My Latest Painting:
Philadelphia Eagles’ DeSean Jackson

I just finished my latest painting of Philadelphia Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson. Why DeSean? Well, living in the Philadelphia area I have not only felt it was necessary to do an image of a current Eagle but I have had a lot of requests to do one. After all, to date the only Eagle painting I have done is Randall Cunningham who has not played for the Eagles since 1995 and has been retired from the NFL for 10 years now.

All that aside, the Cunningham image I did was one of my very first in this style. In the four years since creating that image, I have refined my technique quite a bit. What began as a much simpler and graphic approach has continued to evolve and become increasingly detailed. I have not lost the graphic nature of where I started, but I now go though more transitions of shades and color than I did when I started. I also now incorporate a lot more paint splatters to accentuate the motion and action of my subjects. Art is a journey after all, and I feel as though I learn a little more about my own technique which each image I create.

When deciding it was time to do another Eagle, which Eagle was really an easy decision. DeSean is the most dynamic player on the team and arguably the most popular. He is a uniquely talented football player who hopefully has a long career with the Eagles.

Just for fun I decided to use the image to mock up a EA Sports Madden 12 cover. As an artist who spent more than eight years with Mattel Toys, the one thing I learned is that the best way to illustrate the viability of an idea or in this case my artwork to a potential client is to show them. Simply talking about it only gets you so far and unfortunately relies on their ability to envision the same thing you have in your mind. Some people simply cannot do this and need to see it, so if you want to get their attention and truly get them excited about your vision you have to show them samples.

Getting it in front of them is a different story. Anyway, I felt like my style was a natural fit with the paint splatter branding that EA sports is currently using. Personally I think it works but then again, that probably does not come as much of a surprise given that I created it. You be the judge!

What came as a nice surprise is that after uploading a jpeg to my Twitter account last night and tagging DeSean, I noticed that he was using it as his profile picture / avatar this morning. It is always nice to know the subject of my art appreciates it and thinks enough of it to utilize it in such a way. May not be a big deal but it means a lot. Please be sure to follow him on Twitter @desanjackson10.

Prints of my DeSean Jackson art are now available.