I’m delighted to share my commissioned portrait of Deborah Paul. I met Deborah three years ago on the Upper East Side while painting on the street. We stayed in touch, and last year, Deborah acquired my Guggenheim 4.

Here is the entire process in just over one minute, set to the fabulous beats of Kuf Knotz.

Earlier in the summer, this painting was featured in Design Bureau Magazine alongside my portrait of Bill Murray. This stoked the conversation of a potential portrait commission.

After deciding to move forward, we met up and I snapped about a 100 different potential compositions. After several rounds of review, we decided on this image. As for the palette, Deborah was partial to my Kesher painting…

So I used this image and process as my guide…

And created a slightly stylized version of the source image in the same palette… and off to the races.

It’s important to select the perfect headlines, phrases and images… so this is what the first approval image looks like. Once we nail these details…

The elements are pasted and the painting begins. For this portrait, I used a cool under-painting, which is rare as I often work warm to cool.

Getting the entire face painted and the surface collaged, my intention was to work from light to dark.

This is one of those confusing phases… I start painting in a mid-tone, but only one of the color fields is represented.

Now things are making a bit more sense… the hair is still flat, but the face has a greater level of tonality.

Coming together, but much to be done.

It was here that we decided the contrast was too aggressive, so it was back to the highlights for another round of painting.

The difference is immediately apparent with the lighter background and similar highlight tones.

Now it’s work and re-work… the famous Jasper Johns quote, “take something, do something to it, do something else to it.” Unfortunately, his long-time assistant interpreted this as, “help paint something, sneak it out of the studio, sell it for profit.”

There is a point when you turn the corner, and this, was that point.

Here, I was feeling great about the painting, but something was missing… a certain touch. So, I turned to fellow artist and trusted adviser Jeremy Penn… he suggested a luscious treatment of the hair was in order.

And he was right. One tone later…

Boom! A Portrait of Deborah Paul.

Here is Deborah with the Guggenheim 4… thank you Deborah for this commission! I hope you enjoy living with it as much as I enjoyed creating it. One final note… this was the first painting made in my new studio…