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These painters use the canon of proportion—and add a touch of artistic personality
A portrait can be a beautiful representation of a person. Some portraits share a message. All artists make portraits in their own style. But before an artist begins, he or she must learn to depict the human face realistically. Many artists use the canon of proportion as a guide to rendering the face. Leonardo da Vinci measures the distance between facial features to paint realistic portraits like his Lady With an Ermine. Vincent van Gogh renders his 1887 self-portrait in proportion, despite how thin his face appears. In Kancou Diaovno, Kehinde Wiley focuses on his subject’s bone structure to accurately show her face.
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