About 15 years ago on a date I visited the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and was witness to the wonderful Chuck Close exhibit they had going on. I had never heard of him before and certainly wasn’t an art critic or even a collector, just a guy trying to impress a girl. In fact if you had ask me at that time who my favorite artist was, I would have probably just stared at you and then quickly changed the subject. But I was out on a date and I needed to look smart and sophisticated so I took her to an art museum. What can I say.  We walked around the museum and were absolutely floored by what we were seeing. Eight foot by eight foot canvases one after the other with these huge portraits on them. Crazy detail, and so photo realistic. I was completely blown away and at that moment realized I now had a favorite artist. Chuck Close was in my head and I so wished that I could produce something that great with my art but had never even come close, although I never really tried that much. The art bug hit me off and on throughout my life up until that point, but now I really wanted to create something. I shouldn’t even have to say this at this point, but if you haven't seen Mr. Close’s work, I highly recommend that you check out his website.

I've always been fascinated with portraits and the story they can tell when the eyes stare you down. My uncle always had a picture of Uncle Sam on the wall joining his finger with the saying “We Want You”. Every time I went over there I would walk back and fourth in front of that picture and the eyes would follow me everywhere I went. I had tried free handing some portraits in the past, once in high school for a girl I was crushing on and a few other attempts just for fun. Nothing all that serious. Just so you know, the portrait for the girl, was of the girl and she never dated me. Not my best work. Neither were the other few attempts that I tried. Around late ’94 I was reading a book called Come As You Are, the story of Nirvana. I was really into the band and at the time played a ton of their songs in my own cover band. After finishing the book I decided to sit down and try my hand at a portrait using the cover of the book for inspiration. I grabbed my art pad and a pencil and started drawing an eye. The book was about the size of a 5"x7” picture so the cover photo was very small and Kurt’s face was hidden by a lot of hair. Not sure what came over me but I drew that portrait like my life depended on it and didn't stop until I was done. I think it took me 8hr plus. Can’t quite remember as it was 22yrs ago. That picture that I had completed proved to me that I had talent, but at that point in my life I had no art direction. Because of that i didn’t really pick up the pencil for three years after that. But this is what I had created:

Kurt Cobain '94

When I picked up the pencil 3 years later I dabbled around with a few art pieces, nothing amazing and certainly not even close to the Kurt portrait from 3 years prior. Just “killing time” type stuff. I drew these on the back of some form papers while on the graveyard shift at a porn company I was working for at the time. Again, just killing time. Here was the result:

Jim Carrey '97

Jaco Pastorius '97

A few more years went by with no new art to my name but that’s when I discovered Chuck Close and the seed was planted. Inspiration had struck and I knew that I had to create something that great. Whether I could or not remained to be seen and even though I was full of drive from the discovery of Mr. Close’s work, it would be another 5 years before I would even attempt a piece. Life got busy and tough and art was the last thing from my mind. I was diagnosed as severely bi-polar and was about to be a dad for the first time all the while trying to juggle the insanely volatile tech market which had me in and out of jobs every few years or LESS as i’m a web developer by trade. Once I was able to get the bio-polar a little under control and my son was a slightly older I finally purchased a really nice art book and decided to finally give a real portrait a shot. I started out with a few warm up pics, or a I refer to them now, “Stalling Sketches" but pretty I drew them really fast and they're not something that I’m crazy happy with. Here was the result of my two warm up sketches:

The Man '05

Eddie Vedder '05

You’ll see I use what is called the grid system. This is what Chuck does, he grids his subject piece off and then grids off the destination piece. At this point it’s all about focusing on one square at a time. It really helps to keep you from being overwhelmed with the crazy amount of drawing ahead of you and slows down the questions in your mind of “how the hell am I going to draw that”? In all honesty I was actually taught this technique back around 4th grade when I took a summer school art class. The teacher's name was Mrs Barnhart and she blew my mind when she showed me this technique. I was able to whip out a (very crude) Captain America drawing that was proportionally right on the money. The details needed work but what I learned was, perfection was possible in such a “free handed” world.

It had now taken me a few years to muster up the guts to give a photo realistic portrait a try but I was ready and there was no stopping me now. I was so removed from the art world as I had no real experience that I didn't realize that you could purchase pencil sets with various led densities. These allowed for easily applied light and dark graphite without having to rely on the pressure of your pencil strokes. Well all I had ever used for drawing was a #2 pencil and so set out on my first portrait piece with a….. plain #2 pencil. I spent a few months hammering out a few squares at a time until I eventually completed the piece. What I was left with was something that i was very proud of and I couldn't believe what I had actually drawn. Here's was the final piece:

Kurt Cobain '05

I promptly matted and framed the piece and literally stared at it for hours everyday thinking "I actually drew that… i can’t believe I actually drew that”. I loved seeing something so great on the wall in my office that I then matted, framed and hung the original Kurt piece I had done in '94. To see them made me proud and I felt like I was proving to myself that if i really wanted to, I could pull off something a bit more challenging and try and take this art thing to the next level. After all this was not insanely detailed and was not a portrait that was staring you down, but none the less it achieved exactly what i was going for. I really wanted to dive into another one at this point but I must admit that it was a fairly daunting task to take one of these on. With me still trying to fully grasp my bi-polar and how that affected me day to day, I again ended up pushing art to the back of my mind so it wasn’t until a year later that I actually attempted another one.

When I started back in a year later, I chose to take a little bit more of a speed approach to the next grid portrait and ended up completing it really quickly (big surprise). The results in my eyes were “ok” but not even close to what I had pulled off on the piece before it. So I promptly threw the speed idea out the window and decide that if I was going to do this again it would have to go a little more like previous one. Take my time, take my time, take my time. Here’s the speed piece I finished:

Jaco Pastorius '06

This piece didn’t do much for me and actually sat in my art book up until just recently as I didn’t feel it was very quality work. What it did do for me was fuel me to tackle a new portrait with greater attention to detail than my first Kurt Cobain grid portrait from the year prior. I dove right back into creating my 3rd portrait with the grid system. I was still pretty into Nirvana and Kurt Cobain so I decided to try my hand at yet another portrait of the iconic front man. I found this picture of Kurt that wasn’t an actual photo but a drawing someone else had done. I loved it so much that I decided to recreate it in my own style. I realized that I was again not doing a very detailed piece but none the less I absolutely love this portrait and the way it turned out. It didn’t take the same length of time to complete this as the Kurt portrait the year before, but it wasn’t rushed and again instantly matted and framed it and then proceeded to stare at it daily with the same thought “I actually drew that”. Here’s how the 3rd Kurt portrait turned out:

Kurt Cobain '06

After completing this piece life started to unravel for me again. My bi-polar meds didn’t seem to be working that well and my wife had ask for a divorce. At this point in my life I had two kids, a house payment and an ok paying job at a company I was miserable at. So I was again not thinking anything about art, just trying to survive life. It would be another 5 years before I picked up the pencil again to try my hand at another grid style portrait.

When I did pick up the pencil again I decided (big surprise) to try another portrait of Kurt. Full disclosure, when I had started looking for the picture I wanted to use for my first grid work portrait of Kurt I ended up finding about five photos that I loved. So they were all in my art book, gridded off and ready to go. I’m not THAT infatuated with him. It was partially a convenience factor. I was ready to tackle this piece and took to the art book a few squares at a time and finished the next piece in a few months jus like the previous ones. I only worked on them a couple nights a week for an hour or two at a time so that’s where the months come in. The concentration kills the brain and the eyes fairly quickly so in order to do my best work i have to set the pencil down when that occurs. This was the result of my 3rd Kurt grid attempt:

Kurt Cobain '11

Overall I loved this piece but there are always things I learn on every piece and this one was no different. I tried a slightly different approach on this portrait by starting with shading everything at a 45 degree angle up and to the right. I wanted to see what the overall effect would be. I liked the outcome but I learned that too much pressure while darkening with a standard pencil can give the piece a warped effect as you’re literally stretching the paper slightly. The tooth of the paper gets flattened down when you apply to much pressure and that’s when things start looking weird. I’ve since learned that you have to take multiple passes for the darkest areas adding another layer of led each pass to darken it more. No heavy pressure, just multiple passes.

Once it was matted, framed and hung I loved it even more. This fueled me to want start the next one right away only problem was, I no idea who I would draw next but I did know that it would definitely not be Kurt. After pondering for a few days it hit me, Chuck Close. It had been about 10yrs plus since the museum visit but I had purchased a book of Chuck Close’s work while I was there and the cover of the book was a self portrait that he had done of himself back in the very early 70’s. I loved the picture so much and thought this could be my little thank you tribute to Chuck for the inspiration he had given me. I was nervous to give it a shot as it was recreating something from my art guru who in my eyes was a genius and could do no wrong. How could I compete with that? Well, I swallowed my fear and started in. This one took me about the same 2 month period as the prior ones had but offered far more challenges than I had never dealt with before. A few were the glasses and the reflections they create, smoke from the cigarette and a few teeth. This where I had to keep telling myself “just draw what you see, don’t complicate it”. Well it worked out and this piece in my eyes would be my best work to date. Here’s how the self portrait of Chuck Close turned out:

Chuck Close '11

I had definitely blown myself away with this one and it turned out far better than I thought it would. This one really upped my confidence level and the next challenge was ready for me but I wasn’t ready for the next challenge. I think at this point I was still thinking of art as a hobby that I participated in every few years with the occasional 2 to 3 prints in one years time. Somehow though, it would be another 5 years before attempting another one, which leads us all the way to December of 2015.

I encourage my kids, and always have, to think of life as art and to be as creative as possible in everything you do. This means that I buy them new art books every year to insure that they always have a place to draw and be creative. December of 2015 was no different. They both got new art books and I even bought them the fancy pencil sets to use, even though I don’t believe you need them. My daughter and I were in the kitchen a few days after Christmas and she pulled out her art book to work on some Manga drawings. She was so inspiring that I grabbed my art book and plopped down next to her. Opened up my book and looked at what pics I had ready to go. Guess what, I had one already gridded and waiting. Only problem, it was another Kurt. Screw it, i’m doing it anyways. Here’s how it turned out:

Kurt Cobain '16

I loved the way this one turned out and definitely one my most realist yet. Of course looking back at it now there are probably five things I would change, but that happens with every one that I do. I used the same idea of shading up and to the right as in the past but tackled this portrait completely different from all the others. I started this one off by drawing in all of the darkest parts of the image first which gave me great anchor points to shade to. Once the blackest parts were all done i just worked all of them together by adding in the details and shading between them. Worked well. The eyes on this picture are my favorite along with the nose. I finished this around mid February and promptly matted, framed and hung it in my office with the other ones. Stared, stared and stared at it. Made me so proud to look at my accomplishment.

I had decided that I was no longer going to treat my art like a hobby, but instead, treat it like it would be my future. So I dove immediately into another portrait. This time i decided to do a portrait of Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters fame. Found the perfect picture to do and then found an even better one, love when that happens. Printed, gridded, and mounted it in my art book, gridded off my destination paper and never looked back. I think I finished this piece in about 4-5 weeks somewhere close to April. I was putting in some serious time on it at each sitting and just couldn’t stop. Here’s how it turned out:

Dave Grohl '16

A few things I did differently on this portrait would be the shading and the hair. I tend to let the picture tell me how to draw it if that makes any sense. That’s what started to happen naturally so I just went with it. For the hair I darkened everything and then removed led to create the highlights and streaks. Thank god for awesome erasers and that does not include the erasers on the ends of a #2 pencils. I call those ones “paper haters”! For the shading portion of this piece I decided to use pointillism which I had never tried and certainly didn’t realize how hard it was with a pencil before starting in with it. Again I learned this technique in a 4th grade summer school art class with Mrs Barnhart. 35 years later, just getting around to trying it out. Normally you would have some sort of ink based pen that would give you fairly accurately, the same sized dot every time and certainly the same shade. Pencils don’t work like that. The led doesn’t lend it self well to making dots on paper, at least not super visible ones. If you “dot” to aggressively your pencil led slips ever so slightly and you get little tiny streaks off your points. Then you have to erase and do it all over again. Once the pencil dulls, the points lighten and get a little bigger. See what I mean?? Big learning curve on pointillism with a pencil but the results can be fantastic if you just put in the time to do it right. Love the eyes on this one a lot. They really stare you down like a father that just caught his kid pulling into the drive way in the family car at 2am at age 14….. no fun. Fail Tuba……..

I was so motivated after finishing this piece I literally started right in on my next subject……. Walter White of Breaking Bad fame. I was very excited to do this piece and this one was definitely the most challenging piece i had ever attempted. It all started with the eyes and glasses, that was my first task on it. My plan was a to knock the eyes and spectacles out of the way and then just finish the rest. Haha, easier said than done. Once I got into the forehead and all of the wrinkles and skin details, I realized I needed to learn how two draw wrinkles and quick! I also used pointillism with this one as well for certain parts. The ears were one of the biggest challenge for me, as was the bottom lip. When you don’t have a lot of strong lines to anchor to when drawing it can make it a little tougher, or at least it does for me. The ears were tough because there was very subtle differences in the ear, everywhere. You had to nail them in order for the ear to take it’s proper look and shape. It was fun to figure out the best way to do it. The bottom lip or any lips for that matter can be really tough when they’re all cracked, and rough. I think I got it though. Here’s how the piece turned out….

Walter White '16

I was starting to see how quickly I was improving with each completed portrait. I had just finished my 3rd full detailed grid portrait of 2016 and we were less than 6 months in to the year. The most I had ever completed as far as detailed portraits in a single year was just two, Chuck and Kurt. It's sad to say that I only needed to complete three portraits to beat my all time record for a years time. I used it as motivation instead thinking that I was only about 6 months in with three portraits under my belt, why stop now. Art will be my future is what I keep telling my self. I knew there was no stopping me at this point. I had a new subject already picked out, and even had taken the time to find the image, prep it and have it in the art book waiting to draw. Took a few days off, picked up a frame and mat for the Walter White, got that on the wall and dove in head first to the new one of Steve Jobs. Here’s how it turned out:

Steve Jobs

I again used pointillism on this one for all of the shading. The ears from Walter White helped prepare me for the hand on this one. Although the hand actually had some pretty strong lines to work against which almost made it easier than the ears from Walter. The bottom lip was the last thing for me to finish on this piece. I avoided it all cost and probably spent four different sessions on it. I would get a little bit of the detail done and then say screw it I’m moving on to something else for right now. Each time got a little easier as I had a little more done than the last time. Eventually I got it done and I think it turned out pretty good. My favorite parts of the piece are again the eyes and the nose. He has that look of “I’m just about to blow your minds people, just wait!”…… My daughter LOVES the eyes on this one. It’s such a smooth piece when you look at it, but then anything compared to Walter was smooth looking. I think the wrinkles and scars are still haunting me from that portrait.

I had now completed 4 pieces of art and it was only the beginning of July. I was on a serious mission now. A coworker had seen some of the Art hanging at my Desk and ask if I had tried selling any of it. I of course hadn’t and when she heard that, immediately told me to setup a store on Etsy and get it up there asap. I hadn’t heard of Etsy so i looked into it and quickly discovered that this was a great idea. I set up a store, went through the process of figuring out the best ways to print and ship my art, updated my personal website to allow people to link to and purchase a portrait directly from Etsy and then started promoting it.

By no means did sales take off and go through the roof or anything, but I never really expected that to happen. Instead what did happen was I started making a few sales and within about a month of setting up the store, I was contacted by the curator of an art gallery in Houston Texas (Mackey Gallery). I read that I had been hand selected to participate in the ASP7 (Art Stimulus Package). The curator had apparently being scouring social media and sites like Etsy and Deviant Art and ran across my work. She liked it enough to include me in a small group of 20 artist who would have the opportunity to display and sell up to four pieces of art to help raise money for the Museum Of Drawing (Houston Tx). The Artist would get 50% of whatever the piece sold for with the rest going to the museum. My first thought was , “this is a scam” so I called the gallery and left a message. We’ll see if they call me back or not…...

Well, I was called back in about 30 minutes by then gallery owner. We quickly hit it off and ended up talking for about 45 minutes. She assured me that this ASP7 was on the up and up and that I had nothing to worry about. I decided to ship down my four most recent pieces and proceeded to do so. The auction was a complete success with me selling two of the four pieces that I had sent. A few days after the event I was contacted by the gallery owner who offered to help me step my art career up the next level. She explained how to setup, size and print more of an official gallery style print. I was also instructed on how to setup and sell limited edition run of prints. I took all of this in and immediately purchased all the supplies to make this happen. Most of it involved the materials for packing up the art correctly for shipping. The gallery owner also thought me that as well. She sent me picture after picture as we talked on the phone with her describing exactly how to make the packaging functional and beautiful. It’s all about the impression right?? Did you throw away the packing for your iPhone? I didn’t.

So at this point i’m now starting to take myself a little more seriously as an artist and feel like my art career is just starting to blossom. I’m now currently about 50% done with my next portrait and it is definitely something that I have never tackled before. It has proven to be a real challenge but it’s turning out great. If you like Tupac, you should love this:

Tupac Shakur

I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey a little bit and thank you for taking the time to do so. If you enjoyed the art and want to see more you can visit my personal web page at www.shaunbloom.com.

Don’t give up on your dreams….. even if you are almost 45 years YOUNG!

-Shaun