Questions from an Art essayist

Jimi Hendrix

Here is a mail i recently received in my mailbox. I would like to share with you theses questions and my answers as you may be interrested to see what happens behind the scene.

 

Hey pierre, i am doing an art essay and i would like if you could please help me by answering a few questions on one of your portrait drawings

- How was your artwork made/constructed? (materials, techniques and processes)
- What is the mood of the artwork?
These few answers I have no idea either, if you could answer these too or give me a couple of hints that would be great.
- What idea/theme do you think the artist is exploring?
- What influences may have affected the artists? (political, social, historical, religious, cultural)
Thankyou so much
sharnice poulson
Well Sharnice, i’ll try to answer all your questions ! So let’s start with the first thing :

The artwork construction

1 – Get the picture

Once i got the name of the personnality i want to draw, the first step is to crawl the web to get a picture. the picture selection process have been modified all along theses years.
During the early years, i was selecting the very famous pictures instantly recognisable, as i was working in public space, i needed a picture instantly recognisable from the distance when people were walking by.
I used to select rarest portrait but the majority of the audience wasn’t guessing well the portrait
More recently, i have been hunting for very rare pictures, into please the fan audience, thoses rare cliches giving the best rendering in black and white.I tend to get pictures from video now, extracting theses from movies, youtube post etc, i got some specials rare pictures.

2 – Creation of the mask

The technic i use is a mask giving me the areas to be drawn and those to be in white, many people think i can draw a portrait directly from a white sheet of paper. I could say this could be possible but with lot of training and only for few portraits, it could be great vor a video event but is much more close to a magic trick than art.
So this mask is made from a processed photography, i’ve done on my computer ( no magic button), then i use this mask with a backlight table (custom made from a champagne crate). I used to cut out the mask with scissors but i only do that now for picture on canvas or board.
I have been focusing a lot on the technic at first, now i’m working less on it and more on the soul of the picture, where the art is.

3 – The creation process

The creation process start first with browsing the internet to get written notes about the personnality, this is what i want to tell to thoses who look at the portrait. I do a translation ofrom words to pictures and stories to make the picture understandable to anyone, have a great sense of detail if needed (jimi plays a fender stratocaster, so the picture has the shape of a stratocaster ), i could put the accent on some events that change the life of the personnality, put the events that made them famous, etc…

- What idea/theme do you think the artist is exploring?

Jimi Hendrix is kwnown as the master of the guitar electric, what did he do exactly to achieve this rank, why do every guitar player claim he is the one who inspire them.

When reading and agregating the life of jimi hendrix, the first thing coming to me was the link between him and his guitar, it’s not just music it’s a passion like if this guitar was his muse.

I’ve drawn jimi playing in the toilet, to say that all the time he had during the day was dedicated to play his guitar. This guitar which got a special story as it was a right handed guitar with reversed chords to be played by a left handed player (the artist adapt the instrument to the way he his playing, not the opposite as it’s done in the classical way to play music). The portrait his also a presentation of a self taught musician, driven by passion, always creating strange soundss and pushing the guitar science forward. (he did control the larsen effect and made this imitation of falling bomb during the woodstock festival).

Jimi was a sound explorator, not prepared for success, ready to live his life in the fast lane, he represent an musician icon without any preconception of what to do and not to do.  He was playing music, prefering to break his leg (simulation?) during a parachute drop and not to go to war.

- What influences may have affected the artists? (political, social, historical, religious, cultural)

Jimi was from a poor background, without strong family life,  used to cope things by himself as most of the selftaught people do.

He had a very bad nature, specially when he was playing guitar in a band : impossible to stop in his solo, very few concern about the band mates, almost impossible to bring a correct sound to the audience during a concert as the sound was too much ditorded and saturated, etc…. When playing, he was on an other planet especially when he was using drugs.

His relation to money did affect him very much, always looking for it when young, he did stole cars as well, all this money coming, bringing him to a stage where nobody could tell him anything or change destructive behaviour. (the death his strolling inside the picture, between mushrooms pills and booze bootles).

Dying at the age of 27 made him enter the club of the 27′, maybe one of the most famous to found this club. Live your life with intensity excess and passion.

 

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Thank You

read the above picture

It’s almost 2 years i started to sell on the internet and there’s something i would like to say to all my art collectors :

Thank You !

I’m currently listing all of you, from ebay, AlittleMarket, Dawanda, Etsy, thoses who came directly to my mailbox to ask for a special portrait or commission, thoses i met in the streets (Dublin and barcelona). It’s quiet a long list by now and i would like to say thank you to all of you for supporting an emerging artist !

It will take a little bit of my time to refresh this list and update it. I will also use a mailing program to send you a special mail including a discount for all of you. I will also use this program with lot of care as i don’t like to receive spam myself, so just some mails from time to time with major news inside. For the day to day stories, you can follow me on pagazine.com…  Receive Pagazine news by Email

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Shipping Worldwide…1.

correos shipping box

It’s been 2 years i started to ship my pictures, and i still have new buyer from foreign countries buying my art. This week, i’ve shipped a picture to Finland, Turkey and Chili.

Well i’ve done a map of the countries i’ve allready shipped parcels and i’ve colored itaccording to the shipping time it take. theses time are during all the year, except the two weeks before christmas and natural disaster.

So here is the worldmap, as you can see, the european part is weel deserved, the north america and australia as well. My first shipped parcel to south america was last monday (a jacques-yves cousteau enthousiast), Japan was reached earlier this year (a fan of the A-team).

As a reminder, the parcel are sent the day of the purchase (if done before  midday) or the day after, then the picture give you the average time it takes to reach your location.

Where i've allready shipped my art and the time it takes to arrive.

 

 

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For a charlie and the chocolate factory fan !

Gene Wilder as willy wonka

Brian is an absolute fan of charlie and the chocolate factory and wanted something special from me, a very unique picture of Willy wonka. Not the last version of tim burton but from the first picture of 1971 whith Gene Wilder.

As he wanted to frame it, we decided the size of the final picture and Brian also helped me with all the little things he wanted to see inside the picture, including the following :

(his mom, and the 4 grandparents who all just lay in one bed together), how each of the kids (other than Charlie of course) gets removed (Augustus in the chocolate river, Veruka by falling down the trash chute after being in the room with the giant geese that lay giant chocolate golden eggs, Mike TeeVee gets shrunk by the Wonka version of TV, Violet eats the Wonka gum and gets filled to become a giant blueberry) as well as the Wonka contract they all have to sign, the Wonka wallpaper that you lick and tastes like the fruits in the pictures, the Wonka boat, the evil Sluggworth, the Wonkamobile, the fizzy lifting drink room where Charlie and Grandpa Joe fly around (and eventually get in trouble), the everlasting gobstopper, and the Wonka elevator (at the end) as they fly over the city

And here is the result, after watching some parts of the movie with the help of youtube !

Brian is a happy man by now with his picture hanging on the wall of his office in Beverly Hills !

Willy wonka with notes

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Art competition : festa major de Sants

2009 winning entry

 

When you learn a new language, he radio programs are one of the most diccicult to understand until you reach a level you can grab some words, stories, etc… and that’s what happens next week when listening to Sants 3 radio, a local radio in catalan in Barcelona.

Between two music, i heard an anouncement about an art competition for the “Festa major” of the local area. (Festa major is a 7-10 days neighboorhood party during the hottest days of the summer, with lot of activities, concert, shows, street closed for party, castellers (human tower), correfoc (you had to do one in your life if you like fireworks), etc…

2012 winning entry

So i took my ink and start to design something about the festa major of the neighboorhood. As it’s a party picture, i have been looking for some ways to transform a black and white picture into fun and party mood.

I’ve been through some design and i finally found something that fit the subject, using big bold colored letters, fun typography (cheesberger its called) and tried to not make mistakes in the writings as it’s writen in catalan. The ultimate requirement was to print the lot and glue it to cardboard, into make it easy to manipulate by the jury.

my design !

So, i’ve jump on the occaion to try out my new printing machine, with color, and superB paper compliant.(the one i’m using to provide my big prints). for thoses who are curious to see what’s in the background of the picture , i’ve put a larger picture below.

i’ve submited my artwork this week and the result will be around middle june. I’ll keep you in touch then…

full view of my design

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Steven spielberg commission

I was recently asked for a portrait commission. It is the portrait of steven spielberg, like the one i allready done but with a special development of his early works like E.T, Jaws and Jurrasic Park.

As it is a commission for a big huge fan of spielberg (like many) and a film director as well (picture is to celebrate his recent picture “how sweet it is”).

So i’ve been through the entire filmography of the master and brought the best scenes of spielberg movies and bring the magic of theses, including the “Dolly zoom”, famous scene in Jaws with filming chief brody on the beach. Elliot and E.T flying in the moonlight, etc….

Here is the picture, also available in print (11″ x 17″ / 30cm x 42cm).

 

 

 

 

 

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Captain Haddock !

Captain haddock is famous, famous for his temper and particularily his insults, wich are part of the “tintin” culture. Lots of absolute fans did count them and there are plenty of theses, so the idea was to make the haddock portrait using theses insults.

It was a very tremendeous journey, including the listing of the insults, reading the definition of the insults and sort theses which could be drawn and thoses impossible to picture !

The list was based on the original insults in the french version, here it is :

(Amphitryon, Analphabète, Anthropophage, Apache, Arlequin, Astronaute d’eau douce, Autocrates, Aztèques, Bachi-Bouzouks, Bande de Ku-Klux-Klans, Bande de rats, Bandit, Barbares, Boit-sans-soif, Brigand, Brontosaures, Bulldozer à réaction, Cachalot, Cannibale, Casse-pieds, Cataclysme, Cataplasme, Catastrophe, Cloportes, Coléoptères, Coloquintes, Cornemuses, Cornichon, Corsaire, Crétin des Alpes, Cyclone, Cyrano à 4 pattes, Diablesse, Diplodocus, Doryphores, Dynamiteur, Ectoplasmes, Esclavagiste, Gangsters, Gardes-côtes à la mie de pain, Gibier de potence, Grenouilles, Gros pleins-de-soupe, Gyroscope, Hérétique, Hydrocarbure, Invertébré, Ivrogne, Judas, Lépidoptères, Macaques, Macrocéphale, Mamelouk , Maraud, Marchands de tapis, Marins d’eau douce, Mégacycle, Mercenaires, Mille millions de mille sabords, Mitrailleur à bavette, Moujiks, Moules à gaufres, Mufles, Naufrageur, Négriers, Noix de coco, Ornithorynque, Oryctérope, Pantoufles, Patate, Perroquet bavard, Pirate, Poussières, Pyromane, Rats, Saltimbanques, Scolopendre, Scorpion, Serpent, Technocrate, Terroristes, Têtes de lard, Tonnerre de Brest, Topinambours, Traine-potence, Trompe-la-mort, Va-nu-pieds, Vampire, Vandale, Végétariens, Vermicelles, Vers de terre, Vipère, Zèbre, Zouave, Zoulous).

Abecedarians, Aborigine, Alcoholic, Anachronisms, Antediluvian, bulldozer, Anthropophagus, Autocrats, Aztecs.
Baboons, Bagpipers, Bandits, Bashi-bazouks, Bath-tub Admiral, Big-head, Black beetles ,Black ,Marketers, Brigands
Cannibals, Carpetsellers, Caterpillars, Centipede, Coconut, Colocynths, Corsair, Cro-Magnon,
Diplodocus, Doryphore, Dynamiter
Ectoplasms
Freshwater pirate
Gangsters, Gyroscope
Harlequin, Heretic, Hydrocarbon
Idiots, mitation Incas,
Logarithim
Macrocephalic baboon, Megacycle, Mameluke, Miserable, Miserable earth worms,guided missles, Moujiks,
Orangoutang
Pirates, Pyromaniac
Rats,
Savages, Scorpion, Slavertrader, Sparrows
Technocrat, typhoons
Vegetarian, Vermicellis, Viper,
Wildcat
Young monkey

i will let you follow the inside parts of the portraits to find all theses ! and here are few of theses f you can’t find any of them :

Prints of the portrait are available in 12″ x 12″ (30cm X 30cm), hand signed and numbered.

Get a print now !

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Reading a portrait. -Sting-

Following a comment from Hans, an Ebay enthusiast, i will show you how to read the “Sting” portrait, well know for his carrer within the band “Police”and his solo career.

Here we go :

Few songs we can find in the portrait :

* an englishman in New york, skycrapers / cup of Tea

* The shape of my Heart (drawing the boundaries of a heart)

*Fields of Gold (gold bar + fields of barley)

* the soul cage (capturing a ghost with a butterfly net)

* Russians (the hammer and sickle).

The Musician :

* On stage with the police

* his fender bass guitar

* Inviting somebody in the crowd to replace him on stage (something he udually do during tours)

* the “police” band on stage, and a police van beside.

The man :

* A britishman (the union jack flag)

* Member of the rainforest foundation, (helping preserve the amazonian forest).

* Supporting the Raoni Chief in Amazonia

* His Look in 2013, with a huge Beard

* A shooting scene of the Dune movie (including a sandworm)

* He is a great nature keeper. ( Gardening at home and planting trees)

* Keeping up his health balance with Running 8 miles a day. (running)

* With a troley, as he got 6 childrens.

 

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Easy to frame prints

I recently started a new format of pictures : pictures wich would be easy to frame and bigger than the 20 x 20cm format.

I’ve choosen the 30 x 30 cm format then because the frames and pictures matt are so easy to find and relatively cheap compare to a custom frame.

How simple is it to frame by yourself ?

Well, once you are in your ikea shop (any other shops are ok too), you try to go to the frame section and get the frame wich is 50 x 50cm, with a picture matt (29 x 29cm window cut out). There may be different colors and for white walls, i’ve decided to get the natural wood color ( black, yellow and brown available as well).

Once back to the studio, i’ve opened the frame, and put the picture on the matt, centered it and fix the two together using masking tape. (this is a tape wich is easyly removable without ripping off the paper).

I’ve put all the layers together and well, actually it’s working well, very well indeed.

Conclusion : It’s simple to frame, no extra cuts, no bad surprises. Just one thing : only 3 portraits available in this section, so don’t hesitate to ask me for a special portrait and i will populate it !

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Reading a portrait – The Boss

A new section of printed pictures is available now and this one is about Bruce Springsteen.

After doing it first in a 20 x 20 cm format, i’ve noticed than this guy was more than a singer, but the new icon of USA state of mind, proud of the good sides and admiting the bad sides as well.

I’ve choosen a picture of the 80′s, the one which symbolise springsteen at the top of his musical engagment, the one from the born in USA.

So this portrait is all about the US blue collars, the working men and women, american cars, proud to be american and of course the boss and his E-street band !

and now is the picture with subtitles.

The fans will understand most of the sign hidden in the pictures particularily theses :

  • the vietnam G.I turning back to his home country (the main story of the born to U.S.A song)
  • The long branch Dock is a place on the south of New york city where the boss grew up.
  • Clarence clemmons is the tall black guy playing saxophone in the Est Band (dead now)
  • Patti his the woman of the E.st band and the spouse of the boss as well.
  • Bruce was inspired by elvis when a young boy, so you will find some “elvis” in the portrait.
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