Jorge Luis Borges Miniature Portrait

Portrait of Jorge Luis Borges hand painted on a bamboo tile. 3/4" x 1.5"

Museum for the Blind

Finished up Museum for the Blind. It's at My Good Babushka.

And just for fun, during my lunch break on two days, I made these two miniature portraits of John Flansburgh and John Linnell. We’ve all been on a They Might Be Giants kick for the last few months at this house. These are on bamboo tile. They are 1.5″ x 3/4″. I really like Victorian portrait miniatures, and I wanted to do portraits in that style, as small as I can.

John Singer Sargent said something to the effect that a portrait is a painting with something a little wrong with the mouth. I thought these were pretty fair likenesses, and when one crumples up the source image and puts it in the wastebasket, the likeness becomes even better!

I’m always looking for different materials to paint on. I tried plaster cameos, but they are too brittle. I found a package of bamboo tiles and they work pretty well if you sand them down. These have two holes drilled down through them vertically, so they can be wired and added to jewelry. I have varnished them and handed them over to my spouse. He’s the jewelry guy. I’m sure he’ll come up with something.

Museum for the Blind, Miniature Portrait of John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants

I started working on my painting. I especially like that bird on the left that looks like The Doubtful Guest by Edward Gorey. Then I got bored of all the birds, I made a sandwich, and did a miniature portrait of John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants on a sanded down bamboo tile. 1.5" x .75". It will have to be varnished and threaded with a a wire. I'll hand it over to mi esposo and he will be able to put it on a fetching chainmaille necklace. Now more birds.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Very small 3/4" x 1.5" bamboo tile with a hand painted miniature portrait of Alfred Hitchcock.
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Derek (Ricky Gervais) Bamboo Tile Portrait

I readjusted the height of the eyes. I think this is a pretty fair likeness for 3/4" x 1.5".  The tile is drilled with holes down the length of it, and I'm going to ask my husband to put it on one of his handmade chainmaille necklaces. Practice will make perfect. I think I'm going to try either Jim Henson, Alfred Hitchcock, or Rod Serling next.

Derek (Ricky Gervais) Bamboo Tile Portrait

This is a bamboo tile about 3/4" x 1.5". I bought these a while ago intending to do miniature portraits on them and put them on necklaces, but I've been so busy with other things that I just got around to working on them. I sanded the finish off and put on a light layer of white gesso. We've been watching Ricky Gervais' show Derek on Netflix. It's our new thing to quote around the house. As in "do you want to do this?" "Definitely, it's my best thing!" So I've decided to give Derek's portrait a go.
Being that it's so small, I have to use very small and pointy brushes. And the smallest error makes the whole thing look wrong. Like here, the eyes are too high up. I will have to try again.