Michael R. Barrick

I started putting some colour in the skin. It's going to take a few more sessions to get it where I want.
In just over two weeks I'm going to get my first real, close up look at Byzantine icons. I'm pretty excited about that. Any idiot can go down a Google rabbit hole and print out some images, but it is a whole other thing to be present with your history. Finally seeing the work of an actual family member that worked in the court of King Charles II at the Tate rather than on a screen or in a book was profound.
#process #painting #acrylic #acrylicpainting

When I was little I had a hand-me-down Mr. Potato Head—the ancient kind where you stuck the features in an actual potato, melon, or sibling.
#process #painting #acrylic #acrylicpainting

{{witty caption}}

I just figured out when and where this picture of my dad (centre front) is from. This is the crew he went to Italy with, but it can't be Italy because the Canadian Ram tank they are standing in front of was not used in Italy. I have a picture of dad and the guy to his right standing beside a Sherman, which likely is Italy. The Rams were used in England for training, and my dad was reassigned as a training instructor when they figured out that he was under age, but this can't be from then because the guy behind my dad didn't survive Italy. Turns out that when they were in England between Dieppe in August 1942 and being sent to Italy in July 1943, there was a very brief window between March 1943 and May 1943 where the 14th Canadian Armoured Regiment (Calgary Regiment) was given Rams to replace the Churchills they had been using and before the decision to switch to Shermans for North Africa and Italy. So this picture has to be from spring 1943 and my dad is 16 years-old in it.
#family #familyhistory #wwii

I made an interesting mistake. I wanted to adjust a line over part of the frame that was already textured. I built up a bunch of crappy gel that I never liked and weirdly found a way to blend the flat foreground over the textured background. It cost me some of the detail work that I'll have to redo, but c'est la guerre.
#process #painting #acrylic #acrylicpainting

I spent most of the morning in a waiting room wondering how people can navigate life to adulthood and not know how a "take a number" queue works.
#process #painting #acrylic #acrylicpainting

Made a little progress on the corset this morning. It's challenging because I don't want to get as mimetic as the Baroque paintings I'm drawing inspiration from for the fur and have it be more in the loose realm of mid-20th century illustration.
#process #painting #acrylic #acrylicpainting

This morning I started putting the structure of the corset together while thinking about my ancestor that worked in the court of the wife of the previous King Charles.
#painting #process #acrylic #acrylicpainting #familyhistory

The very beginning of making the fur look furry this morning and the specific inspiration from the National Gallery in London that I am unlikely to approach but endeavour to nonetheless.
#painting #process #inspiration #acrylic #acrylicpainting

100 years ago today this fellow, to whom I bear a passing resemblance, was born.
З днем ​​народження, dad.