Mister Grin
The show doesn't end until everyone stops breathing.
A fixture of the midnight circus, Mister Grin roams the darkened tents carving permanent smiles into those who linger past the final curtain.
The Inspiration
A conversation at a fair about what really scares people was the inspiration for Mister Grin. Seemingly the answer is clowns!
My aim with this piece was to create the portrait of a truly nasty clown getting right in your face. There had to be no doubt: this guy isn’t a friendly clown – he means ill to all who cross his path. He’s clearly evil and if I trigger anyone’s coulrophobia, I can only apologise.
The Craft
A lot of this image is a fully scorched black, which is very time consuming, even using a large ball tip. The finer details needed the more accurate touch of a wire nib.
I tried to ensure that the grain on the face wasn’t too prominent in the ply that I selected to avoid visual distractions. The majority of the line work on the piece is heavy which means that the areas of lighter shading really pop and give a quality of depth to the eyes, nose and mouth.
