Norman Mailer

Here's the final Norman Mailer portrait. I looked at fair amount of early Chuck Close paintings and daguerrotypes while I was working on this. At first I was going to try to include a concept that would make reference to Mailer's latest book, but the further into the painting that I got, the more I enjoyed just having the focus itself be the...well, focus, I guess.

I struggle with wanting this sort of piece to have photorealistic elements while still leaving evidence of the hand that created the work in brushstrokes. Working digitally, it's easy for people to dismiss a piece, thinking there must have been a button I pressed to get the end result.

When I can, I try to have my caricatures have the feel and dignity of a well painted portrait. I suppose you could say it's like dressing up a chimp in a tux, but it's what I do.

Norman Mailer sketch

I'm starting in on a portrait of the writer Norman Mailer for a review of his new book "The Castle in the Forest" It's about how Hitler became Hitler.

It was about 8 degrees outside today, and about 40 in the studio. I felt how this guys looks.

The Road Final

Normally, I'd work this to within an inch of it's life. But the subject matter and composition are so different than what I normally do, I thought I'd just leave it as it is. For me, it conveys the feeling of the book.

I should mention that I've been looking at a lot of Carriere lately, and that monochromatic influence shows through.

The Road (sketch)

I've been reading "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not a writer, so I'll spare you a book review. If it was a painting, I'd say it's a Norman Rockwell painted by Francis Bacon. It's giving me nightmares.

Dylan

Here's a portrait a Bob Dylan I did for a record review. I like that Dylan's not afraid to alienate his audience by trying new things, even rework his songs completely. So in keeping with that, I tried to veer off my usual flightplan a bit and make this a little more "collage-y".

This is a portrait of author John Updike for a review of his latest book. I looked at a lot of Rembrandt's self portraits for this. I don't know if it's clear to see, but I even put the cracked surface in there.
Digital.