St. Basil the Great -- Original Portrait

This is an original piece taken from a series of portraits inspired by my nieces and nephews. For this piece in particular, I challenged myself to draw the entire figure freehanded, in pen, with no pencil lines to guide my finished line work. What results is an authentic, almost stream-of-consciousness view of my own mental image of this particular saint. 

St. Basil of Caesarea is also commonly called St. Basil the Great, and is counted among the three Cappadocian fathers of the 4th century. Along with St. Gregory of Nazianzus and St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. Basil was crucial in defining the Trinitarian formula that is still held by all Christians to this day. St. Basil in particular is heralded as the Doctor of the Holy Ghost for his teachings against certain heretics that denied the divinity of the third person of the Holy Trinity. 

This portrait is 9x12 inches on vellum bristol paper. I exclusively used a Kaweco Sport with an extra fine nib, and the ink of choice was Herbin's "Perle Noir."