If you are still not convinced, the British artist responsible, Kyle Lambert, 26, has produced a video to accompany his painstaking work viewed by almost four million people on YouTube – the only thing it is missing is a trademark narration by the Hollywood legend. The ultra-detailed picture, originally by photographer Scott Gris took Lambert one month and constitutes 285,000 finger strokes that blend on top of one another to produced the precise wisps of hair in Freeman’s beard, the wrinkles in his forehead and the freckles on his cheeks – rendering it almost indistinguishable from the original image.
In the time-lapse video which shows the humble beginnings of his piece, Lambert reveals how he uses a specialist art app called Procreate to allow him to zero-in and layer his work. Lambert, who is a trained artist and oil painter used the app to reduce the brush sizes to only a few pixels – which in turn lets him zoom in to apply stroke upon stroke to produce the ultra-lifelike portrait.The incredible detail of the work has led to some doubting whether the finger painting is all Lambert claims it to be.
Critics have pointed out that apps like Procreate allow the user to easily add on images or photos and set them as paintings. As such, some have attempted to claim that Lam Bert’s step-by-step video is in fact played backwards and is not a true representation of a life-like portrait of Freeman. However, Lam Bert’s portfolio of iPad work is extensive and includes pictures of Barack Obama and Bey once – all incredibly realistic. Lambert told nine men that the painting was a very long process.
I get very involved in my process so spend a lot of time each day on the painting,’ he said. I was spending 9-10 hours some days if a certain area I was working on was complicated.’Inspired to create the picture after viewing Freeman in the Tom Cruise vehicle, Oblivion, Lambert has been using an iPad to paint since 2010. I’ve found with past videos people are more engaged when the subject is familiar to them,’ he said.
I think I must have been watching the movie Oblivion when the idea of Morgan Freeman came to mind. However, the portrait of Morgan Freeman seems to be a quantum leap forward in terms of the final product for Lambert, who lives in Bradford, England.Inspired by the iPad art of legendary British artist, David Hockney, who used Apple’s tablet to paint in 2010, Lambert originally used an app known as Brushes, before updating to Procreate.
The illustration and animation graduate first began creating digital art following the release of the iPad and was first recognized for his artwork after he posted his re-creation of the Toy Story 3 poster on the Apple Mac website. Even Apple – the creators of the i Pad – were so impressed they invited him to give a speech at their Mac world Conference in San Francisco – just days after he posted the picture. Dailymail
