This first portrait is a variation on a beautiful photograph by Simon Procter, who makes photos that feel like paintings. My challenge was to turn that photo back into a painting.
I used color studies on the computer and glaze-like layering before I even knew the proper term. I was experimenting, but I was surprised it worked well enough to create a convincing human presence. From that moment, I knew portraits belonged with me.
In one of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, this French actress played a captive mermaid without speaking. Her eyes say enough. Her eyes also play a leading role in the 2014 film I Origins.
