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A reflection on Adam's reflection. Spiegel im spiegel, a lá Adam.
For the fiftieth portrait (yes, really, and, no, I can't quite believe it either) I wanted to do something special. Something challenging. It was an opportunity to celebrate and reflect; this fit the bill handily.
It's a sneaky trick that some artists use, to work a piece while it's flipped; it helps correct for the inevitable distortions that get introduced by our brains perceiving the world. Little details that your brain would normally just dismiss suddenly jump out when a piece is mirrored. Traditional artists have to do it with an actual mirror, which is a bit of a pain, but it's really easy to do digitally. Adam's face is especially interesting to draw this way, as it's so very asymmetrical; he looks completely different when you flip him! It's more than just the moles, though those are definitely a dead giveaway; it's the set of his mouth, the line of his jaw, the folds of his eyelids, even the tip of his nose cants a bit. I'm sure this has caused a few headaches for film-makers he's worked with, as it would be impossible for them to flip any of the frames in a scene without the audience immediately taking notice. You can get away with it with a lot of actors, but not with Adam.
The reference I used was taken by the ever brilliant staff photographer for the SNL promos, for Adam's appearance as host on the 25 Jan 2020 episode. My only real gripe is that they went through and edited out almost all of his moles; I get that they've got that overexposed aesthetic going on, but seriously? If you've got a host who's known for his constellations, why would you not just leave them? You'll notice that I put a bunch of them back, the ones I could be reasonably certain I was placing pretty much correctly, anyway. Let's hear it for an extensive reference folder. Hilariously, after going to all the effort to anonymize his face, they didn't edit out the moles on his palms or hands.
ETA: Every time I paint him I find a new mole, or freckle, or scar to appreciate; this time I was astonished to find a rather large laceration scar that's hidden in his right eyebrow. You can see it if you look carefully at the reflection farthest to our right, and the one second from left. It's shaped a bit like a sloppy backwards Z that's been turned on it's side.
32 hours of work, which, when you consider that this is really 5 portraits, is not too shabby.
For the fiftieth portrait (yes, really, and, no, I can't quite believe it either) I wanted to do something special. Something challenging. It was an opportunity to celebrate and reflect; this fit the bill handily.
It's a sneaky trick that some artists use, to work a piece while it's flipped; it helps correct for the inevitable distortions that get introduced by our brains perceiving the world. Little details that your brain would normally just dismiss suddenly jump out when a piece is mirrored. Traditional artists have to do it with an actual mirror, which is a bit of a pain, but it's really easy to do digitally. Adam's face is especially interesting to draw this way, as it's so very asymmetrical; he looks completely different when you flip him! It's more than just the moles, though those are definitely a dead giveaway; it's the set of his mouth, the line of his jaw, the folds of his eyelids, even the tip of his nose cants a bit. I'm sure this has caused a few headaches for film-makers he's worked with, as it would be impossible for them to flip any of the frames in a scene without the audience immediately taking notice. You can get away with it with a lot of actors, but not with Adam.
The reference I used was taken by the ever brilliant staff photographer for the SNL promos, for Adam's appearance as host on the 25 Jan 2020 episode. My only real gripe is that they went through and edited out almost all of his moles; I get that they've got that overexposed aesthetic going on, but seriously? If you've got a host who's known for his constellations, why would you not just leave them? You'll notice that I put a bunch of them back, the ones I could be reasonably certain I was placing pretty much correctly, anyway. Let's hear it for an extensive reference folder. Hilariously, after going to all the effort to anonymize his face, they didn't edit out the moles on his palms or hands.
ETA: Every time I paint him I find a new mole, or freckle, or scar to appreciate; this time I was astonished to find a rather large laceration scar that's hidden in his right eyebrow. You can see it if you look carefully at the reflection farthest to our right, and the one second from left. It's shaped a bit like a sloppy backwards Z that's been turned on it's side.
32 hours of work, which, when you consider that this is really 5 portraits, is not too shabby.
