Lochlan 12th Portrait: Steve McDonald

I love finding artists on Instagram, and especially through friends feeds. Clem’s friend Patrick posted an amazing art piece from artist that I thought had an amazing realness in his works. I was suspect at first, if AI was used in his process. I reached out to the artist and we had a long conversation about his process, and while he’s not using AI for his completely. He does use it for certain aspects of his work. I learned a lot about AI and Art from Steve. I will admit I am one of those people who are very careful with AI. I am accepting it’s our new reality, but holding onto the old is extremely important to keeping with some traditions and authenticity. Steve McDonald’s work is happy medium between fantasy and reality. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have him do a piece of at least one of the kids. I choose Lochlan to be his subject because a lot of his male subject pieces truly stood out to me.

Like any commission, the starting conversations about the commission are important. I try my best to be completely be open to the artist, their artistic eye when they look at the images of my kids. As I mentioned many times before, keeping within the artists aesthetic is important to me, because I don’t want the portraits to look like the kids 100%. I want the portraits to look like they could easily be popped into a show of their work in a gallery. I shared with Steve most of the reference shots we had taken for his portrait. He wanted additional shots that were more random. So I pulled a few more impromptu shots we’ve taken the last few months.

Working with Steve was such a breeze. Now, this is the first artist that I have worked with, who uses AI to some degree. I was learning as we go. What was interesting, during a normal sketch process. Most artists will work off one sketch and I would say about 20% of artists will give you two or three sketches. To kick of this commission, Steve sent over a grid of about 20 sketches, all computer generated based on Lochlan’s photos. Yes, I know what you are going to say. I’ve sold my child’s soul. It’s not that simple really. Don’t kid yourself, posting anything on the internet is putting it in the hands of AI. I only know of one friend/person who has managed to keep herself and life off the internet. Did I raise an eyebrow when we met 14 years ago, yes! Am I eating crow now, when everything she pointed out why she’s not on the internet, is now reality for us all. YES!

All in all Steve put together 27 unique sketches for the piece. He had it all, different poses, different facial expressions, different backgrounds, even different hairstyles. Lochlan and I looked over the sketches and he picked out about 6 he really felt looked like him and he like the clothes or the way he’s postured in the sketch. Now, you might have noticed I said, “looked like him”, AI is not 100% on the nose. AI also can’t really grasp the idea of age and time when it comes to creating an image. I would say about half of the sketches were of him, maybe when he is 16 or 18.

During this portion of the process, Steve also suggested some layouts for the portrait. After chatting a few times over email, maybe in the span of 2-3 weeks, we were down to four sketches for Steve start working on.  All four were apart of Lochlan’s original picks. What I noticed is all four sketches also had Lochlan positioned so his jawline is heavily showcased. And if you know Lochlan, he’s doing this thing boys or men are doing on social media, taking their finger to trace along their jawline. As to emphasize how sharp their jawline looks. Think Blue Steel, but cockier.

Lochlan has his favorite and Clem has his own favorite of the four. Can you guess? Each one is unique and could easily show a side of Lochlan, we all see in real life. My favorite is the red background piece with his shirt in the black and white stripe. I love the blue shadow casted on his back and face. This is the kid I see every time we do photo shoot with Rachel. Yes he smiles, but in those in between moments, he waits and gives a more rested smile to Rachel or the camera. I think the reason why Clem likes the standing shot with the grey long sleeve shirt, because he has that shirt and Lochlan loves to stand with his chin up. We have so many photos of him in that pose.

Lochlan at the start really responded to the two pieces of him lounging back in a chair. I think he really likes the white shirt with the red stripe sleeves piece. That was his top choice when going over the options. What’s interesting about this piece is Steve tapped into something, he has no clue about. Earlier this year in February, Clem lost his brother after a long health struggle. In the portrait with the white shirt, the torso section of the shirt has an tire print on it the shirt. Clem’s brother at a young age, was playing in the street and was hit by a cable company truck. The story goes, he hit and ended up on the street and the tire of the truck, ran over his torso. It’s a stretch but I find it interesting the connection.

Now the topic of using artificial intelligence (AI). This experience has opened my eyes to using AI. Lets face it, me posting these images on our family blog is feeding the beast no matter what angle you look at it from. I had an amazing conversation with Steve about his process and how works across multiple mediums to do these pieces. AI in this scenario is used as a reference tool. In seeing this process come to life, AI has such a broad use. Which in turn become a broader problem for the industry its being used in. The art industry seen the rise copyright abuse and so much more with artist seeing their work referenced in other artists work and even in mainstream media. The path to oversight and protection of artists and their work, is going to be a rocky one. Should artists use the tool in their work? Like all tools, it’s your choice, and all choices have their pros and cons. I agree AI is here to stay, and the battle to control it, will be constant, long after we have left this reality. All we can do is evolve with technology and innovation. Hey, I used to hate tagging and didn’t see it as a art form. 30 years later my staunch view has morphed into appreciation for it as a art form. I understand though, many disagree. I credit my change in mindset to learning and collecting artists like Jessica Hess & Henry Chalfant.

After the pieces were finished, Steve recommended the artwork to screen printed onto a acrylic glass. We have one piece done in this medium, in the collection. The finish pieces look amazing. I printed one large on of the white shirt/red stripe because it was Loch’s favorite. I also had the piece I like, done in a smaller piece for my office area. This is another great piece added to the collection. I look forward to adding another piece by Steve to the collection. Below are all of the original sketches. So what is your favorite look?