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JASON SEILER COVERS TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR

December 11, 2020

Jason Seiler's double portrait of President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Elect Kamala Harris ushers in a brand new chapter in America's story for TIME Magazine's Person of the Year special issue. Scroll down to learn a bit more about Jason's process for creating this painting.

 

Jason estimates that the painting took at least 40 hours, from composition and layout to finish. "My process with the painting phase was all about pulling the light out from the darkness," he explains, "Very similar to how I would paint traditionally with oils, even though I painted this digitally."

 

"My technique is based off of the Dutch Flemish Oil approach where the artist would do a raw umber under painting, keeping the shadows nice and thin, and soft, and the laying in thick layers of white wherever light is seen.  This is how I began this painting."

 

Once happy with the under painting, Jason begins to block in the color.  "My approach isn’t to color the image in or fill it in.  I look for the correct values and focus on temperature, and see everything as shapes of color, capturing all of this with the correct brush stroke laid down next to another brush stroke."

 

"When you see the painting from a distance it looks realistic, but when you see it up close, you can see that it is an accumulation of abstract brushstrokes, that when placed in the correct place, create the illusion of a face."

"Like many Americans, I feel a sense of relief that Biden and Harris won the election," says Jason. "I don’t have any grand delusions of everything being fixed over night, but I do feel that a massive weight has been lifted off of all of our shoulders.  I feel there’s been a lack of integrity and respect which will hopefully be restored, leadership that will lead with hope rather than fear, equality rather than division. Lastly, being the father of four daughters, electing the first woman and woman of color to hold the office of Vice President is a big deal.  I’m deeply honored to have been asked to paint this portrait for Time magazine at such  an important and historical time."

Tags: Jason Seiler, Cover Art, Cover Illustration, Editorial, Illustration, Magazine, Politics, Portraits

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