Dianna Agron Portrait

 ...haven't done one of these in a while

One of my goals with this was a pink fleshy palette. I read somewhere that argons colors were pink and purple (I read a lot of stuff actually, I couldn't stop), so I looked to one Andy Warhol for guidance on how to get this done. Pushing this flat bold style I found a base that I could build off of. Thankfully Dianna’s hair is blonde so I knew I’d have a good balance going in.

I watch a good amount of makeup tutorials (I love em). I personally have mixed feelings on the face painting rituals many young women are now a slave to committing to on the daily. For example, why do they have to worry about extenuating features to "look their best," whilst I as a male do not? And once they commit to it once, not doing is must feel like walking around at a disadvantage. Imagine world with no boys, would you still apply make up? I’m sure some would, but not all. I'm under the suspicion that we have the Egyptians to thank for this. On the flip side, I've learned that a lot of the principals of make up (cosmetic or otherwise), are the very same principles I've self taught myself with all these portraits. I even apply my paint the same way. This was made no clearer to me than when I decided to really push the make up in this portrait. Smoky eyes with liner and rose cheeks over high cheekbones. I'm pretty confident I could apply a lady friends make up at this point. Anyways Agron's features are so lovely, if anything the make up takes away form her looks. In fact, this style of eyeliner really hurts or rather, messes with my ability to capture likeness.

Paint streams. It's like a painters signature. A lot of people try to hide them for the sake of realism, I say embrace them, or rather find a happy compromise. Use them to make an interesting composition that guides the audience up down and all around. For me it's not so much about the realism as it is about the stamp.

You know I've got some free time when I do one (or two) of these. I never realized how much time and effort it takes to pull one off, video and blog included. Then again, as I get older it seems my time gut’s more precious. DIANNA AGRON. I don't have the vocabulary to really express all the ways...so I'll leave it at that. Also, I love her naturally sultry eye shape...her voice sounds like my pillow.

A little video from glee of Dianna doing her thing, for those who have no idea.

On another note, new (well to me anyways) research in neural plasticity suggests that if we don't use neural functions, as we get older we'll loose them. This goes a way to explain some of the behavior we find in many older people. If the brain's neural pathways were a stream with many branches, than as one stream's use decreased, so to does the space allotted to it till it’s eventually closed off entirely to make room for the paths with higher demand. One of these very paths is the ability to learn itself. For example if you're not using math all that often, you'll probably notice that you're not as good at it as you once were, this isn't just a case of being rusty, but rather a form of neural housekeeping. Same goes for language, motor skills etc. You're not just forgetting how to do things; you're loosing your ability to do them. Long story short, if you've got a talent that you love, use it or loose it. Myself, I have a few, and I'm changing my life so to better their continual use, and I suggest you do the same. Again, long story short, more portraits, more writing, and more filmmaking, all the 3D I just learned had some serious RAM requirements. Also, thanks for reading all this, I like to think people visit this place for more than just the kick ass, brilliant art, it's a package deal.

Next up:
Justin, Audrey and Andy.... not in that order. But first, some Story Boarding.

-peace