Little Bean

What a genius (not me, Rowan Atkinson)! From Mr. Bean to 'Black Adder' to countless sketches, the guy is just fantastic.

The process of making this one, however, reminded me of way back when, back to when I probably did my first 'portrait'. My father had invited his boss home from dinner - an incredibly elegant and handsome Spanish gentleman. He was an internationally respected architect and had worked around the world. He had definitely lived an exciting life, with a great deal of his time having been spent in the sun. As such, his skin was, let's say, 'well worn'.

Well being something like 7 or 8 years old, I had no trouble illustrating all his little 'faults' : wrinkles, moles, discolored spots, etc. However, when I proudly displayed my finished work, both my dad and my mom almost had heart attacks.

I'm just saying sometimes these studies reveal little 'quirks' that you're not sure what to do with: again, wrinkles here, a mole there, a slight stigmatism (or is astigmatism? I mean, eyes that don't totally line up), etc. But for 'Bean' it just adds to the charm of Rowan's character.

The font I used in the 'label' is a great one I found called 'Lima Bean', with some slight adjustments.