In Progress

One of my assignments this past week has been to paint the cover for the Contra Costa Times' upcoming election special. Good fun. Kinda.

I don't have a lot of confidence in my caricature and/or portraiture abilities. It's not an aspect of picture-making that I've practiced enough to allow me to smile and say, "Oh yeah! Phil Angelides and the Governator! Let me at 'em!" It's always a real struggle for me, but having these two guys as the subjects for the painting is a help.

Arnold is such a well-known character that all you really have to do is come close to getting it to look like him and the audience will fill in the blanks. Angelides is a very distinctive looking man with his large ears, prominent nose, and I've noticed in the pictures I've found that his hair never seems to change. He has a great face and a great overall look that editorial cartoonists would love to get ahold of.

The first picture is the original rough. As I progressed I flipped their positions, having them stand back to back and in this case I think it makes for a better composition.

The second picture is a screen capture of how they look as I near the finish. I'm almost happy with the Angelides portrait, and Arnold is "close enough." At the beginning I thought that it might stray further into caricature, but I'm glad I stayed a bit straighter than I thought I could.

I'll post the final after it runs.

The End.