Frank McCourt Portrait

This is a portrait I painted this past Thursday for The Weekly Standard. I started painting around 9:00 a.m. and painted until midnight that night . . . got up at the crack Friday morning and finished the painting around 10:00 a.m.

Frank McCourt, the Irish American author, was best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes that chronicled his impoverished upbringing. Frank passed away last Sunday. He was 78.





I was told that because of Frank's passing, they would like me to paint a respectable portrait rather than a caricature. These are two of my more refined sketches that I shared with them, I did a couple others that didn't quite feel right to me.







Phases one and two of the painting . . . My influence artistically for this piece was my favorite illustrator, Norman Rockwell. I was also inspired by the palette of Rembrandt and Zorn Anders, or at least the look that they achieved. I was also taken by Michael J. Deas's recent painting of FDR, that he painted for TIME.





Phases four and five.




Detail of final painting. I spent a long time working on the eyes and mouth, I painted the eyes a couple times, for a while they just didn't feel right. I took a break, rested my eyes, came back and saw what was bugging me . . . fixed it and whalla! For me, once the eyes are right, I can be loose and much more expressive, and have more fun!