Creepy Oliver

Painting by Pelmo. Acrylic on ply. 14" x 16"

The facial expression is a fictional composite of features, altered during a sketch from observation. I then transferred the proportions as per the sketch onto the canvas and used various photos as reference to add the layer of realism.

The result is a quite disturbing, surreal face that seems both infantile and giant at the same time. Unsettling and dangerous this piece has comforted nobody who's viewed it. I am amazed that by just applying realistic textures to an subtly abstracted sketch I've ended uo evoking a vintage ventriloquist dummy.

I will definitely run this experiment again to see if a similar result occurs.