Akira Beard

"Picasso Homage"

"Imagined Headpiece"  18" x 24"

"Francis Bacon"  oil on paper  9" x 12"  2011

"Seeds"  water soluble oil paint on paper   9" x 12"  2011

"Bukowski"  watercolor on paper  5.5" x 8.5"  2011

I've been a fan of these faces for quite a while and can't believe I've not posted them earlier. Akira Beard has been uploading amazing portraiture and occasional other bits on Flickr under the name "The AkirA Project" since 2009. In that time he's posted some 200 images. It's pretty difficult to pick out 5. The quality of his work is incredibly consistent. Consistency is not nearly so common among artists as you might think. And portraiture is a very particular skill, one that many artists shy away from for good reason. The human brain harbors the most sophisticated human facial recognition software that will ever exist. When there is the least thing off or wrong about a face, we can see it. This is not the case if you draw or paint a tree. To be able to get faces this right and still be able to play with distortions, color variation and texture with impressionistic brushwork is almost uncanny. Take a little time and look through his work. There's a lot and I have not come close to representing the range of it. You can look through the aforementioned Flickr page or you can go to his website: akirabeard.com