This was an experiment with a scratchboard technique. I pulled it from a sketch I made in Photoshop and then made it more... scratchboard-y...
This is based on primitive art pieces--I featured Polynesian statues, so we have some tiki statues and an Easter Island head. Just getting in touch with my Polynesian roots. It was a lot of fun and I gained a lot of respect for tapa cloth makers from painting this background.
This was part of a 20-20-20 series--obviously, this is the one from 20 years ago, then I did one of me today and another of me 20 years from now. I'd rather not show the latter two. They both need, need, need work, so I'll leave it here with the first self-portrait of 20 years ago (OK, it might have been 21 years ago.)
...But then I decided that last picture really didn't depict myself very accurately as a kid, sitting still with my hair combed and my face clean, so I started over and though this isn't quite 20 years ago, I think it is much more like me. (You may have noticed I was pretty proud of that loose tooth and, yes, I did try to cut my own hair. It did not end well.)
This was a hypothetical piece for a magazine article on the Red Baron. I thought I'd catch the perspective of his enemies, because he had quite the reputation and so they were all terrified of him. I think the picture will tell you the rest.
This painting was a little different for me. It was one of my earlier digital paintings. I think if you saw my Photoshop projects in chronological order, you'd probably see a lot of copying in the beginning. I think that's how I process a new medium; I just copy, copy, copy and unfortunately I do that a little too much with photographs (which is why my other two 20-20-20 portraits are not up here--took myself way too seriously!) I think this painting was a pretty good breakthrough for me. Fun fact: the reference I did this painting from was originally a photo of myself and my younger brother.
OK, this was from a bit more than 6 months ago. I just like it, and wanted to post it, so I did!
