TOM PETTY-Somewhere You Feel Free

Well, I’m not sure where to actually begin on this latest ICONS & LEGENDS portrait as it’s been on my list for the last two plus years and just never got around to finding the inspiration to do him yet.

That all changed last winter when I had decided to merge my design business that I had for th 20+ years into my art site and rebrand myself as a visual artist.

I need to simplify my life and I also was really in the mood to clean and clear things out. I was also struggling on how to break out of these smalls I had been working on and really wanting to get back to doing larger pieces.

Heather had mentioned that she had recently watched the Tom Petty documentary titled “Wildflowers”.

While I have admired and respected his work over the years, watching this documentary (which I have now watched three times) was so inspiring it only made sense that he would be my first portrait of 2024.

Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He was the leader of the rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. He was also a successful solo artist.

Over the course of his career, Petty sold more than 80 million albums. His hit singles with the Heartbreakers include “American Girl” (1976), “Don’t Do Me Like That” (1979), “Refugee” (1980), “The Waiting” (1981), “Don’t Come Around Here No More” (1985) and “Learning to Fly” (1991). Petty’s solo hits include “I Won’t Back Down” (1989), “Free Fallin’” (1989), and “You Don’t Know How It Feels” (1994).

Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Petty was honored as MusiCares Person of the Year in February 2017 for his contributions to music and for his philanthropy.^[1] He also acted; he had a recurring role as the voice of Lucky Kleinschmidt in the animated comedy series King of the Hill from 2004 to the show’s end in 2009.^[2]

Petty died of an accidental drug overdose in 2017 at the age of 66, one week after the end of the Heartbreakers’ 40th Anniversary Tour.^[3][4].

You can read more about him here on Wikipedia.

Here are some pix from this portrait build

Cutting in the base layers.

Adding definition and the start of base colors.

Detail of hair, facial shading and initial color overlays.

Close up of hair and cheek layering and shading

Detail of bandolero and bandana.

Detail of gallery wrap of left shoulder.

Detail of gallery wrap and hat brim.

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