Portraits of The Presidents of America

George Washington - M. H de Young
Memorial Museum San Francisco
Rembrandt Peale, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else is always a portrait of himself. -- Samuel Butler

When a person desiring to be an artist takes a pencil in what would he or she like to draw first? Perhaps the faces of the men and women he/she loves most. 

The portrait drawing is both an art, as it is intuitive; and a technique, as it can be learnt. Anyone who begins a career in portrait making should first define outlines of the face of the person whose portrait is to be made. Do a rough sketch first. After the rough sketch, start adding extra details of the nose, lips, and eyes. The next stage would comprise doing shading work.

Life of George Washington:  Here you will see the pencil drawings of great men who became presidents of the USA by doing the great struggle in their life. Any artists, a beginner or an accomplished one, would like to look at these drawings. These drawings are a good guide for the artists, and they are wonderful art pieces to view.

When the great man George Washington stood up for taking the oath as the first president of the United States of America, history had looked at it with tearful eyes, the eyes full of tears of joy and pleasure. On April 30, 1789, George Washington did not only became the head of today's most successful democracy in the world, but he had declared that the power of weak-looking common men are limitless and no one on the earth can limit it by the tyranny of bullets.

George Washington Gilbert Stuart
Oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

He fought the war of independence. He won the war, and he became the president of the USA. But here is what he believed about the war itself: My first wish to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. 

In this painting, the artist has used sober colours for the clothes and light colours for the face. The background is painted in the still lighted shade for highlighting the face of President George Washington. However, the white and grey -like hair worked here marking out the limit of the face and beginning of the backside area. The dark coloured eyes are the perfect match for the visionary eyes of the person so portrayed. That is the technical aspect of this wonderful colour portrait of the first president of America.

President George Washington was not only a brave soldier, but he had proved himself as a wise statesman, too. His capabilities as a had of the USA was at the test during the time of the French war. But proving himself to be one of the most impartial world leaders, he had refrained from taking the side of either England or France and had remained neutral.

He was born and brought up as a gentleman. Living with his parents who were planters in the state of Virginia, he had learned the A B C of morals and manners of a gentleman. It is said that difficult times makes a man more courageous. The president of America, the man known as George Washington had never succumbed to the difficulties he had encountered. He made the difficulties to subside and give him the way he wanted to proceed on. Washington had never availed vacation in his life, as that was the call of the nation and call of the time in which he functioned. After his retirement as the president of the USA, he lived only for three years. He died on fourteenth December in the year 1799.

Abraham Lincoln 1869 

Oil on Canvas White House

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln:  The portrait drawing is an art and a technique. The beginner should first define the outlines of the face of the person whose portrait is to be made. After the rough sketch is done, then you start adding the details. The next stage would comprise the adding of the details in the eyes, nose, and lips. These are the factors that make the face more and more identifiable with the original.

The artists who have just started drawing recently should not worry about the dissimilarity found in the portrait and the real face, as it happens in the initial stage. As the practice of drawing increases that problem would be solved gradually. It is customary to paint and draw portraits of famous people and celebrities. Here is one pencil drawing of US president Abraham Lincoln. We can see a photograph of the president here, too. It is a Black and white cameo photograph of Abraham Lincoln taken in 1862. Here he seems to look away from the camera.

Before starting a painting portrait of a man, woman or child, just engage yourself with his or her eyes. Inspect carefully all the aspects of the eyes: the shape, the lower and upper eyelids, the pupil, the iris and the white portion. Carefully examine the shapes and shades of the lashes, the eyebrow and the portion of the eyes that catches the incoming light. These all comprise the set of complications in pencil portrait making, but they can be handled effectively if the artist is prepared from the beginning. 

There are persons about whom we can write tirelessly. And there are heroes whose virtues we cannot count. Sixteenth President of the USA, Abraham Lincoln was such a hero.

Life of Abraham Lincoln:  Born on twelfth February 1809, he had very little education during his childhood. His mother died when he was a small boy. His father had remarried and the boy Abraham had got a stepmother like an angel. But the poverty of his family had left very fewer options for him. He started defeating all of his odds from childhood only. He studied law and became a lawyer. His marital life had not begun with ease. After two or three unsuccessful relationships, he had decided to marry Mary Todd. His marital life was full of happiness and she gave birth to his four sons.

Abraham Lincoln as President:  Lincoln had started his political career in his youth. At the age of 25, he was elected to the Illinois General Assembly. However, he had stopped taking part in political tasks during the 1840s. He concentrated on his profession as a lawyer during this period. But he had become a full-time politician from the year 1855. In 1861 he was elected as president and remained on the post until he was killed in 1865.

Managing Nation in Turmoil:  During his tenure as president of the USA, he was never at ease. The whole nation was in turmoil. The civil war was on. Cessation of the states to union was not so easy. But being an able administrator, President Lincoln closely supervised the war prevailing in the country. He made efforts to normalize the law and order situation in the USA. And his efforts had turned victorious, too. His selection of the war generals was skilful. Moreover, he handled various sections of his Republican Party very well.

Under his leadership, the concept of slavery took its last breath in America. This was one of his most valuable achievements. The lovers of equality among humans would always remember and respect such a man as Abraham Lincoln. He was assassinated on April 14, 1865, while he was seeing a play named “Our American Cousins”. He was shot at point-blank, in his head by the gunman who was present in the theatre with a clear cut plan to murder the President. The nation of the USA would always remember him as a hero.

Official Presidential portrait of Woodrow Wilson
Oil on canvas Frank Graham Cootes

President Woodrow Wilson:  America has seen many great souls, and they have elected some of these souls as the president. President Woodrow Wilson was one of them. He was the president of America from 1913 to 1921. 

One of the most famous artists from the Philipines had made this portrait painting of the President.  President Wilson was the man of strength. Look what he has said once: 

"The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it." 

Yes, he was used to swimming against the stream. Such brave men gave strength to their people and their nations.  

Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson
Fernando Amorsolo [A famous Artist from
the Philippines]

The artist Fernando Amorsolo was the artist who had painted wonderful portraits. Fernando Amorsolo was born in 1892 at Paco and he died in 1972 in Manila. This Phillipino painter, the artist of a distinct style, had painted several amazing landscapes of the land of The Philippines. 

Fernando Amorsolo had received an award as The National Artist of The Philippines. Here in this portrait painting, the artist Fernando Amorsolo has depicted the inner strength of the man who had led America (USA) during difficult times.

Portrait of John F. Kennedy:  The Great men always think great. It is believed that after being shot, President Kennedy had said these words: My God, I have been hit. He had been credited with another set of wonderful words. He said once: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Oil on canvas Aaron Shikler
 Posthumous official presidential portrait
of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

President Kennedy's death was a major blow to the concept that the US president is quite safe in modern time. The man who had shot President Kennedy from a good distance was arrested and in the case of murdering the hero of the time, President Kennedy was registered against him. 

President Kennedy was very much famous for his devotion to his nation, the United States of America, and the whole world. He had tried to establish peace among the nations. He had maintained a very cordial relationship with the prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. India is the largest democracy in the world. 

Here is the portrait of one of the greatest presidents of the United States of America: John F. Kennedy. He was murdered while he was president. Here we can see how the artist has brilliantly used bright and subdued colours to enhance the volume in the portrait.  Look at the movement embedded in the head of the president. It is a masterly put up by the artist. The lips are well-shaded. It seems that the president is going to say something. And what about hair? President Kennedy is believed to be taking extra care of his hair. Here the artist has also not failed in taking extra care about the president's hair. The brightness of the hair colour is making the whole portrait so lively. [All the above images are in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commoms]

Barack Obama
The 44th President,
originally uploaded by 
Birmingham Public Library (AL).

Portrait of Barack Obama:  The first-ever non-white president of the United States of America has been honoured by the Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2009. He has been elected as the president of the USA, the most successful democracy in the world. His election as a president was also a crucial one, as his main opponent was a strong lady, Ms Hillary Clinton, contesting against him for nomination as a candidate for the Democratic party.

President Obama has lived a life of a real common man. He neither belongs to a renowned family having clouts in the political field, nor he is connected with any billionaire of the country. He lived as a common man; he contested as a common man, and he won the election as a hero of the common men. 

He lives like a common man; he thinks like a common man. Look what he has said once: A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things. President Barack Obama has received a huge welcome from all over the world when he got such a valued prize, the Nobel Peace Prize, at such a young age.