The art director from Nylon Guys gave me a second chance to do a nice portrait, something that was so challenging to me with the Wonkavision assignment. This time I had a week instead of a day, and the assignment was Richard Branson! A gift from the illustration gods! Portraits can be tough, but the face makes a huge difference. Richard Branson has a truly great face. It's very easy to do a likeness of him. I did many many drawings and studies of his face. At my first attempts were poor and uninspired so I chose not to show them here. The first painting was the really polished and colorful one at the bottom. I was really proud of it, and excited because for the first time I had done a painting that was un-creepy. I personal mile-stone. The AD was not stoked on it though, and said it was too slick. He recommended that I not try so hard, and make something darker. I guess it's better to try too hard than not hard enough. At first I was taken aback, but I quickly realized that it was not suitable for that magazine, and it was not like the work in my portfolio, so probably an unwelcome surprise for the art director. He recommended that I do something less literal, so I have the blue and green shapes based on his directions. I think they came out nice, and it was a good assignment. The blue version is printed on the last page of the magazine, on news-stands now.
