Original painting of the Beastie Boys by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Three MCs and no DJ’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Process
Fun little speed painting of the Beastie Boys. Again made with my limited color palette, consisting of only Magenta, Primary Yellow, Cyan, Titanium White and Oxyd Black.
I painted my background in magenta this time, just to see what it would do. I like doing experiments like these. I left out the original background in my reference image to focus on the three MCs in the artwork.
I didn’t particularly think about the process. I just drew the outlines on the magenta background using a black multiliner pen and went from there. Added in the dark parts and large blocks of color of the jackets, then focusing on the faces and again intentionally letting the background come through here and there. I think it gives it a nice touch. To finish it I only added some extra strokes to the background to give it a bit of depth.
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Original painting of Singer The Weeknd by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Blinded by the Lights’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Process
Another contemporary artist. I like some of his songs but was especially interested in the reference picture I used to create this painting. It had some nice colors and highlights which made me decide to use it as my subject.
Once again I started with the orange (Vermillion) background with blue (primary cyan) on top as my line drawing.
Next thing was adding in the darker parts like the hair, shirt and frame of the sunglasses. The colors I used for the dark parts were some Ivory black mixed with Magenta and Primary yellow and touch of Cyan to create a very dark brown tone. The hair leans more towards brown and the shirt more towards black, but honestly you cannot really tell when looking at the painting. All those areas look black. You would only be able to see a difference by adding some pure Ivory Black to the painting.
Next up were the darker skin tones and because I let the orange of the background come through the skin, I started adding highlights to the rest of the artwork pretty quickly. I mixed some primary yellow with a tiny bit of Magenta and added it to the background to make it more interesting. I finished the piece with adding some shadows on the jacket and some more highlights on the glasses. I tried to stay away from blending too much as I really like the visible strokes in this one. I think it finished it in about 90 minutes. Fun!
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Today was Star Wars Day so, May the Fourth Be With You!
Looking at my reference picture of Padmé Amidala I wondered what would look good with the Purple, Gold and red. Yellow would be good But I wanted the Gold head piece to really stand out, so I went for Green, which also goes well with purple I think and of course the subtle red make-up on Natalie’s face,
Because this is a speed painting and there’s limited time to finish it, I know parts won’t be perfectly covered. And this means my background will be coming through in places, which I also do on purpose. Another reason I thought green would be cool.
Anyway, for the painting I often start with the dark areas, followed by the eyes. If you don’t get the eyes right, the portrait just won´t look good. I have to say I had a hard time with this one to capture the face of the reference picture. I wasn’t too sure either I could pull off the gold material within time. So, taking everything into account, this was a real challenge.
Now that the dark parts and eyes were roughly finished, I colored in the face. A blend of mostly blue (cyan) and red (magenta) with white and a bit of Primary Yellow. I added the red dots on the cheeks and filled the lips with red some red and pinkish tones.
Then the Gold on the head. A mixture of Mostly Yellow with Magenta. I used more red for the darker looking parts and for the parts that lean more towards green, I added some Cyan and less Magenta. Highlights are lighter yellow tones and even Titanium white in places where it’s really shiny. The shadow parts have some more Magenta, Cyan and a touch of Ivory Black in them.
Next I added more value to the face and corrected things here and there. Struggled a bit with the eyes and nose. One millimeter in the wrong place and it looks like a different person. More time could definitely make it more accurate, but considering this was a speed painting, I’m quite happy with the result. I left out all the tiny details on the fabric. For times sake and, this may sound strange, also because I quite like how this part has an unfinished look. I hope you enjoyed this piece!
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
For this painting of Rapper Ice-T (Tracy Lauren Marrow), I prepped the canvas with some Vermillion like in some of my previous paintings. Then I created the underdrawing with Primary Cyan. I wasn’t aiming for a realistic portrait, so I used these colors and tried to create something interesting.
I started with the eyes. You may think the white of the eyes is white, when in fact (depending on the light source) it’s often not even close to white. My reference photo had a lot of blue/purple reflective light in it. This is also visible in the eyes, so I mixed some Cyan, Magenta, a bit of yellow and white together and put in the ‘white’ part of the eyes.
Next, I blocked in most of the dark areas like the t-shirt, the moustache, beard, the bottom part of the cap and the shadow from the cap on the forehead. Then I started to paint te face, using the vermillion background color as part of the skin tone. So, the background actually becomes part of the face, which I think creates a real nice looking effect to the artwork. I also added some blue reflective light under the eye, on the cheekbone and on the neck. As soon as you add the highlights in the eyes, you can see the piece come to life.
From that point it was about adding more skin tones, shadows and highlights.For the chain around the neck I used some very basic highlights and shadows, but it works, you can instantly tell it’s a gold necklace.
Final touch was adding some Cyan Mixed with Titanium White and Primary Yellow to add the light blue parts to the background. Goes together nicely with the Vermillion.
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Original painting of Jazz Singer Ella Fitzgerald by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Lady Ella’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Process
The First Lady of song or Lady Ella as Ella Fitzgerald was sometimes referred to was today’s painting subject. I kept this one really loose because, well…I felt like it.
First thing was creating the outlines of Ella with black marker to make sure my composition was right. No details, just making sure everything was sort of in the right place. The marker is just one of the things I use for the line drawing because I like to try different things. I sometimes use pencil, charcoal or paint as well. There are times I don’t use this under painting and start with painting without the composition. With faces though I find this can be tricky so for portraits or larger paintings, I almost always use some kind of base layer.
After applying the black marker, I continued with the hair and face using a mixture of Magenta and Yellow mixed with some Cyan and a touch of Ivory Black for the really dark areas. Her purple dress consist out of Magenta Mixed with Cyan. More Magenta (the image has a bit of a red glow over it) and Black for the darker areas and a touch of white for the lightest parts. For the darker parts of the skin I mixed Magenta with Yellow, some Cyan and Black. For the mid-tones I left out most of the Cyan to create the more orange/pink/red tones and the lighter parts have more yellow in them. For the highlights I added white. That’s it, not details at all this time. I didn’t use a brush smaller than size six for the entire painting.
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
I have to say that I often keep listening to the music I grew up with, but there are some exceptions. You will notice I paint those more contemporary artists as well. Ed Sheeran is one of them. Love his unique style and musicality.
For this painting I started with black marker to paint he outlines of Ed’s head and shoulders, his pupils, the shadow of his eyes, nose and the darker parts of the mouth and hair. Next, I colored the mouth, eyes and nose with paint. These parts stand out more in terms of color. The mouth consists of Magenta, Cyan and a bit of Titanium white and Ivory black. For the darker/shadow parts I used Cyan, Magenta and a touch of Ivory Black to get to the darker tone. For the more saturated parts of the lips I used magenta with a touch of Cyan and a bit of Titanium white and for the highlights I simply added more white.
I painted the darker parts of the cheeks by mixing some Magenta with Yellow and added a bit of Cyan to make it darker. Then I painted the rest of the main skin tones from dark to light. I didn’t add any details to the shirt and neck, just blocked it in with the main colors.
The hair had very dark parts. I picked his ‘normal’ hair color (red/orange) and made it darker to paint those almost black looking areas. Then I added in the reds/oranges. Final steps were adding the background color and adding some highlights to the (facial) hair, lips and eyes. Time to remove that masking tape!
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Prince, what can I say. A short guy with immense talent. Probably one of the most musical people that ever lived. A great subject to paint in any case. Preparations were similar to the previous painting of Lauryn Hill. I drew the outlines of the head with a thick black marker and used fineliner for the facial features. Next I added the darkest parts of the artwork. For the hair I mixed all primary colors (more red and yellow to create a brown tone) and some Ivory Black. Then I covered the purple jacket and shirt (just mixed Magenta with Cyan and a tiny bit of Yellow) and continued with the face.
I have to say, often when I’m painting I think it’s going nowhere, but while progressing this changes in most cases. Sometimes you just mess up and that’s the way it is. The face looked horrible when I was working on it, but by adding more color tones and making sure they blended in the right places, it was slowly coming together. You just have to keep going I guess without thinking about it too much. Stay focused on the end result you have in mind, even when you don’t exactly know where it’s going yet.
So, now that the main stuff was painted, I added in the background. The video shows a blue background. It was the color of my reference image. If you look at the final painting however, you’ll notice the background turned into something more funky (pun intended). When I was done with the initial painting and looked at it, the original background was just too boring for me and this subject, so I decided to go back in when I finished the progress video and added the Ochre (mixed some Primary Yellow with Magenta) tones. I think it does it way more justice and for me the painting suddenly started to speak to me.
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Today I painted Ms. Lauryn Hill, in my opinion a fantastic singer and rapper with a really nice sound. to her voice. I continued with the black marker just like the previous painting of J. Cole (scroll down), but used a fineliner/ink pen for some details like the eyebrows and eyes. Her head wrap consists mostly of a bluish-turquoise color and the face has a lot of orangy-brown tones, which made me put the vermillion around her head. Works well I think.
At this point I blocked in the denim jacket. Kept it real loose, because I wanted to focus on her head. Then I started to put some color in the face (loved the blue highlight on the cheek/jawline. Next I filled most of the head wrap with color, not copying the exact pattern and shapes, but merely suggesting them roughly. I covered up the background with a mixture of blue tones and some orange and then I went on with adding details. That’s about it!
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Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Original painting of rapper J. Cole by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘J. Cole’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Description
Portrait Painting of Rapper J.Cole.
Process
I used a big black marker for the outlines this time. Next I painted the (facial) hair and filled the face. For the hair I used Magenta, a bit of Cyan and Yellow and Ivory Black. For the face I used all primary colors to create the different skin tones. For the darker areas I used more Cyan (blue). Then I filled the background with teal (mixed Primary Cyan with Primary Yellow). The reference showed some blueish/greens in Cole’s face which I exaggerated a bit. It matches nicely with the background I think. Finally I added some details but left the black marker coming through in several places. One of the most enjoyable parts is finally taking the masking tape off, which leaves a nice one inch border around the artwork.
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (black markerand acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
Original painting of Musician Johnny Cash by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Man in Black’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Description
I grew up with listening to Country music because of my parents. I like many music genres but I still enjoy some classic country songs once in a while. I decided to create an artwork of one of the legends: Mr. Johnny Cash.
Process
I started with an ink line drawing. Then I covered the background and instead of trying to exactly match the color in the reference photo, I made it a bit more vibrant and used some Primary Magenta and yellow for it and added some Primary Cyan with a touch of Ivory Black for the darker tones. The background pops a bit more that way.
Then I worked on the hair and face, adding the darker areas first and worked from there. For the skin mid tones I used Magenta and yellow with a touch of Cyan en then added more Cyan and Magenta for the darker parts and white for the lighter areas. That’s about it!
Painting Specifications:
Just one in the world
Medium: Mixed Media on Paper (ink and acrylic paint)
Dimensions: 24x32cm / 9×12 inches
Color Palette: Cyan | Magenta | Yellow | Black | White
