Randy in the studio, acrylic

[Bob Bissett]

This is 16x12" on a RayMar canvas panel with a thick coat of gesso applied with palette knife. I've known Randy since he was in high school about four years ago. This was done from memory and photo reference. He was home over the holidays on recruiting assignment. But mostly to spend time with our daughter also home from college. One day he showed up in uniform and I was struck by it's graphic quality. He agreed to pose and I dropped everything else to churn this out in the heat of inspiration.

Acrylics have the reputation of being hard to use for portraits. I think that's true if you try to force it to be oils instead of letting it be what it is. In this one I made no attempt to achieve a smooth skin effect as you can see from the close up. It can be done but you're fighting the medium.

Anyway, I'm hoping to learn viewers' split second, gut level reaction as well as comments about composition, values, color, etc. I am most interested in emotional content in my work, then visual concept and then subject.