Prince, purple, oil painting, illustration, pop music, jeff slemons

Prince Painting Final Art

Creating a Painting of Prince

When it was first announced that Prince had died I thought what would it be like if I got a call from a magazine that needed artwork for an article they were doing on the musician. So I decided I would do a painting and that the deadline was pretty tight so I would have to get it done in a handful of days or so. Although there wasn’t really a client commissioning the art I would still treat it like it really was and on that pretext I would try to get something done quickly. This would be fun for fun’s sake.

Prince, purple, oil painting, illustration, pop music, jeff slemons

Progression of the Prince Painting I

Application Of Base Color

With a image of Prince in pencil already put onto the masonite board the first application of paint is a wash of Dioxine Purple oil paint over the entire area area.        I wipe out the area where the scarf is, leaving bits of the wash here and there to indicate where the folds are and shadowy areas.

Prince, purple, oil painting, illustration, pop music, jeff slemons

Progression of Prince Painting

Putting Down Color

As the wash dries I move on to the outside area of the face applying oil color. The intention here is that any color put down here will be painted over as the piece progresses. The hope is that pieces of the lower color applications will peek through here and there as the newer applications cover them.

Prince, purple, oil painting, illustration, pop music, jeff slemons

Applying color

Application Of Color

I add color to the face and build it up. It’s here I decide to keep the color purple as theme through out the piece. I attempt to use it through the whole piece in differing values and color applications. After all, he was the Purple One.

Prince the musician, The purple one, music, The artist known as prince

Progression of Prince Painting

More Color Application

I continue to build up the piece by bouncing around all over the place on the canvas. I save the hair shape for the last. I basically got the the thing done within 4 days or so. Had it been a real assignment and it was urgently needed I  possibly would have had to get it done quicker than that. Even after it was essentially done I still would give it a tweak here and there. Maybe these things are really never finished.

Until next time.