“Flagbearer”, June 2020 version
This is a painting that I’ve been working on, on and off, for several years. I started her because I was enamored with Lupita Nyongo’s character in Black Panther, and wanted to do a trace of her face to do work on facial structure and rich dark skin tones. The trace of her face turned into a rather more epic undertaking than I previously expected, and I started to detail lines and build movement into the piece. Honestly, I’m not totally sure that I’m completely done with it, but I’ve been waiting to share it for too long!
The funny / sad / delightful reality is that I still can’t draw hands, after 20 years of working on this stuff, they still end up being squares with some highlights that look, hopefully, like knuckles.
I made at least one video of part of the painting process:
