Ethan Peck

Portrait of Ethan Peck, one of the stars of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As you can probably guess, he plays Spock. I have really enjoyed the show, and I think he is terrific in the role.

This is also the first in a series of painted portraits I intend to do, as I practice the more painterly style of work suggested by Ahmed Aldoori. I did that apple tutorial, and was so excited by the results I wanted to apply that “brush economy” style to all sorts of things. Then I tried it, and kind of chickened out. My lack of confidence in shapes and colors combined to torpedo my faith in the technique. A few attempts since have gone even worse. So the plan here is to work through those anxieties by doing a whole pile of them.

What we’re talking about here is using bigger brushes, longer and looser strokes, and fewer of them. I crafted a custom brush for this, based on my favorite dry brush, and am acclimating myself to it. I learned, for example, I don’t like brushes that change size under pressure. I know real brushes work that way, but it just made all my edges unintentionally squiggly.

It took a while for confidence to assert itself this painting was going to work. But when I’d figured out what colors to use and the rough shapes, the final details fell into place quickly. I love the highlights on his nose and how they make the whole shape pop — I need to look for more excuses to add those in the future.

I noticed something about the color process this time around. I started with big blocks of base colors, guessing at a medium value across the shape. Every one of those guesses was awful! As I continued to refine the picture, putting more detail in the shapes, getting the values more correct, picking colors became easier. I think when I’m looking at a mostly blank canvas, the simultaneous contrast illusion is at its strongest. The closer I am to getting things right in one area, the easier it becomes to see right in neighboring ones.