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Dale Stephanos
Trump!
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In the middle of a crazy busy week, Steve Lynch fron the New York Post called to see if I had time to do a portrait of Donald Trump for their Sunday opinion section. I did not have time, but come on. Donald Trump? How could I say no? Besides, it's the adrenaline rush of overnight jobs like this that keep me coming back.
Unfortunately this ran in black and white, or at least the copy I picked up here in my Boston suburb was black and white, so I thought I'd give this piece it's breif time in the world in full color.
Steve suggested a "Boy who cried wolf" sort of thing. Later he reinforced my feeling that maybe that was a little vague. Who are the sheep? Who is the wolf? My first thought was Trump as a hot air balloon spewing gas into the world. In other words, a pretty straight portrait. Another idea I liked was doing a take on Gilbert Stuart's unfinished George Washington portrait. Maybe that elevated Trump to an unrealistic level.

This would have been fun to do. I'd have made it very painterly.

From the start it was obvious this was the way to go.

My favorite part is always fussing with the details. All of this evaporates when printed on newsprint. As you can see, I don't adhere to the constraints of my sketch. It feels more like painting when you make corrections on the fly. I could never stay in the lines while I color anyway.

This was a typically fun, fast editorial job. I guess some people would see it as a bread and butter kind of thing, but for me, the quick turnaround combined with the fun subject made me think about what a great job this is.
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Stephanos is teaching at TutorMill, an online mentoring site for students of illustration!