Portrait 6: Ram Vaswani - Update

OK, this is what Mr. Vaswani looks like after some reconstructive tweaking.

What do people think? Hit? Miss?

Let me know :-)

Portrait 18: Allen Cunningham

... is currently on the easel, with Mel Judah hotly tipped as #19.

Portrait 17: Marcel Luske

Ok, his mouth needs a little tweaking, but he's all but finished.

The suit, the upside down shades, the slightly red and intense forehead, the fact that Mr Luske is six foot plus, a martial-arts expert, and Dutch (not sure why this was a factor) all added up to result in one thing going round and round in my head the whole time I was painting him: Bond Villain. See where I'm coming from?

Eat your heart out LeChiffre!

Portrait 16: Mike Matusow

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, star of the green felt, has such a distinctive look about him that his portrait turned out very much in a cartoon style. A lot like Mr Matusow's Full Filt avatar. The goatee, the specs, the pursed lips (always ready to erupt!), the prominent facial shape and eyes/eye-brows: The Mouth practically painted himself!

Portrait 15: Joe Hachem

Multi-multi-millionaire off the back of his massive WSOP win, Smokin' Joe Hachem (Vince van Patten again, sorry) is a very good-looking guy, so I had to at least make him look presentable in my portrait of him. He seems to have a contrary combination of very cheeky, personable eyes and a salesman's winning smile, and i had to paint a little quiff on top, to complement the chin decoration down below. Oh, and he always seems to be wearing black.

Nearly halfway through with this one...

Portrait 14: Erik Seidel

Looking good?

Portrait 13: Gus Hansen

One of the biggest names in the poker world: Gus Hansen, aka "Gambling Gus" aka "The Great Dane" aka "Bus(t) Hansen" (have I been listening to Vince Van Patten a bit too much?!?)

Anyway, I knew I had to make a good job of Mr Hansen, one of the most recognised faces in poker, winner of The Aussie Millions and numerous other huge poker titles, not to mention the giant full-house vs. quads pot with Daniel Negreanu on the first season of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Gus's look is all about a very distinct and angular face, a large, closely shawn head and a light peppering of designer stubble, oh, and an ipod (!).

Very pleased with this one. I was gonna finish on Gus but I had an overwhelming urge to paint him so I think I'm gonna finish on Phil Ivey now.

Portrait 12: Julian Gardner

Top English pro Julian Gardner was next on my list; I never realised what an incredible smile this man had until I painted him! Julian had requested he be wearing a baseball cap, so in true poker tournament style, on it went.

Mr. Gardner's very distinctive facial shape and big, bright smile made for a great portrait I think.

Portrait 11: Jennnifer Tilly

I'll be completely honest: I found it really hard to fit Jennifer Tilly's very unique eyes into a place on her face that looked right with the rest of the portrait, so I bottled it and gave her a big pair of shades. I've seen her wear 'em before, and hey, she's a poker player, so who's gonna tell the difference?

I decided to give her some red and purple in her hair, as she always seems to have some colours in there, and I needed something to give her that funky kick.

All in all, I think this one turned out great, and I feel I captured Ms. Tilly perfectly.

Portrait 10: Humberto Brenes

What a joy to paint he was! Humberto Brenes reminded me of someone while I was painting him, but I can't think who.

This portrait looks deceivingly caricatured, when actually, it isn't that far off being a straight portrait, Mr. Brenes just has such a character-full face.

Rock on...

Photos soon, promise!

OK, my computer has been in bits for the last few days, and my painting studio is no longer in the same house as my PC, or the digital camera I use to take piccys, so really this week I've just been cracking on with painting, at the expense of updating the blog. I've painted LOADS though, and am up to halfway through with 18 completed portraits, including Mike Matusow and Marcel Luske. I'm now on the back 9!

Promise to get some pics up soon! :-)

Updates

Humberto Brenes and Gus Hansen are now finished and looking good. Julian Gardner is nearly done, Jen Tilly is causing me some bother, and I've started repainting Ram Vaswani. Eric Seidel is about to get painted too.

Photos etc. will follow in the week.

Over and out

Concept Promo Design

Portraits 1 through 36, in no particular order

Just for reference, one or two people have asked me to post the entire list of names, so here they are, in no particular order...

• David Ulliot
• Roland DeWolfe
• Surindar Sunar
• Ram Vaswani
• Julian Thew
• Peter Costa
• Lucy Rokach
• Mel Judah
• Julian Gardner
• Joe Beevers
• Andy Black
• John Shipley
• Gus Hansen
• Marcel Luske
• Carlos Mortensen
• Rob Hollink
• Joe Hachem
• Bruno Fitoussi
• Jennifer Tilly
• Howard Lederer
• Mike Matusow
• Eric Seidel
• Humberto Brenes
• Layne Flack
• Phil Ivey
• Chris Ferguson
• Phil Hellmuth
• Doyle Brunson
• Phil Laak
• Eric Lindgren
• Antonio Esfandiari
• Barry Greenstein
• Allen Cunningham
• Ted Forrest
• Johnny Chan
• Scotty Nguyen

Anybody who has any good pics of any of the above players, or any good ideas about how to paint them, I'd love to hear from you. Drop us an email, hiddenlaws@hotmail.com

Portraits 10, 11, 12 & 13

OK guys, here are some pics I'm gonna be using as source material for the next four portraits...

If anyone has any good pics of any of the above guys please get in touch and let me see them.

Portrait 9: Andy Black

never alone with my GF's cat to keep me company. awwwwww....

A monk in the making...

Kinda serene, don't you think?

They call him The Mad Monk of Poker, or is it just The Monk? Either way, I had to paint Andy Black with a Tibetan Buddhist orange garb on, anything else would have been plain wrong. Although, obviously, it could just be an orange t-shirt. These mistakes are easy to make.

I wanted Mr. Black's serene Buddhist qualities and noble presence to shine through, and I think I caught him just right. The goatee he often wears, I feel, adds a lot of character to his face so I painted that on as well. And apparently, he's a really nice guy in real life too.

With the completion of Andy Black, there is now only (only?) 27 portraits left to paint...

Portrait 8: Chris Ferguson

If you ever wondered what Jesus looked like without a beard... and oh yeah, I really wish I'd have taken a photo of it; Chris Ferguson with a handlebar tash looks seriously bad-ass

Another portrait that more or less painted itself. The guy has such a classic look, so distinctive, he practically is a portrait of himself in real life anyway.

What can I say about a living legend? He won the World Series back when it was just for real men who could look eachother in the eye without the need for iPods and tales of internet woe. He has watched many come and go, and apparently turned a freeroll into over $18,000 by grinding out baby-stakes online. The discipline!

Portrait 7: Julian Thew

Next up was GUKPT champion Julian Thew, a Nottingham player, I guess Julian is probably one of the regular faces at Dusk Till Dawn.






Traits I focused on for Julian were his windswept spiky hair, his surprisingly honest and friendly-looking (for a poker player) eyes, and his wide toothy grin.


I won't lie, I did find it quite tough to paint Julian, there are not as many images around to get hold of as there are for some of the more celebrated names, and he has such a down-to-earth look about him he doesn't instantly lend himself to portrait artwork.


I think I captured him well though.


After painting Mr. Thew, I decided I needed a break from the Brits, so I went for one of the biggest names in the history of pokerl; in fact, one of the biggest names in the history of the world...

Portrait 6: Ram Vaswani

I guess in the same way painting Antonio naturally led on to me painting Phil Laak, after painting Joe Beevers it just felt right to move on to his Hendon mob buddy Ram Vaswani.

A photo of Ram that a friend took at the recent WSOPE

In painting Ram, I realised that he has a very good facial structure, and very dark rings around his eyes. As always, I try to emphasise these character traits to make a portrait that captures someone's look in a way that a photo might not be able to, but in doing so I'm not sure if I went overboard on the cheeks and jawbones? To be totally honest, I can see Ram when I look at this painting, I'm just not sure how much I can. I have a feeling I might need to make his lips a bit smaller and more pursed. I don't know, maybe he looks good as is?

Sometimes I just can't tell with my own work. I know I can see Ram in this portrait, I just don't know whether it needs some slight adjustments so that everyone else can.

Feedback people!!

In my defence...

This is the photo I was working from to paint Joe Beevers...

At least maybe now people can sort of see where I was coming from, the stark lighting and the expression Mr. Beevers is pulling combine to make for quite an intense look.

At the last check, Joe Beevers was looking like this...

I think I need to just rework the mouth a bit, and we'll be well on our way!

Thoughts?

Updates/Waffle

OK, I haven't added anything on here for a while, but I have been painting. I've finished a few since my last post, just haven't had a chance to blog cos bit of a mad week, and had to have a move around of my painting gear...

I shall return with photographs!

And oh yeah, my friend was right, Mr. Beevers wasn't too keen on his portrait, so I've been changing that this week too... http://www.thehendonmob.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23889

Onwards and upwards my friends! I painted a rather handsome Ram Vaswani but I'm not too convinced I've caught him well enough, might have to adjust him slightly. I'll post it on here for all to decide in the week.

Portrait 5: Update

Portrait 5 is finished. I wanted to paint Joe Beevers in a harsh but also fine light, because to me his image seems to encompass those two qualities. I think I've caught him perfectly, with a stern poker face, but a friend tells me he might not be very happy with it :-(

Yay?

Nay?

Either way, I think I'm gonna paint his Mob buddy Ram Vaswani next, and I've nearly broken the 30's!!!!!

Comments

OK people, anybody who checks this blog on a regular basis, or just if you stumbled upon it, feel free to leave comments. I'm getting a few people leaving feedback on my facebook, or saying things to me in real life, or just staying silent. Please post some comments on here, let me know what you think! Let's get stuff all in the same place. Any ideas you might have for how to paint future portraits, or comments on the ones I've painted, or whatever you fancy really, so long as it's at least mildly relevant, and family-friendly. It's a blog, make it interesting! It'd surely be more entertaining to read if it had the input of a few different people, and perhaps there are some interesting folk lurking in the shadows!

Also, remember you can check all my entries using the navigation on the right, often the page will only display the most recent ones.

Thanks everyone who checks on it for your continued interest :-)

Joe Beevers is nearly done BTW...

Portrait 2: Update

Finally, after many hours of toil, The Unabomber is finito...

32 to go...