Paintings

JACK DORSEY

CAITLIN LONG

I began painting Caitlin quite early on but then put the painting away for a while as I was struggling to find an appropriate palette. Caitlin has beautiful, porcelain-like skin but the room lighting in the source image created colours, especially in the shadows and reflected light that just weren't working with the banknote. Eventually I reduced the use of alizarin crimson and cooler tones in general and added a little more warmth with cadmium red and cad yellow and the portrait then began to come together nicely. There was a warmer feel over all as well as a little complimentary contrast occurring with the background colours.

Most of the other paintings have their NFC tags embedded in the clothing and hidden with a lot of paint, however, I really liked the transparency of the green showing some of the $5 note underneath, so I chose to embed the NFC tags on either side of her necklace. Speaking of the necklace, that was the last part of the painting to complete and I think it turned out really well. It's a striking necklace.

ANDREW YANG

Andrew is the very first portrait to begin of the commission and it turned out exactly as I'd hoped it would, which I thought was a good sign. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way and as I began working on the following portraits, I decided I needed to completely change my painting style to ensure I hit the early December deadline. In fact, due to this change, I completely repainted Gerald and Rune (more than once!) It turned out that the expressive brushwork, colourful palette and thick, impasto paint used for Andrew, which I loved, was in fact going to take me more time to get the rest of the paintings to the point where I was happy with them. Therefore, I decided to 'slow it down', use a limited palette and be a little less expressive with the paint. I'm still hugely proud of the rest of the portraits but I do like the quality of paint in this portrait. #YangGang2020

DAVID MARCUS

The David Marcus portrait came along quite rapidly in that I was able to capture a likeness quickly. The contrast from light to dark with the core shadow on the right side of the face helps to create a portrait with a lot of form and depth. I incorporated yellow ochre when mixing the palette partly because David does have a warmer skin tone but also because I like how it works with the colours of the 50 Euro bank note. His jacket was much, much darker in reality but I chose to use the burnt umber and sienna combination to really heighten the warmth of the overall composition. I like the painterly, broken up areas of the jacket, a nice contrast in my opinion between the expressive use of paint for the fabric and the more refined and subtle brushwork for his face.

SERGEY NAZAROV

Sergey was really quite difficult to find a conclusion to, in part because of the thick beard and moustache. There wasn't a lot of visual information to go on around the bottom half of his face but especially due to the fact that the source image was simply really low quality, bad lighting and resolution. The lighting was straight on and so I was struggling to develop an understanding of form and structure in his face. It was quite a 'flat' painting until eventually I decided to put the source image away entirely and change the direction of lighting myself to make the painting less flat and more dramatic. I also chose to experiment with more colour in the palette. I repainted this portrait so many times it was ridiculous but in the end I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's one of my favourites for use of colour and of the contrast between the cool and warm tones in his face.

RUNE CHRISTENSEN

Rune was the fourth portrait I began, and I thought it would be a lot easier than it actually turned out to be. The image resolution was decent quality; however, I can't count how many times I ever so slightly changed the shape of his eyes and width of the nose and mouth. Anyone who paints portraits knows that if the facial features are not measured properly and precisely that the portrait will either not look like the person at all or it'll look like some terrible caricature. Think bad fan art! So yes, eventually, after so many subtle changes I captured Rune quite well, in my opinion. I don't have the space here to get into why I had to paint the shirt all the way to the edges and to the bottom of the canvas rather than more like most the others but it did have to do with finding the Danish bank note almost impossible to scan and print.

MELTEM DEMIRORS

I've captured Meltem quite well in this painting but similar to many of the others, she's gone through so many transformations. Also, the source image was black and white and so I needed to approach the work from a different angle. My very first sketch and layers of paint looked absolutely nothing like her at all and so, like Rune above, it was a constant battle with measuring and stepping back, looking, measuring some more, stepping back and eventually making the necessary changes - and repeat, day after day. I have GIFs that I've made for most of these portraits that show a progression (from 4 - 14 stages of each work, when I remembered to take photos) and I think Meltem probably changed the most dramatically from start to finish. Now I think there's a real likeness as well as a warmth to the portrait. Moreover, like Caitlin above, the subtle use of complimentary contrast and the analogous colours creates a very striking portrait.

MUNEEB ALI

Muneeb is one of my favourite portraits for a number of reasons. I really like the use of colour in his skin tones and how they work so well with the colours of the Pakistani Rupee behind him. Keeping the collar unpainted to incorporate the bank note patterns I think works really well. Also, as mentioned, I melt microcrystalline wax on the prints and use a brush and heater to even it out, which helps to protect the print, speed up the drying process for the oils (important for a deadline!) and also creates wonderful textures when painted on. The brush marks in the wax give a more 'skin like' look to the painting. I think I've really managed to capture Muneeb in this portrait.

TED LIVINGSTON

Ted Livingston, a fellow Canadian. This portrait started off really well due to the quality of the photograph and strong lighting. However, it was a black and white image and so eventually I hit a wall and I continued to run into it for quite a few days. I was struggling initially with the light/form for some reason and when I figured that out, I wasn't happy with the quality of the paint and after that I wasn't keen on the colours I'd chosen. I've completely repainted this portrait so many times I could probably paint Ted from memory now. One evening, after working all day on it, I was certain I'd finished it and I really liked the expressive use of paint and colour. However, the next morning I walked into the studio, took a look at it, and I just shook my head. The colours I'd used the night before made Ted look like something out of the zombie apocalypse and so I had to mix an entirely new palette with a lot more warms and repaint it one more time. Now, I think it's one of the most dynamic portraits. Never give up!

GERALD COTTEN

This portrait of Gerald has used so many layers of paint due to messing it up and repainting it over and over (you can see watch all the screw ups in the 'Creative Process' video at the top of this page). I would guess this painting has used more oil paint than any of the others. It was the 2nd portrait I started and as mentioned above, I was trying to use a painting style similar to the Andrew Yang portrait. It just wasn't working, and progress was slow. Eventually I'd put it away and begin on others. Then I'd come back to it for a day and mess about, often ruining anything good I'd accomplished previously and so I would put it away again. You can see in the video that twice I completely repainted it only concentrating on tone as I was really struggling to understand the sense of form through light. I'm not the most efficient of painters and I'm definitely not precious, which has its pros and cons. It was the 2nd portrait in the series to start and the 2nd last to finish. You can tell in the detail of the eyes just how much paint has been used with this portrait compared to the others. It was hard going but I do like the end result. I really didn't know if I was ever going to manage to finish it!

HODLONAUT

Oh Hodlonaut, I was certain this was going to be really quite quick and easy to paint in comparison to the others, mostly due to the fact I was working from what was already an illustration and not a person in which every feature must be measured and painted precisely. I was wrong. I knew I didn't want to simply copy it and so I began to experiment with quality of paint and the application with a palette knife and various brushes for both the feline face and the orange space suit. I decided to keep the paint for the helmet and oxygen tank smooth in contrast to recreate the 'metalness' of the metal. I also decided to add more cool colours into the whites, yellow ochres and burnt siennas in the face. Eventually, after a lot of trial and error it was finally completed and, I'm happy to say, how I'd imagined it. I really like the thick, impasto paint to create a 'furrier' like feel about his face. I've agreed with Hodlonaut that I will offer a limited edition of 10 prints of this artwork and 50% of the profit will go to help him with any future legal issues.

JUSTIN SUN

Justin Sun - another strong portrait in my opinion. The wonderful colours on the bank note work well with the palette of the subject. The dynamic lighting and the slight angle of the face creates a powerful portrait. I also like the looseness of the paint to create the jacket. It all just fit together and worked so nicely. Additionally, the morphing element in the AR video is absolutely spectacular with this portrait. Justin is wearing the same hoodie and jacket in the video as this painting and so on a visual level the morph really stands out. It's such a shame that this portrait isn't going to be used in the CoinDesk Most Influential package. CoinDesk explained to me that they tend to have one or two extra people chosen in case other interviews fall through. Regardless, I will include this painting with the rest of the series and whoever purchases the set will also have this portrait as it was an important part of the entire creative process.

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS

I'm offering a very limited edition of high quality, signed and numbered prints of my paintings for the CoinDesk 'Most Influential' 2019 series. More information here

A big thanks to CoinDesk Editor Ben Schiller and Art Director Luis Buenaventura for all their help and support throughout this project.