Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on the cabinet on and off for a good 3 months now. In between, I’ve done quite a few little experiments. Above is an attempt at rethinking and remapping how I do portraits.

I think I’ve felt stifled in that I have felt obligated to create more accurate looking portraits. Not that I’m ever going for photo realism- it’s just that I’ve felt responsible to improve at least a little in my rendering.

I like the second portrait more, as I think it works to communicate additional emotion, more than the sketches from the earlier post could, and more than the blockier, greener version that is the first portrait.

I would really like to start assertively punctuating and disrupting facial planes with physical objects. In the past, I’ve used textures to highlight or to fuzz out facial planes. This new thing is different- it’s a lot faster and looser with how faces should look and the wood and caulking is adding (I think) emotional energy and content.

I think that this new style might let me pain desperation in a new way. I have ideas about making paintings about desperation- maybe a fusion cabinet/portrait. We’ll see.