I remember watching Michael Caine movies when I was very young. It may be that these souvenirs of youth made me want to draw a portrait of this well-known actor. Or may be I was charmed with the fact that Michael Caine will be 80 years old in 2013 and he still looks good and active.

He still acts in many films. Michael Caine’s face looks rather attractive from artist’s perspective. Although he was born in a poor family, he has that peculiar British nobility in his appearance. Michael has a beautiful family and despite his solid age he even mastered Twitter. This active gentleman seems to have that irresistible aura that has inspired me to draw his portrait. So I found a picture of young Michael Caine that had been taken a year before my birthday and I used it as a reference for the portrait. Furthermore, this picture shows Michael wearing his famous hipster glasses; therefore I wanted to include this cool accessory into the portrait. I also learned from the Internet that one of Michael Caine’s favorite songs was “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. That’s why I decided that this great piece of music should be the soundtrack for my video showing the portrait creation process. I believe this song indeed perfectly fits a mature man who lived a long life of success. I hope Michael Caine himself will find this portrait and share his thoughts about it in the comment section below (well, I know it sounds almost impossible, but it doesn’t hurt to dream).

P.S. many people ask me what kind of pen I use for my artworks. For this portrait of Michael Caine I utilized one of my most appreciated drawing tools – a Pilot Birdie fountain pen.

I noticed that I often get inspired by a piece of music, a book or a movie so much that I feel the urge to draw a portrait of the author whose wonderful work made my heart beat faster with admiration of his/her talent. I’ve been thinking about creating a series of portraits of people who inspire me with their creative work. I believe this portrait series could be quite interesting as it would certainly include some faces you never expected to see in this blog. Faces like this of Michael Connelly.

Michael Connelly impressed me with his books and particularly with the series of novels featuring Mickey Haller – a defense attorney whose flexible mind and interesting personality made me want to know more about what it is to be a lawyer in the USA. Before I tried to read Connelly’s first legal novel featuring Mickey Haller (“The Lincoln Lawyer”), I thought lawyer’s life was too boring. However the author managed to create a fascinating story with mind battles in courts which proved to be rather interesting even for a person having nothing to do with all that legal stuff. By the way, “The Lincoln Lawyer” was adapted for film in 2011. I have not watched the movie yet but my personal belief that any film is unlikely to be better than the book it is based on.

So being inspired by Michael Connelly and his defense attorney character Mickey Haller, I created this author’s portrait.