This piece came from a friend. For years he had asked me to make him something, and for years I said no. When he asked again, it finally felt like the right time, and that is what started the whole thing.
He didn’t want to direct it. He told me it could be whatever I wanted, he just wanted a piece. So I asked him for raw material instead of instructions. He sent me a brain dump, about a hundred words in an email, and I built the concept from there. After some back and forth on the design, I started to draw.
It took about a year, and I made it in private. I couldn’t share any of it while it was in progress. I still filmed the process, but I kept it to myself. I didn’t want him to see the work before it was finished.
What I gave back was a portrait of him with no face in it at all. It holds somewhere between forty and fifty references, specific things that point only to him. He asked me not to tell him what they were. He liked the idea of finding them slowly, over time.
I still keep a full piece of writing that explains the work and the intention behind every choice in it. That part stays between the drawing and the person it was made for.
