The title of Justin's portrait, Underneath The Lines, comes from our photo-session. During it, Justin asked me what goes on underneath all the lines in my portraits: is it a photo realistic portrait? And do I layer the lines over it as added decoration?
The answer is no. Throughout the painting process, the lines and marks vary in size and orientation, color and translucency, but they are there from the first. This style of mine isn't a gimmick. It is how I make a mark, and, in fact, it's the only way I know how!
It's an adaptation of simple black and white crosshatching, only I do it in color and with different widths of brushes. I learned to love crosshatching and its tonal abilities in an intaglio printmaking class at the Pacific Northwest College of Art when I was fifteen years old. I continued to learn about printmaking from James Thompson at Willamette University a few years later.