Painted portraits

At the very end of the story, Marlow considers what he knows about Kurtz, and realises that he has no profession. He thought that Kurtz may have been a painter who writes, or a writer that paints. This made me think of the ways I could capture the same atmosphere as my previous images but using painting as the primary technique.

The image below was a very quick response to a portrait (about 15 seconds). I like how abstract the image is whilst still having some sense of a portrait. Another element that I like is the streaky and obvious brush strokes. This gives it some sense of unrest and disintegration, like the portrait itself is shifting and breaking down.

So I could continue to work quickly with this technique but with more refinement I also tried painting over photos. This technique also had it's benefits. I could use the paint to blend certain areas together, leveling out and eliminating certain areas of detail leaving only the light and shade. This creates a ghostly suggestion of figure and features.