David's Inspiration:
I worked from several images of Frank Sinatra in a suit and wearing a hat with the old-fashioned microphone nearby. He's just like a skinny kid at that age and I wanted to capture that posture he had. I took a picture of myself in a suit like that and that was my main refernce for his stance. I love that classic look he had; he's casual but cool. He's so known for his blue eyes that they have to be just right. I used a combination of blues, it's not just a straight blue out of a tube of oil paint, it's layers of a lot of different blues - I wanted to get some depth. Then I used three or f.our different blues for the background, and a little purple. r
I painted Frank
Sinatra and John Wayne simultaneously; both of them are oil on wood
panel. I love to work on wood panel and I have them especially made for
some of my paintings. The Godfather tribute painting is oil on wood panel and
my favorite artist - Peter Paul Rubens - liked to paint on panels.
You have two choices for oil painting, canvas or wood, and I like
wood because it's solid and you can really layer on color and it doesn't give.
I worked on these around the time I did Dirty Harry and I had decided to do
more full-body caricatures. When you look at most caricature art, you
usually see just faces, you rarely see full body. Unfortunately, it's like
twice as much work to do full body, but Frank Sinatra and John Wayne were just
perfect for it.
Original Oil on Panel painting. 24x36x3.
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