Pixel

Al Pacino

AP is a well known and successful Hollywood movie actor. It's a known fact that matters related to celebrities draw hits, but I think in the near future I will move away from that, because all too often there appears to be a dark side to these persons that most common people refuse to believe, because it does not fit within the limited scope of imagination, that has intentionally been imposed upon them. Both the stupefying ignorance of the celebrity fanbase and the iniquitous secrets the celebrities were foolish enough to embrace, reflect in their eyes, to those who see it.

Willie Nelson

WN is a famous country singer and guitar player who also played in several movies. When over 80 years old he won a 5th degree black belt in a Korean martial art (Gong Kwon Yu Sul). Maybe the abundant use of pot also contributed to his good health. He has lived an off-standard life as a private person and musician, having an outstanding record in both capacities. It is what makes him an interesting person, which has earned him a consistently large number of faithful followers.

Native American Chief

Handsfree analog airbrush, sprayed on T-Shirt with real paint as a demonstration for the Revel company, with the Vega 1000 airbrush gun and Illu-Color paint. I was intrigued by the power of the facial expression of this unknown Native American Chief and the wisdom that he radiates. The circular text is a quote of a chief of the Native American Dakota nation, aware of the universe.

Marilyn Monroe

Handsfree analog airbrush, sprayed on Schoellershammer airbrush board as a demonstration for the Van Beek Graphic Arts company, with the legendary Paasche Turbo airbrush gun and RotRing Artist Color ink, both of which are now out of production. 30 years later moderately edited in Affinity Photo. Monroe was one of the sexiest women who ever lived.

Henk Kuipers

This is a hybrid artwork. The face was created in Affinity Photo and the tattoos were drawn in Affinity Designer. They do not look like the traditional hard-edged vector work, because Affinity Designer has a magnificent Gaussian blur function, that allows to simulate realism.

HK is a founding member of the No Surrender MC and was later incarcerated by the corrupt Dutch judicial system and government, because the government is afraid of well organized large groups of people that do not just mindlessly buy their sh*t. HK, who has no criminal record, therefore is a political prisoner in the would be Dutch democracy run by treacherous WEF agents.

The Sopranos

The legendary TV series with the late great James Gandolfini and Steven Van Zandt. Originally this work was an analog airbrush (with real paint), that years after was edited in Affinity Photo.

Charles Bukowski

Four years after I sprayed this portrait with an Iwata HP-BH airbrush gun and Inspire H2O paint on paper, I digitally reworked it in Affinity Photo. Bukowski had an elusive mind, resulting from the demanding life he was cast into on this planet, that drove him to write hard hitting, strange books, thereby gaining a considerable following of people who probably had related strange aspects to their personality and life as well, either in this life or in previous ones. Bukowski never made an effort of hiding his weirdness and quirks, and most likely enjoyed to shock others with them.

Roger Waters

RW, co-founder of Pink Floyd. Started out as a pencil drawing on crappy office copy paper, after which I applied some accents with an analog airbrush, Iwata HP-BH and Inspire H2O paint that years later I digitally edited the image in Affinity Photo. RW is outspoken and often is accused of anti-Semitism, but he merely is committed to standing up for the case of the Palestinian people that are ruthlessly oppressed. He does not limit his involvement to their case but also supports other cases that he considers to be worthy of support that thus benefit from his renown, steadfast and sincere status.

Brad Pitt

This portrait of BP I sprayed years ago with an analog airbrush (with airbrush gun, compressor and real paint on paper). Later I edited it in Affinity Designer and Photo. After having been in an ugly divorce circus with his ex Angelina Jolie, Pitt now hooked up with a woman less than half his age (Nicole Poturalski). It hints at the fact that adoring celebrities is mental and a waste of time.

Bob Marley 1

Besides bonkers celebrities, there are some with substance, among whom is Bob Marley, who transformed Reggae music and elevated it on the world stage to an unprecedented level. BM had something to say and wrapped his message inside his appealing musical interpretations. This was an analog airbrush that I edited in Affinity Photo, decades after I sprayed it on canvas.

Bob Marley 2

This airbrush portrait I made for late great Henk Bensdorp, who was a product manager at Van Beek Art Supplies in Badhoevedorp. He introduced me into the world of airbrush by giving hints and all sorts of equipment that allowed me to get going. This painting was sprayed with the brilliant Paasche V1 airbrush, that later was stolen from me at an airbrush fair. The reference picture was a stamp sized photo in a television program guide. Decades after spraying the portrait I did some minimal digital editing to it in Affinity Photo.

Danny Trejo

This work started out as an (analog) airbrush on canvas, that I later edited in Affinity Photo. After he spent time in correctional facilities, DT had a successful career in the movie business and started to run a restaurant, while helping young people to stay off the criminal path.

Steven Brown

SB is a social activist who relentlessly fights against injustice and government corruption. He also exposes criminals that work with the corrupt government behind the veil. Although that is not a safe thing to do, he is unstoppable. Of course because of his activities he is falsely represented in the utterly corrupt Dutch mainstream media. His profound knowledge of the criminal world, which includes the political organized crime scene, business and even higher echelons, makes it difficult to refute his claims. He now has moved to Thailand where it is less dangerous to live among criminal elements, that rule the hypocritical Dutch society.

Chief Plenty Coups

Chief Plenty Coups played a dubious role in shaping the destiny of the Native American nations as a whole by cooperating with the US army, but in doing so saved his people, the Crow nation, from the tragic fate of the Sioux. It probably was a decision he made (or felt forced to make) out of which he must have known no good was going to come. I freehand airbrushed his portrait decades ago and long after edited it in Affinity Photo, because I was intrigued by his facial features, that reflect a life that was clutched by immensely conflicting feelings.

Kiowa warrior

Inspired by an other master piece of Howard Terpning. The deceivingly simple scene makes this painted observation very powerful. Terpning has that rare, investigative artist's eye and empathic talent that allow his outlandish artistic skill to excell. The touch of his brush, choice of palette, feel for composition and knowledge of paints match those of the masters of old.

Native American chief

Freehand airbrush of an unknown Native American chief sprayed on a T-shirt, using a Harder & Steenbeck airbrush and Illu-Color acrylic paint, specialised for cloth art.

Quanah Parker

This work was originally airbrushed on T-shirt and later edited in Affinity Designer. The (analog) airbrush was sprayed on a fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) while giving an airbrush demonstration for the Revel company that wanted to promote the Vega 1000 airbrush gun and a number of their paints.

Geronimo

I started this portrait of Apache chief Geronimo as an analog airbrush with paint on paper and many years later edited it in Affinity Photo.

Albert Stannard

This analog portrait was a rush job that I sprayed in 8 hours overnight after receiving a new airbrush that I was asked to test - the superb Fischer Aerostar airbrush for Letraset's Dutch branche for its introduction in The Netherlands. The airbrush gun was built from exotic materials like titanium and as a result was very expensive, which is why it never sold well, but its handling was outlandishly good. The man in the painting is super hobby crafsman named Albert Stannard, who built tiny foldable ships in very small lamps.

Colombian street kid

This is an analog freehand airbrush that I sprayed somewhere in the early nineties of the previous century with the brilliant Paasche V1 airbrush gun and (abandoned) Rotring Artist Color ink on the unsurpassed Schullershammer airbrush board.

Andre Hazes 1

This freehand airbrush was sprayed with a Harder & Steenbeck Evolution airbrush gun and Illu-Color paint on canvas. Decades later I edited the painting in Affinity Photo. Hazes was a Dutch ballad singer with a beautiful voice, who had tragic aspects to his life that caused him to pass away too young probably as a result of an unhealthy lifestyle that lead to a measure of grief he failed to overcome.

Andre Hazes 2

This is an other freehand airbrush of the late great Dutch ballad singer Andre Hazes sprayed with an Iwata HP-BH airbrush gun and Inspire H2O paint on canvas. I later reworked this portrait in Affinity Photo and Designer to add skin texture.

Andre Hazes 3

This is an old freehand airbrush of the late great Dutch ballad singer Andre Hazes sprayed with an Iwata HP-BH airbrush gun and Inspire H2O paint on canvas. I used Plasticity 3D to make the portrait three dimensional.

Airbrush of a dear friend

Analog freehand airbrush of Peter.

Off Balance mandala

Mandalas are among the inevitable type of images artists feel they should paint. Fiddled about with this image with deformers in Inkscape and later edited it in Affinity Photo.

Tina Turner

This also is an old analog freehand airbrush sprayed in just over 8 hours as a rush job for EMI records that intended to present Turner this portrait as a gift (which did not happen) for her performance in The Netherlands. I used the Paasche V1 and various brands of paint on Schullershammer airbrush board. I'm not really a fan of her type of music, but moneywise this was a great assignment....

One stone

This is the proverbial Einstein airbrush, that I later edited in Affinity Photo. Not that I particularly like the bloke, because he urged Roosevelt to develop nuclear arms, which the US actually used twice against Japan, when the outcome of WW-II was already decided. The bombs presumably were dropped to send a message to Russia - a US ally against the Nazis at that time (...) - that was developing its own nuclear arms. But hey, artists can not always make portraits of persons that they respect. In particular like the one I made of this bloke.

Ernesto's mom

Freehand airbrush of the mother of a co-worker when I worked at KLM, that I decades later edited in Affinity Photo.

Airbrush test

This portrait of the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan was airbrushed somewhere around 2008, give or take a year. It was a test of a new (at that time) alcohol based paint. The file I recently edited in Affinity Photo.

Tibetan Vajra

Ancient Buddhist artifact - known as thunder weapon or diamond in Sanskrit - recently associated with plasma generating device, that could well hold the key to free energy.

Retouche experiment - 1

Using Affinity Photo for a photo retouch experiment. The source is here. Recoloured and added some vector accents in Affinity Designer. The jaguar's relatives at times visit me in dreams to guide me. At first it terrified me, because I thought they were going to kill me, but it appeared they looked for ways to improve my life, that I had messed up.

Retouche experiment - 2

You've guessed it - I love jaguars. This photo retouch was done in Affinity Photo and serves as foundation of a vector drawing I have planned to make (on my Vector page), so that the image can be re-scaled without limit and remain crisp, not having the jagged edges and colour anomalies that are typical for rescaled bitmap images.

Retouche experiment - 3

I used Plasticity 3D and Affinity Photo for a photo retouch experiment. The good old Vitruvian bloke, who does not see the train that is dashing through the tunnel towards him, Drawn in a three dimensional perspective (that I realize quite well, is an insult to Da Vinci's occult artwork).

Retouche experiment - 4

An old grainy photograph shot in the year 2011 of myself, edited without using AI in Affinity Photo as best as possible.

Peace pipes & Winchesters

Inspired by the work of Howard Terpning. I started to create this work in Corel PhotoPaint, but switched to Affinity Photo after PhotoPain(t) began to crash constantly and was no longer able to export the digital painting to a .png file. I added the peace pipe and Winchester rifle to the original as a symbolic touch.

Tribe gathering

Inspired by the work of the great Howard Terpning. I found a reference image on the Internet that appealed to me and only later found out that it merely was a cropped part of the painting. As always I added my own details to the painting, the guns, horses, teepees, trees and mountains in the background to be specific.

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