When I was approached by a client to paint an image of Kobe Bryant for their recreational room in their home, I knew exactly what image I wanted to paint.
The clients’ space features dynamic images of legendary black athletes. Raven’s Linebacker Ray Lewis suspended in the air mid-tackle; Jackie Robinson in the midst of a powerful swing at bat. All of the artworks are full of drama, showcasing the athlete’s skill, precision, and form. I wanted this piece to be as dynamic as those, but also do something else: invoke the emotion felt when the key play is made, goal scored, and game won.
That celebration adds to the atmosphere of a gathering to watch sporting events or playing a round of ping pong with family. That’s because art has the power to recreate feelings and shift the vibrational energy of the viewer.
Painting this portrait was challenging, yet fun. Unsurprisingly, the wrinkles in the jersey proved to be the hardest challenge for me, but with a focus on form and space, and thinking of the wrinkles as objects, and not just color changes in a picture helped me to frame them out better initally, which really helped in the painting process.
“Art has the power to recreate feelings and shift the vibrational energy of the viewer.“
Another challenging aspect to this piece was photographing it. I went with a matte finish and flat matte black background, which unfortunately absorbs all light and color and is terribly hard to photograph. Just look at the progression photos of Kobe’s face below. Each photo was taken at a different point in the painting process, in lighting conditions that just happened to be in the environment I was in. Some of the values are greener, some lighter, some darker, and it’s all based on the lighting.
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