Summary
Original painting of singer/songwriter/producer (the list is too long) Prince Rogers Nelson by Contemporary artist Bart Carels.
Title: ‘Little Genius’
Artist: Bart Carels
Year: 2020
Process
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
Availability
