Another of my intermittent "daily" paint ... things.

While I know what I'm best at is detailed realism, it's not something I ever aimed for when I started painting (realism's just a by-product of my obsessiveness and, quite frankly, something I'm getting quite fed up with). What I've always admired are the works of Scott Hampton (maybe not the best example...) and those classical oil painters who splotch paint every which way so that you can clearly see their brushstrokes, and yet the pictures come together with some sort of raw energy. Unfortunately, with my obsessive personality, it's nothing I've been able to do without feeling the compulsive need to even things out.

When introduced me to the chalk brush, I experienced the awesome freedom of not being able to go into psychotic detail (Chuck was an eye-opener ) - and I've since found that the pastel brush has the added advantage of feeling oily. It's still a long way to go from "thick heavy strokes", but, after over a year of painstakingly painting pores, I think I may be headed back in the right direction.

Oh, and I defend my choice of subjects. If people can fill their galleries with portraits of the Joker, I can do the same with Dr. West.


NOTE: The border was done using a Corel template. Let it be known that I do *not* have the patience to scrape and scratch my way around a picture.

Re-animator created by HP Lovecraft.