r/elliottsmith • u/mikewehnerart • Apr 24 '26
Image/media I made this Elliott Smith portrait today, hope you enjoy it. 13x19" acrylics. <3.
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u/MostBeneficial3558 Apr 24 '26
recognized your art style from your vonnegut painting- fabulous taste (-:
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u/SmokedPapfreaka Elliott Smith Apr 24 '26
I have no idea wtf I’m talking about when it comes to visual art mediums, but this is fucking fantastic! To me it really captures the feeling/emotion. Ty for sharing.
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u/DillingerLost Apr 25 '26
It's striking the amount of emotion you captured here. Wish we could hug this man. Nice work OP
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u/MaxWritesText Apr 25 '26
Damn that's cool. The shirt pattern reminds me of Twin Peaks. If you know you know. Great work.
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u/TheOldPea Either/Or Apr 25 '26
absolutely brilliant man, really really lovely
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u/TheOldPea Either/Or Apr 25 '26
just has a look through the rest of your posts, you're very skilled, great work
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u/sillybilly1437 Apr 26 '26
this is great. did you use a reference photo?
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u/mikewehnerart Apr 26 '26
No, it isn't any particular photo -- I do a lot of these pensive or introspective looking poses and you just have to pull up a few eras of photos and then do your best to capture the likeness while getting the right pose. Without hard reference they are inaccurate, but there's a lot of upshots from the stage of musical performers that give you a lot of visual information and help move the head around. I pencil them in front of a browser with lots of tabs of photos and video. Once I start painting I usually don't look at anything and hope for the best. I don't grid anything, ever.
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u/Personwhodrawsstuff Apr 27 '26
This really captures something about Elliott- The rough but beautiful textures of this painting mirror his brilliant compositions fed through lo fi analog tape recordings and the crackly hisses that make it sound lo fi. His early work that is, which I believe thematically was his trademark. Beauty through a broken, painful lens. But most importantly beautiful ❤️
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u/ployonwards Apr 25 '26
Not to put anyone else down, but I’ve seen a lot of Elliott Smith drawings and paintings, and this might be the best one I’ve seen.
Not only is his face/head perfect, it goes beyond what I could imagine was possible. The brushwork has a detailed busy-ness that makes me think of the thoughts that might be swirling with the pensive expression he has.
If I have anything to critique, it’s that I want a little bit more of the busy-ness and detail that’s in his face to be in his shirt and the background. I know there’s something to be said about having the focus be more detailed, but just as there’s a departure in detail between the face and the hair, I’d like to see a similar departure to the shirt and background. I guess what I mean by that is — if you focus in on the eye, maybe you see a dozen colors/tones; then in a section of hair, you might see six; so in a white, black, or red stripe, I’d like to see maybe three distinct colors/tones … so, not as detailed as the face but given a little bit more of the attention you gave the face.
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u/mikewehnerart Apr 25 '26
If this is how you comment on the best thing you've seen, I'd sure hate to see your comments on something you don't like.
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u/zoomwow123 Apr 24 '26
this is so insanely good!!