Audrey

There are so many glamorous photos of the legendary Audrey Hepburn, but I was inspired by one where Audrey is in a plain yellow shirt, with her deep, sensuous eyes and a kind, beautiful and mysterious smile. That photo was distorted and foreshortened due to infamous camera limitations. I was able to fix those issues as I drew it freehand with oil paint without any photo tracing or transferring. I would prefer to paint Audrey from life, as it is much more rewarding and easier than painting from an old, two-dimensional, low-resolution photograph. I had to use many photo and video references from different angles to imagine what her face looked like. I find it more challenging to paint famous personas with complex personalities and outstanding appearances, capturing their characters and portraying their exact likeness. This portrait is part of my “Personas 40x50” collection. The painting is not large, but it took me many months to finesse it using my own approach to oil glazing technique with thicker layers of paint. The full process from scratch - blank canvas to finish - is available to view on my instagram.