After President Obama's speech to the entire 2020 High School

[lunatica]

graduating classes of the United States on this historic day I am posting this painting I did of him. To honor him.

[AJT]

1. Wonderful

[UTUSN]

2. Send it to the OBAMAs!

[lunatica]

3. I think someone would toss it on some pile of gifts

he and Michelle get every day. They must get thousands of things like this.

[UTUSN]

4. NOT "like this"!

[lunatica]

5. Yeah, but you're biased

[MontanaMama]

6. This is gorgeous lunatica.

I don’t know how you’d send it to PBO...but damn. You should.

[lunatica]

8. I imagine he and Michelle get thousands of letter

and gifts every single day. That would be all part of how beloved they are. And because they probably get hate mail and all kinds of awful things too, their mail is most likely one of the jobs of the secret service detail, or their assistants. My work would end up on the large pile marked “artwork”.

[summer_in_TX]

7. Really beautiful!

The love with which it was done shines through, as does the love and joy of President Obama. He shines!

[lunatica]

10. I wanted to depict him laughing because I

love his laugh.

We’ve all noticed that Trump never laughs. He can’t. There is no lightness in him.

[Blue_playwright]

16. The only time I can remember

...seeing Trump laughing is that tape of him with Epstein.

[Trueblue Texan]

9. Truly awesome! Nt

[spudspud]

11. You're very talented! /nt

[lunatica]

19. Thanks!

I’m happy you like it.

[Duppers]

12. This is exceptional!

You've captured his essences, as they say.

And this is also my favorite way of thinking of him.

[ailsagirl]

13. Just beautiful

It captures his humanity and joie de vivre to a T. Thank you

[Eyeball_Kid]

14. Looks like digital art, yeah? n/t

[lunatica]

17. It's pop art in the style of Che Quevara's black and red portrait

I made large solid areas of black and white without entering a whole lot of detail. I used a photograph of him that I liked because he was laughing. In the end I did put in the fine detail of his crows feet and the vein that can be seen on the side of his forehead. It’s not something that people would notice when looking at him, but it’s actually a unique feature of his face. I think it’s actually why people recognize that it’s him. That and the shape of his teeth.

[MLAA]

15. This is so marvelous!

I love the joy in his eyes. I can’t believe you captured his charisma in black and white. Simple, but so expressive. Have you done other pop art kind of portraits? This really is special.

[lunatica]

18. I have done others

I was commissioned to do portraits with only two colors in the style of the iconic Red and black painting of Che Quevara. My client was from South America and she wanted a portrait of Che only she wanted it to show him laughing. She said he was a person who laughed too. The painting was quite large. It was 4 ft x 4 ft. and his face filled the canvas. She wanted one of Jackie Kennedy done the same way. I did hers on a 3 ft x 3 ft canvas.

The paintings worked so I did a few more. It was a challenge and I liked the results. I love challenges.

I will probably post them sometime.

[MLAA]

23. I would so love to see both of them.

Please start with Jackie! I really look forward to seeing them.

[lunatica]

25. Here's the one of Jackie

I always look for pictures that are different and that appeal to me. Pictures people may not be aware that they’re being taken. This one is 3 ft x 3 ft.

[MLAA]

26. Omg.

Exquisite. Her eyes. Her chin. They define her. You nailed not only her beauty but her poise. The minimal use of grey on the upper left and around her chignon is powerful.

What medium do you use, if you don’t mind my asking and how long did it take? I expect whoever commissioned it was thrilled. It’s like you somehow, in what appears to be minimal effort, capture not only their appearance but their personality.

Exquisite, dear lunatics, exquisite. She holds her own beside the marvelous President Obama portrait.

[lunatica]

27. Thank you!

I used acrylic paint. The reason I like acrylics is because you can use them like oil paints and also like watercolor washes. In order for it to be completely smooth, with no paint brush lines I painted it in many layers. It was a relatively slow process because I had to make sure each layer was quite dry before I added another layer and I had to make it a really solid black and white. At the same time I had to apply the paint carefully to make the edges where black and white meet as sharp and clean as possible. I couldn’t make any mistakes because the painting would be ruined. I was very satisfied with it and my customer was over the Moon with it.

I had never painted anything like that before so I surprised myself. After they came out so well I painted the one of Obama. It’s a lot of meticulous work with all those edges and it takes patience, which goes pretty contrary to how I usually paint. It can get tedious because you can’t just get lost in “the zone”.

[UTUSN]

28. O.K., just saw this again, fell in love again

[lunatica]

29. That's a great compliment!

Thanks!

[cate94]

20. This is stunning.

I think he’d love it. When he was President, he had a staffer specifically looking through e-mail to point out important messages. It wouldn’t surprise me if he still does. At any rate, it’s beautiful and I think you should give him the opportunity to enjoy it.

[lunatica]

22. Thank you for such a warm reply

I’ll think about it. For real.

[malaise]

21. Lovely

Rec

[LiberalLoner]

24. This is perfect! You are so talented!!!