Father's Day Portrait 2020, acrylic on canvas, 14x11, 2020

Panamá

​

My first memorial painting.  This is a very special person for my family.

I was asked to include an infinity sign and a grasshopper, for symbolism.  It's the first time I do that too... The infinity sign was easy, because it was coincidentally already in the photo, I just had to highlight it.  The grasshopper was actually very fun to paint, I had never inserted a small bug to a painting before... it was an interesting, very spontaneous and organic methodology.

The bright pink underpainting mostly can't be seen other than a tiny space over his left eye and a little sliver over the right lens, and the texture that is prevalent.

It was a challenge for me to balance the background/foreground to make contrast, but not too much, with the figure.  Again, I used shimmery and shiny paints that can't really be seen in pictures, you'll just have to believe me until you see it in person... I decided to replace the water in the background of the original photo with water from another photograph, which I think has very nice movement, and then lightened it with zinc mixing white until it was light enough.  The floor is mostly imagined and holds no symbolism.

 

Achieving the illusion of texture such as in the (gray in real life) mustache was a bit of a challenge but I'm happy with the results, also the modeling of the face and neck, which is certainly not blatantly highlighted, but is still honest.

​

Painted from a photograph provided by the collector.

​

Tap or click on the images below to enlarge.