The Dutch Nielson

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Hello everyone!

Welcome to a new post! I hope you are all doing well.
This time, I wanted to give realism another go. As you might know, recently, I drew Raven (Lindsey Morgan). This went quite well. However, I was having some difficulties getting the contrast right. It was hard for me to get a clear difference between darker and lighter spots on her face. This was partly because I only had an HB pencil.

Let me give you a little bit of information about that in case you don’t know already. Regular, grey pencils can differ a lot from each other. They can be told apart using the hardness scale. This scale starts at 9H, which is a very hard pencil and ends at 9B, which is a very soft pencil. HB pencil is right in between these two. A 9H pencil is very hard, entailing it is really hard to create dark lines with this pencil. On the contrary, 9B pencils create dark lines with the lightest of touches to the paper. So, which one you need depends on what you want to create. A face has lighter and darker spots. So, it is usually convenient to have some different types of pencils while doing this. Since my last portrait drawing, I bought some different kinds of pencils, to see if I can improve this time.

This time, I chose to draw Nielson (Niels Littooij). I’ll tell you more about him in a bit. I started out with the shape of his face, as it’s the ‘base’ for everything else. Then I added his eyes. After adding his eyes, I couldn’t really tell it was him. However, after drawing his nose and ears, I recognized him. My progress thus far can be seen below.

Right now, many of you might be wondering; “Who is this guy?” Well, let me tell you. Nielson is a Dutch singer/songwriter. He became known in the Netherlands after participating in a television series ‘De beste singer-songwriter van Nederland’ which literally translates to ‘The best singer-songwriter in the Netherlands’. In this show, people have to write and perform their songs. If they do well enough, they move on to the next round. Nielson finished as runner-up after Douwe Bob.

He auditioned for this show using his song ‘Beauty & De Brains’. The also became his first well-known song in the Netherlands. He isn’t that well known outside of the Netherlands (and maybe Belgium). This isn’t really surprising because, well, his songs are in Dutch. After Beauty & De Brains he had other hits like ‘Mannenharten’, ‘Hoe’ (which means ‘how’), IJskoud (which is one of my favourites) and very recently ‘Slowmotion’. He’s still going strong.

But let’s get back to drawing for a bit. After finishing his nose and ears, I finished off his face. I added his mouth and some facial hair. I actually had quite some difficulty drawing his mouth for some reason. So, now, the mains parts of his face were done. Later on, I’ll be adding some shading. But at this time, you can see below how far I came.

Now you have a bit of an idea who Nielson is. However, I haven’t told you why I chose to draw him.

I’ve actually known Nielson’s music for quite some time. Ever since he joined the show I mentioned above, I really liked his music. However, I never really knew what kind of person he was. This was until he joined another Dutch television show called ‘Wie is de Mol?’ which translates to ‘Who is the Mole?’. In this show, people have to work together to complete challenges and earn money. However, one player tries to sabotage everything. This player is the mole. The mole has to screw up the challenges without getting noticed. Every episode, all players have to fill in a form about who the mole is. The one that answers most questions wrong, goes home (except for the mole, the mole always stays in the game). In the final episode, there are two players and the mole left. The player that answers more questions right in this episode, wins the money. I won’t spoil the ending :).
It’s actually a really fun series. It’s also available on YouTube with English subtitles! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL21wLCxerev0hvMYK0Plk6qH5V6bgSVH3
In this show, I got to know Nielson. I thought he was a sympathetic, fanatic guy.

Also, last year, I went to a concert of Nielson in Tilburg. It was really great! His live performance was just as good as his recorded performances. The show was also really great. If you’re into his music, I could really recommend seeing him live sometime!

But there’s still a drawing to draw, so let’s continue. After finishing the different aspects of his face, I continued with his hair. Nielson’s hair is kind of unique. It’s a bit messy and kind of curly. To my surprise, it wasn’t that hard to get it kind of right. Because it is a bit messy, it doesn’t really matter if you screw up. A wrong line can actually be turned into a right one. My progress about half-way done with the hair can be seen below.

Then there’s an announcement I’d like to make. Friday, August 14th, I’ll be releasing a new single called ‘Not Too Late’. To let you what it’s all about, below I’ve added the chorus of the song. Make sure to check it out on Friday, August 14th! There will also be a post about it.

Chorus of ‘Not Too Late’

After finishing his hair, I drew his clothes. On the picture I used as reference, he wore a jacket with a kind of shirt under it. Also, I gave him a neck.

Now all that was left was giving him a little bit of shading. The top of his neck had to be darker, as its light is blocked by his chin. Also, the sides of his face were a bit darker. Finally, I worked on his facial hair a bit more, making it more realistic.
After doing this, I was done! The final result can be seen below.

There it is! Another realistic face drawing done. Apart from some little things, I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m still getting used to realism in drawings and using different types of pencils for contrast, so it’s certainly not easy for me.

Also, make sure to check out my new single ‘Not Too Late’ on August 14th.

Talk to you later, have a great day!

Treatey out