The title of this post only makes sense because of the blue background. It is a portrait of my brother, who is a musician, but who doesn’t really play the blues very much (as far as I know).

As with my previous acrylic portraits (see Rough Beast and Portrait of an Old Man) this is an exercise rather than a finished piece. I started getting a bit precious about the detail and trying to fiddle around with the eyes which aren’t quite level, and then I remembered that the point of this process was to let go and splash paint around and learn to be a bit uncautious, so I sort of just abandoned it.

The likeness is not terribly good, and it’s not really what I set out to do, and I have completely failed to capture the angle of his head (he’s looking up and his head is twisted sightly to his right) but I’m not displeased with it.

I have always been amazed at his talent and the yellow nimbus is supposed to represent his music emanating from his mind and soul.

And here is how he progressed from formless blob to great musical genius.