'Lectric Eye on Me

"'Lectric Eye on Me," Acrylic on 18 x 14 canvas

Last summer, my sister Casey asked me to paint her a portrait of David Bowie.  Now, David Bowie is my sister's all time favorite musician, and one of mine, as well.  I panicked and told her I wasn't ready.  I told her I wasn't good enough, didn't know enough, couldn't do it . . . yet.  As her birthday approached this spring, I realized that if I didn't try, I would never be ready.  I began to study portrait work, watching all of the demo videos I could manage.  I really liked Eric T. Francis's portrait lessons on YouTube, and so I watched them repeatedly.  

I made sure to listen to Bowie exclusively every time I worked on this project.  I listened to each album many times over (my personal favorites are The Man Who Sold the World and Black Star).  I drew a very rough sketch on canvas and completed an umber wash to start.

Umber wash on 18 x 14 canvas

To make things more complicated, I had decided to work from a black and white photo and imagine the color.  Then I had the very, very difficult task to mix realistic skin colors.  I also watched many demos and read many articles about this.  Eric T. Francis's magic mix did not work for me, but I found a simpler one that I liked a lot better: yellow ochre + burnt sienna + white.  I added just a touch of portrait pink to the mix, as well.

My original vision for the background was to create an abstract collage.  I purchased the digital sheet music for my sister's favorite song, "Moonage Daydream."  The song is the inspiration for the entire painting, and so I really wanted my background to suggest just that.  I thought I would paint over some watercolor paper using thinned down acrylics and print the sheet music over the color.  I planned to tear bits of the sheet music and randomly place it into the background, along with bits of the abstract Citra Solve papers I created.

My Citra Solve / National Geographic experiment

Once I had completed the painting of David, however, I couldn't do it.  I realized that the abstract background would not go with the more realistic painting.  I studied traditional portraits at length, noting all of the different techniques artists have used for their backgrounds.  I finally decided to do a kind of gradation, choosing the dreamiest colors from my palette- the blues of his eye and the pink of his shirt.

My husband Jason was so supportive while I worked on this project.  He cleared the house of distractions (that is, my ten year old son) the first day I started my flesh tones, and offered plenty of constructive feedback throughout the process.  He even stood next to me while I made the cigarette smoke, when I was at the height of frustration, offering advice on which bits of smoke to thin down and blend.  

After countless hours of painting, varnishing, layering, thinking about David Bowie and listening to his music, and over a month after Casey's birthday (!!!) I have finished this painting.  This is the most challenging task I've taken on in my art so far, and I've learned a great deal in the process.