Sunflower Portrait in Gouache

The subject is the man in the attached reference photo. Recreate his exact facial identity from its features — the same hairline, hairstyle, volume and texture, brow shape, eye shape and spacing, nose structure, lip shape, jawline and cheek structure, beard growth pattern, skin tone, and natural facial proportions — so he is unmistakably the same person even inside the painted style, his features kept sharp and their true shape unchanged, his own hair from the reference kept exactly as it is with no colour or cut change. The reference photo's own lighting, background and clothing are entirely discarded; his face is lit only by this picture's own light.

MEDIUM: a soft painted illustration in gouache with flat matte colour and soft edges, semi-realistic, not a photograph — yet every real feature of his face is kept recognisable and true, painted with care, never cartooned, never anime, never doll-like, the eyes their real size. The floating motifs and the colour wash fill the background to every edge and drift around him but never cross his face, hairline or shoulders.

LEMON SUNFLOWERS. BACKGROUND: a warm lemon-yellow bokeh wash with small sunflower heads and tiny bees floating around him. HAIR: his own hair worn loose with full natural volume, nothing on his head — no cap, no bandana, no headwear of any kind. OUTFIT: a white linen shirt, collar open at the throat, sleeves rolled to the forearm, worn relaxed.

POSE: chest-up, head level and squared to the viewer with only a slight turn, chin held level, shoulders broad and set. His right hand raised to rest at his collar, thumb hooked behind the open placket, five separate countable fingers; his left hand out of frame. No flowers held, nothing in either hand. Expression: unbothered male confidence — mouth closed in a small knowing half-smile pulled slightly to one side, brows level, eyes steady and direct at the viewer. Held, not performed.

Soft frontal light keys his face and fills both eyes with a clear catchlight, while the wash and the sunflowers stay gentler than his lit skin. Palette: lemon, sunflower gold, white, bee black. The expression is natural and human even in paint: the eyes and mouth agreeing on one held feeling, natural micro-asymmetry kept, never exaggerated, never a posed grin. Exactly one person in the picture and no one else.

Vertical 9:16 picture built for Instagram: the face largest, sharpest and best-lit, the colour world readable in one second at phone size. No readable text anywhere — no words, no letters, no numbers, no logos, no brands.