Appropriately entitled Blendscapes, these portraits created by Spanish artist Oriol Angrill Jord are more complicated than they first appear. Each portrait, blended from various combinations of watercolor, acrylic, and pencils, is filled with subtleties that gradually rise to the surface. A woman, consumed by swirls of clouds; a man blended together with mountains camouflaged in the back of his head; the profile of a blonde female commingling with rainbow gradients streaked through her hair.
According to his bio, Jord, “tried a huge variety of techniques like pastel, watercolors, colored pencil, white pencil on black Canson paper, acrylics, graphite, charcoal and so on. Whatever he used, he easily found the way to reach the realism. His most identifying skill is that, whatever he uses, he is able to produce a hyper-realistic picture.”
The detail in his portraits is incredible and by combining multiple scenes into one artwork, Jord challenges our basic perceptions. Viewers must investigate his work more thoroughly in order to fully appreciate the complex scenes that he creates.
