Phil and Seb - the long journey

Getting these paintings to their final end was a jolly ride that consisted of many back and forth texts and photos between my client from McKinley Burkart and I, and many hours spent painting away into the wee hours of the night.  Along the ride, I brought two other paintings to full completion, which I'm guessing now reside in either the offices of the two boys, or in their homes..... as luck would have it, they were not meant to grace the beautiful walnut walls of the final destination, the 4th St Phil + Sebastian.

Journeys being what journeys are, the ride was pretty ripe with trepidation, loud sighing, and outright panic.  There's nothing like the hot burning fire of a deadline.....twice.....to get the creative juices flowing.

Here are some images of the earlier process...

Initial sketch for Phil

Full of iconography.  Aiming for a German Expressionist style a la Max Beckman.

Initial sketch of Seb

Morphed into yet another style

Going for an Alice Neel vibe. The queen of "wrong" portraits that are gloriously right.

Channeling Alice....

Channeling Phil... :)

What?? Back to the drawing board??

As Walker put it:  We don't want them to be pretty.  We don't want them to be self-congratulatory.  Make fun of them.  Mock them.

Tah dahhhhhh!

And there you have it. Mocked, with panache.

And a journey it was. 

Tah Dah!  Despite how agonizing I made it sound, it really wasn't.  At all.  It was a complete blast to work on.  Nothing but fun. Fun. Fun.