The process while painting Mousoud Barzani is essentially the same as with any painting that I do.  Choosing the best reference before starting is always important but for me it is equally important to study and observe my subject from life.  Obviously I didn’t get any one on one time with Barzani, so I had to spend some time on youtube, watching him speak and walk, observing his posture, and overall feeling or essence.  After spending time researching I begin to sketch.  I love the intense look in his eyes and knew that was the direction I wanted to take this portrait.  I painted this portrait digitally, using a 21” cintiq by Wacom which is an LCD pressure sensitive screen.  I’m a traditional artist at heart, preferring to work in oils but taught myself how to paint digitally for quick turnarounds.  While painting digitally, I maintain my traditional feeling and look by using the same techniques used while painting traditionally.  With this piece I used a stained linen canvas as my base or foundation and began to block in layers of paint on top, allowing the canvas to show through where I wanted it to.  My ultimate goal is to paint a portrait that truly feels like my subject.  I want to paint as realistic as I can while keeping a painterly look and feel.  It is really important to me to that the brush work has a life to it.  Painting every pore isn’t what makes it feel realistic, it’s the suggested idea of realism which fools the viewer into believing the illusion of it being real, when in truth all it is, is one brush stroke laid next to another.