Making 3D portraits with paint cast in resin
- Marc Scheff is an artist who creates 3D portraits.
- He uses oil paint and gallons of resin to create the layered effect.
- He walks us through the process behind making one of his multidimensional paintings.
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The following is a transcript of the video.
Narrator: Resin, paint, more resin, more paint. That's how these bright and colorful portraits are made. These portraits aren't just painted on a canvas. The paint is captured between layers and layers of resin to create a vibrant, 3D reimagining of an art form as old as art itself. This is Marc Scheff. He's been making portraits like this since 2016.
Marc: People have asked me what to call these paintings. I just call them dimensional paintings.
Narrator: His material of choice? Paint and resin. And lots of it. A piece as large as this one takes 2 gallons of resin per layer and tons of oil paint to bring a 2D image to life. The magic number? Eight layers of resin. Marc uses layers because it allows the viewers to see what went into making the painting. Instead of seeing just the final image, we can see what went into each of the layers of the portrait. But how does he get all the layers to come together so flawlessly to form one portrait? Well, it isn't easy, and it can take about three weeks to finish one painting, and out of that, about two of those weeks consists of just drying time. He said that can take months or even up to a year to figure out. To start, he pours paint on a board using a technique he calls an abstract paint pour. This creates the background for the piece. Once that's done, Marc inserts a photo of the pour into Photoshop. He'll use this to plan out what will go on each layer. For a piece this big, with up to eight layers, Marc uses about 16 gallons of resin. Before he can begin painting, he sands down the layer of resin to get a rough surface to draw on. This allows the paint and other materials to stick more easily than the usual smooth surface resin has. The sanding makes his process more difficult. Marc won't be able to see the layers underneath the one he's working on once it's sanded, so he won't know exactly how the layers will look together until he pours the next layer of resin. Depending on the number of layers and the size, one painting can weigh between 75 and 85 pounds.
Marc: When you pour the resin, you're either made or you're either broken. [laughs] You know, what's under there is under there. I have poured resin onto a piece and realized that there was something that I just wasn't gonna be able to fix, and I actually picked up the whole piece, dumped it back in a bucket, and these things are heavy.
Narrator: These portraits are made using more than just resin, though. Some of them might have five different mediums throughout, and others might have even more. For this layer, he used PanPastels, oil paints, and gold leaf. Once one layer is done, Marc lays the painting flat and checks to make sure it's leveled in order to get a smooth surface. Then he prepares the resin to be poured onto the next layer. The final resin pour brings the portrait to life.
Marc: And also, there's a point towards the end of the painting when you realize you're close to, or are, finished. And sometimes that's a surprise. You know, sometimes you pour the resin on and go, "Oh, I thought I was gonna do all this other stuff, but I love this."
Narrator: With so much of the art in the world focused on the finished product, Marc's style of painting allows us to see that the process is just as important.