Francisco Scaramanga in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)

An iconic piece of James Bond movie props.... the golden gun used by the villain in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. I felt the urge to paint the gun. It's not a James Bond tribute series without a few of the iconic props. Of course that also meant I had to paint Scaramanga. No question about that! First time I realized Anglo-Saxon men tend to have longer faces and long nose bridges. First time I discovered the joy of using metallic paint! That's the beginning of a personal touch on these portraits... I always try to incorporate some metallic paint in many portraits to follow. The background is a tapestry hanging on the wall in this scene in the movie. (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas)

Xenia Onatopp in GOLDENEYE (1995)

After painting four male characters, I was itchy to paint a portrait of a Bond lady. The first one that came to mind was Xenia Onatopp, a beautiful but deadly assassin who could kill a person in the tight grip of her thighs! This shot of Xenia in the casino was from her second encounter with Bond in the movie. The casino scenes are classic in Bond movies. However, I thought a casino background was a little generic. I opted to use graphics from the opening animated sequence from the movie as the background instead. 

This is the first portrait of a woman I had attempted to paint. The shading is very different than that of a male character. The character needed to be as attractive as the actress Femka Janssen but that over confident snarky attitude is what makes the character so interesting to paint. This is also the first portrait I learn to paint the costume as accurately as in the movie. The long thin cigar in her hand was the first time I realized how Bond characters use props to show aggression. This theme will repeat many times in other portraits in this series. (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas)

Oddjob in GOLDFINGER (1964)

Another iconic henchman in the James Bond movie series ... Oddjob from GOLDFINGER! Powerful, confident, cynical and menacing. It was a challenge to capture his evil grin. I kept the background simple because by then I had many ideas of other characters that I wanted to paint. I wanted to finish this painting quickly. (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas) 

Jaws in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)

Who is the most iconic henchman of all the James Bond movies? It had to be Jaws. Jaws appeared in both THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) and again in MOONRAKER (1979). Comical and scary. A main ingredient of the comic-book like adventures of the 1970s Roger Moore Bond era. So much fun to paint a larger than life character! This is the first  time I attempted to paint explosion... does it look explosive? (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas) 

Dr. No in DR. NO (1962)

The second portrait had to be the first main villain of the movie series: the classic Bond villain Dr. No. This is the first true portrait I've done. From this exercise I learned to paint the face, the shading, the likeness and most importantly, capturing the expression. From painting Dr. No's metal-gloved hands, I noticed the effect when lights shine from different directions could produce overlapping layers of shadows of different intensity. The giant fish in the tank behind him are hilarious. (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas)

James Bond in SPECTRE (2015)

Inspired by the classic hand-painted James Bond movie posters from the 1960s - 1970s, I started the concept in 2015 of making small (8' x 10") acrylic paintings of James Bond character portraits. The concept started as practice for character paintings which I have always fascinated by but have never tried it myself. See how the first one goes. (8" x 10" acrylic on canvas)

I added neon white acrylic paint to make the portrait glow in the dark. After this I was hooked.