Back in April, The George Washington Carver Museum sent an email, calling all local artists to pick up some supplies to participate in its annual fundraiser to support their educational program. The supplies included a 12″ x 12″ canvas, a packet of 3 paintbrushes and 4 giant tubes of acrylic paint. The only given supply I used was the canvas since oil is my preferred medium.
I sketched out a headshot of the title characters from The Adventures of Infinity & Negativa. I wanted extra practice painting those twins. Plus, given the smaller canvas size and the fact I’d not paint any limbs, hands, fingers, or toes, I’d finish in a week.
I underestimated their smiles. I selected two models with different smiles of Google images. I discovered my bias to paint smiles the way I thought they should be rather than how they were in reality. For example, I struggled the most with Negativa’s smile, the woman with the red lipstick. Originally, her lips formed the same shape as Infinity’s. Then I painted all her teeth straight across rather than in an arc. The only way I could correct her row of upper teeth was by painting the trapezoidal black space between her teeth.
Once I had the lips and space correct, the big challenge was to paint the underside of her molars. I could have saved myself a lot of grief by not having their heads tilted up, but I loved the idea that the twins weren’t merely smiling at a camera or for the painter. With their heads tilted and eyes looking up, they are clearly enjoying something: fireworks, aerial dancers, a concert, the bats leaving from under the S. Congress bridge….
I spent a full week reworking their smiles. To a lesser extent, I redid their skin. I had the haughty ambition to put an orgasmic glow on their face. I settled for an attractive, even complexion. After all, there was only so much battle I cared to wage with a painting I intended to donate.
This experience has inspired me to do more Infinity and Negativa headshots. I like the idea of just focusing on facial features. Of course, that will be after I complete the 16 storyboards. I’ve got three more to go, but in order to finish, I’ll have to complete the manuscript. That, however, is a different battle.