Thanks so much for viewing it.

beautiful !

Thanks, but you are too generous my friend. This portrait is better than my last one, but Carlos' left eye is still not right. Too late to do anything about it now, though.

Many thanks, Kik.

great job

Many thanks, Charles.

Many thanks, Hannah.

superbe!!!

My sincere thanks, Bernardino.

Very nice Joyce great portrait of Carlos Marin!!!

Thank you. I thought it was time for me to I get off my "Urs kick" and draw some pictures of the other three men.

Merci, Henri.

Buena continuación de los divos para este nuevo año. Bravoooo my sweet Joyce.

Thank you, Marino. I am still looking for a photo of David that I'd like to draw. When I find it, and draw a portrait from it, it will complete my 2011 set of the four Il Divo men.

OH!!! So you fell for that pic too!! (I've drawn it as well). Very nice, but you're right - something odd 'bout his left eye. Remember to post'em in out thread!

You betcha! I fell for the same picture that you did. I had to give it my own spin.

Yes, of course and it really IS a great pic of him. It's interesting to see the different inerpretations of the same pic - which reminds me: We used to have a "competition" in our thread, where we all drew the same pic and it was grea tto see how differnet they turned out. Remember or haden't you joined us yet then??

I believe the "competition" must have been before I joined the Art Thread.

Yeah, I think it was, but back then we were a few more artists, which made it more fun.

I wonder what has happened to everyone. When I joined Il Divo, there were five or six people that posted their work to the Art Thread regularly.

Well - Irene (merlion)'s busy at the monet, Janet (gemeni) stopped posting due to her feeling some kind of "ownership" to the pics she'd used for references even though they weren't hers and she opposed to anyone else drawing the same pic!! THE NERVE!!! Rian stopped posting due to a misunderstanding, I think. Both Helen and I'dasked her, why she never commented (we always comented on hers - relativly very strange - paintings!! and it was sometimes dificult to understand, what she meant, s omy guess' she's misunderstood or'vetaken something the wrong way.

Irene's (Merlion) work has been getting better with each portrait she has done. I'd hate for her to drop out, permanently. Maybe she's lost interest in the guys. That happens. I've been drawing other people lately, so I couldn't fault her if she did. As for Gemini (Janet), if she feels that way, she wouldn't be an ideal pupil in an art school where often many students are drawing or painting the same subject. Too bad. I think diversity is grand, but this doesn't mean I am opposed to someone drawing the same photo that I have drawn. I think there are things we can learn from each other. Every individual looks at another person or an object in a different way. This is good. Sometimes they achieve something so breathtaking in their artwork, we are stunned with their results.

I resently became fb-friends with Irene, but haven't checked out her albums yet - perhaps she's uploaded her art! I said Hi and that she was missed in the (almost dead) thread, but she's busy with family and life in general. I've WANTED to draw other people too for a long time now - eps. woman, but I keep seeing gorgeous pics of esp DG and URS, I just HAVE to do and resently my love for the beauty of horses got reawakend on fb (check out my album there) and no I'm anxious to do pastels, drawings and perhaps paintings of the amazing creatures! I totally agree on the Janet and learning from eachother matters - it's interesting and eductional! Don't suppose you've been all the way back in the art therad then - if you haven't seen the challanges and Gemini's works among others now MIA artists? Have a look sometime - it's still the same thread, as when I started to post in '07 - it's THAT skow moving, tho back then, there were quite a lot of posting!

Mon Dieu. Portrait de Carlos ne peut être que bonne, mais merci quand même. Êtes-vous un fan Il Divo?

non je ne suis pas fan même si je trouve qu'ils chante très bien...

Ils sont chargés de faire me lancez pas sur ce passe-temps de dessiner des portraits. J'ai rencontré des artistes sur le site Il Divo dans le fil de l'art (un lien sous Entertainment et de la créativité). J'ai admiré les portraits des quatre hommes et une autre illustration, et j'ai décidé de donner portrait dessiné un essai. Un des artistes sur ce site m'a parlé de Stars-portraits ..... alors je suis là. J'ai tiré plus de portraits d'Urs Bühler, que quiconque, car il est mon préféré des quatre hommes, maintenant, je suis en train d'élaborer d'autres célébrités, mais je n'ai pas oublié qui le premier m'a lancé sur cette route. Joyce

Thank you, Amant.

Cool expression, great soft lighting... Bravo!

Thanks Paulo. I thought the photo I used for this drawing, was one of Carlos' better ones. He is not my favorite, but there is no denying he has a terrific baritone voice. Il Divo would not be the same, without him. About my favorite artists. Your name has been there all along. I just overlooked it, when I checked. The count hasn't changed recently.

Ur welcome! I haven't heard his group yet, but, by their constant presence on your gallery, I see they're really good, I'll check them out!... Yeah, when you said that on the other message, I really got wondering... What? No! I remember well, we already are favorite artists of each other for quite some time!...

Their music wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I like it. My musical tastes are somewhat eclectic, running the gamut from some Rock to Classical. Three of the men in Il Divo are classically trained and have sung some Opera selections. They are David Miller (USA); Carlos Marin (Spain), and Urs Bühler (Switzerland). The fourth, Sebastien Izambard (France) was Pop singer. Il Divo's music is Popera, a combination of Opera and Pop. The songs they sing, are mainly in Spanish, Italian, French, and English.

Thank u for informing about them! About musical preferences, funny, in my teens, and up to about 15 years ago, I was too radical, I only wanted to hear anything that was noisy, mainly HeavyMetal... Today, I can say my taste is ecletic, too, I mean, I still like Metal a lot, but also listen to Rock and Pop in general, Jazz, Instrumental Music, and eventually, even some Classic stuff...

Well, there you go. I was raised in an atmosphere of Classical music. I have moved toward the other end, although I can't say that I am a strong aficionado of heavy metal. Interesting that Urs Bühler, the Swiss singer in Il Divo, "joined a hard rock band, 'Conspiracy' when he was 17, but decided to study classical music after hearing Carl Orff's Carmina Burana." He had private tuition with Gosta Winberg and Christian Papis (French tenor) in Switzerland. Then moved to Amsterdam and studied under Udo Reinemann at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Urs sang with the Salzburg and Amsterdam Operas. Urs' favorite musicians are Ozzy Osbourne & Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Nightwish, Van Halen, Dokken, 80's & 90's hard rock and heavy metal. He speaks four languages; likes motorbikes & motorcycles. All of this and more, before he became part of Il Divo. Quite a complex individual and my favorite of the four men.

Really an ecletic guy, huh! Btw., wow, I love, or at least like a lot, all Metal bands you mentioned as favorites of Urs Bühler; this guy really has a great taste on Metal! I see he, just like me, also likes the 80's scene, which have been the golden years of American Hard Rock. VanHalen & Dokken are undoubtly, on the frontline of that... Well, actually VanHalen & Kiss, both debuted in the 70's, but were the great influences for all those 80's bands, like Dokken, Ratt, MötleyCrüe, LAGuns, GunsN'Roses, QuietRiot, Y&T, Tesla, etc., etc., etc. - I have no doubt that Urs has already listened to much of all these bands, too!

I am sure Urs has heard and loved all of those Heavy Metal bands. According to information I got off the web, Urs also plays piano, guitar, drums, clarinet, and violin, although I doubt he is a virtuoso on any of them. I have seen photos of Urs playing a guitar, and a piano. I guess I should have said that Urs speaks five languages, but I wasn't counting his Mother tongue, Swiss-German. The other languages he speaks, are German, Dutch, English, and French. That alone would make him an accomplished person in my book.

Above all, a very active musician... Thanks again for the information, dear Joyce!A little correction about a band I've mentioned above, QuietRiot: had forgotten, their first 2 records are dated of 1977 (QR) and 1978 (QRII). So, just like VanHalen & Kiss, they've also influenced the 80's bands, not the contrary! I mistook that just because QuietRiot became a well-known band in USA only when they released their 3rd. album, 'Metal Health', in 1983...

Our oldest son, Mike, loved hard rock music and Heavy Mental, but his second wife, Jaroslava, doesn't like that kind of music, so I don't suppose Mike gets to hear much of it these days.

I'll tell you, if Mike loved to hear Hard/HeavyMetal as much as I did, I bet he still does a lot - of course, now with earphones... Cause, you know, I think Metal is the most fascinating genre of Rock, once you love it, it's too hard to leave it...

I've no doubt but what he would still like to listen to it, if he had the time. Mike's executive job at Boeing keeps him too busy. When Mike's in the Czech Republic, he is busy building projects at their place there. Mike has authored a book, titled Online Bookselling. You can check out his website telling you about it, if you like, at: http://www.online-bookselling.com/

I was not trying to sell you Mike's book, Paladino. I meant you can look at Mike's website only if you are curious about bookselling. It is something some people want to do from their homes, or as an additional sideline job. Mike is phasing out his inventory of other books, because he is too busy with his office job now, to manage another job in addition to it. Also, Mike does not have the time now, to go to book stores and used book stores, etc...places that sell books, to add to his inventory. But Mike's own well written book is still selling well. It explains the pros and cons of getting into the bookselling business. However, selling books would not interest everyone.

Hey, Joyce, I understood all what you meant; didn't think that you were trying to sell the book, or something like that!

Good! I wouldn't do that. How's the weather there now? Not still raining I hope. Our weather has been mild for January, on the balmy side 40's and low 50'sF, but the TV weatherman has told us that more winter weather is on its way.

It's confirmed what had been told on TV: that concentrated instability, all over Southeasthern region, would remain until around Jan. 20th, and so it happened; fortunately, the Sun is shining everyday since about a week...

I hope the heavy rains are behind you, and that there are lots of sunny days ahead. BTW, my UK artist friend, Helen, says you have been very helpful to her with your suggestions on what items are good to use for dark areas in a portrait. Thank you for helping her. She has inspired and helped me a lot.

I'm really so glad for that, dear friend!!