Diego Maradona...this painting actually started off as a bet when a very good friend of mine and I were in bar (Six...where all good ideas are born) and I was challenged to replicate the painting on the wall...and a challenge it was! Firstly finding the source material proved a rather daunting task as it turns out that the painting at six was a painting of the cover illustration of Maradona's Autobiography rather than an actual photograph. So I had to settle to painting it from a copy of the cover, which was very poor quality copy. Thus a lot of the figures and shadows in the piece are a result of improvisation on my part so I struggled throughout entire process. Cameron my art teacher insisted that I put all the minor details in, I was planning to just do a black background with fireworks or something cheesy just to get done but i stuck with it and tried to get it close to the cover as possible. I found it frustrating and not being in love with the subject matter added to the stress. I did get it done, albeit not the same as the one at Six, it got done!

BTW, as I was painting this I did do some research on the oke and found him a rather interesting subject. The soccer world loves him and loves to hate him. I checked out some of his footage and Maradona's talent and his ability to keep me watching a soccer match explains why he is legendary and the greatest soccer player ever. I'm looking forward to seeing him at South Africa's WC :)

Source Material: Maradona: Autobiography of Soccer's Greatest and Most Controversial Star