can only focus on one pencil stroke at a time and it forces me to be fully in the moment.

Do you watch Outlander? It’s 6th season debuted this past weekend. The really quick summary of the show: Claire is an Englishwoman in Scotland with her husband post- WWII, she comes across some ritual stones and touches them. Suddenly she finds herself in Scotland 200 years earlier. The show follows her and Jamie falling in love, adventures through Scotland, France, and then colonial America.  All while being torn between the past and present.  You can find it on the Starz channel, or past seasons are currently on Netflix.

I found 2 reference photos online that I combined into one reference image. When I do this I be careful to only use the finished drawing as a study, not to sell.  I want to honor the copyright and artistry of the photographer.

One fun part of this drawing was capturing the lighting differences.  There is a bright glow coming in from the viewer’s right side. So those sides of their faces are brighter with white highlights.  On the viewer’s left, the faces of both Jamie and Claire Fraser are darker and more shadowed.

Here is the finished artwork!!

You can see the time-lapse 1 minute video of this portrait coming together here.

Thanks for watching!