I’ve been putting in an 8-to-10 hour day in the studio lately, working on a series of portraits of the fellows here. They begin with photos Fiona takes on my iPhone — the expressions of the subjects, I have found, are entirely different when being photographed by a child — and then I rework them in Brushes. Once I’ve examined every millimeter and eliminated every pixel, I print them out and paint them for real: the early ones were in gouache on paper, but I’m gradually moving to oil on linen, which I much prefer.

An example of the method that is my madnesss after the jump.

It’s not the kind of work I usually do, but I’ve approached this project like a musician approaches scales. It’s been a difficult but ultimately rewarding exercise, and given my obsession with personal narrative, seems to fit into my ongoing fascination with depicting other peoples’ lives. Meanwhile, I’m learning a lot about color and light and shadow and materials.