LA-based art student Eric Davison isn’t even out of Art school, yet he’s gathered quite a special collection of painted illustrations. The accuracy of the work, as well as the loyal attention to light and shadow to create depth make for some very accomplished paintings.

My portraits are often inspired by the public’s fascination with celebrity and the idea of the cult of personality.

I recently had an opening at Lebasse Projects, a Los Angeles gallery. It was a portrait show based around the costumed panhandlers, celebrity lookalikes, and would-be actors and actresses that hang out in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Blvd.

When working on editorial assignments, I’ll try to combine two seemingly unrelated objects in order to create a visual device that will either tell a story or convey the central idea of a newspaper or magazine article.

I work heavily from photo reference. Most of the reference I’ll try to shoot myself. With celebrity portraits, I’ll try to modify existing photos by combining them with my own photography in order alter the composition and gestures to avoid infringing on other people’s copyrights.

I take a few other liberties with photography as well, by editing out unnecessary things, adjusting composition, modifying colors, temperature, light and shadow, etc.

ⓒ Eric Davison, 2009

I use a #5, a #10 Winsor & Newton Series 7 pointed round kolinsky sable brush, and a #12 squirrel hair mop.

As for paint, I use a combination of Schminke Watercolors and FW acrylic based inks. I like the velvety texture of Rives BFK, which is a versatile printmaking paper; it’s a paper that doesn’t need stretching unless you’re working very large.

Thanks Eric!

MoonApe