Salty Sea Dog

A favorite character with a touch more mutant to him! An older piece (c2016) that I still love for what it taught me. Painting a known actor was a challenge for my faceblindness, something that remains a challenge to this day.

...The Mariner smiles thin-lipped and says little, lest his teeth give him away. When he does bare them it’s in a ragged grin difficult to decipher as friendly or predatory. Beads of seaglass and cowries weigh braids behind his ears to draw attention from his gills; he wears his hair loose around strangers so that the wild sun-bleached tangles hang forward to mask them completely. The hair irritates the sensitive gills, but being dead would irk him more. As soon as he’s out of easy sight, he pulls it back and splashes his face with seawater, running his hand over his neck as if to slick back any renegade strands. Like this, it’s easy to see when the gills flare with anger once his rage has grown past a snarling twist of his mouth and dangerously drawn brows...