Choi Min-sik

Another quick, sketch-free painting, this time of South Korean actor Choi Min-sik in his unforgettable role as Oh Dae-su in Oldboy. It’s a hard-edged movie that calls for a searing portrayal. I cannot think of another actor better suited to that degree of commitment than him. I first took note of him as the bad guy in an otherwise forgettable action flick called Shiri. There was a scene where he was shouting out about his character motivations, and his face turned red with the exertion of his emotions. It was an extraordinary scene, burned into my memories.

There’s something funky about my rendition of him here that I haven’t quite put my finger on. Maybe an asymmetry between the nose and mouth and doesn’t quite look right? But I’m pretty happy with the colors, the shapes, the emotion of the piece. Doing these loose paintings without a sketch is pretty fun! And a lot faster than the more fastidious process I was doing before.