ABOUT

I began work on this personal portrait project while waiting for layers of paint to dry on another piece. Having seen Fontaines DC live several times and with their new album on the horizon, I decided to paint a portrait study of the band's enigmatic frontman, Grian Chatten.
As with most of my portraits, I began by mapping out the main forms/shapes and then building up layers of local (ie. generic) colour.
Then, as the painting progressed, I began to add more gestural brushstrokes to suggest the 3D planes of the human face. I usually try and get the eyes done first, as these convey a great deal of someone's 'likeness'. Once these are correct, i find I can usually move onto the other features without too much re-working.
I wanted to try and capture what I can glean of Grian's personality from listening to his lyrics - and I hope I've succeeded in this instance.