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Time
Out New York - Hot Seat - More Hot
Seat portraits for Time
Out New York! As you can see, TONY has been
getting some bigger names lately, across all different
fields, and it's been cool to work on presenting someone
very well known in a (hopefully) new and interesting
way.
So,
let's take it from the top: Kim Deal, Patrick Stewart(!!),
Padma Lakshmi, Neil Patrick Harris, Ira Glass (neat-o!),
Famke Janssen, James Fry, film director Uwe Boll, Marisa
Tomei, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, Steve Carell(!!),
Common, Matthew Broderick.
Getting
to illustrate Patrick Stewart was a real thrill, and
I wanted to make him as cool as possible. Occasionally
someone I've illustrated in TONY will get in touch with
me, asking for a copy of the piece.
Of
course, that's very flattering, no matter who it is,
but I dreamed that some secretary or assistant of Patrick
"Picard" "Sejanus" "Scrooge"
Stewart might do the same. He was promoting a version
of Macbeth he was starring in, so I went for
something related to that.
Ira
Glass was also cool; I'm a regular listerner of This
American Life, and I like the combo of a real setting
with an abstract approach that I put together for him.
Making
Famke Janssen look beautiful was done long before I
did her portrait, so I came up with something that I
thought made her look sweet and approachable, which
frequently is the opposite of the characters she plays.
For
Steve Carrel, I resisted the urge to have him doing
something wacky; so I went for a light touch but nothing
too over the top.
In
every series of portraits, there's always one subject
I don't have much personal connection to, but always
comes out better than I expected. That happened again,
this time with the singer/actor Common. I really liked
the background, along with the happy, upbeat look he
has on his face. I can just hear the birds chirping.
I've
now been doing these TONY portraits for just under three
years--every week for three years. I couldn't think
of a better way to hone my skills than by the sheer
repetition of having to produce one of these every single
week, yet always having a different subject and having
to sort of start from scratch each time.
As
always, can't wait to see who's on tap next!
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