Creating portraits in the style of pop surrealism

Pop surrealism, also known as lowbrow art, emerged in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a rebellious artistic movement that challenged the elitist world of contemporary art. This movement combined classical painting techniques with the visual language of comics, street culture, skateboarding, and punk rock, creating a unique artistic phenomenon that continues to captivate viewers with its accessibility and technical virtuosity.

Historical context and philosophy of the movement

Robert Williams, one of the movement’s founders and creator of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, called this movement "wild art" that "grew naturally in the desert." In the 1980s, he began exhibiting his work in nightclubs and underground spaces, where an audience developed outside of traditional galleries. Williams employed vibrant, pulsating, and meticulously crafted canvases that drew inspiration from comic books, pin-ups, car culture, and surrealism.

The movement developed on the West Coast of the United States alongside punk rock, graffiti, tattoo culture, and alternative comics. Pop-surrealist artists consciously rejected the abstract and conceptual art that dominated academic circles. Instead, they turned to figurative painting, imbuing it with social and political messages wrapped in satire and visual provocation.

The term "pop surrealism" is attributed to artist Kenny Scharf, who used it to describe his own work. The name aptly captured the essence of the movement — a fusion of pop art, with its focus on mass culture and consumerism, and surrealism, with its exploration of the unconscious and dream world. Pop surrealist artists took the best of both worlds: they combined the accessibility and recognizability of pop art imagery with the fantasy, sometimes disturbing, elements of surrealism.

Aesthetic characteristics of the portrait in pop surrealism

Pop-surrealist portraits possess a number of distinctive features that set them apart from other artistic movements. A central characteristic is a smooth, polished surface, achieved through meticulous paint application. Many artists strive to make brushstrokes virtually invisible, creating the illusion of photographic clarity while maintaining pictorial depth.

The color palette of pop-surrealist portraits often includes saturated, sometimes unnatural hues. Artists use vibrant primary colors — red, blue, and yellow — in combination with contrasting combinations that enhance the visual impact. Mark Ryden, one of the movement’s leading exponents, developed a recognizable color scheme in which pastel pinks, blues, and creams juxtapose with darker, muted shades, creating a distinctive atmosphere of nostalgia and unease.

Pop-surrealist portraits are often compositionally built around a central figure surrounded by symbolic elements that create a narrative context. Faces are depicted with anatomical accuracy, but can also be stylized — eyes are enlarged, features are softened, and proportions are altered to enhance emotional impact. The subjects’ gazes are typically directed directly at the viewer or thoughtfully averted, creating a sense of dialogue or introspection.

Portrait backgrounds are rarely neutral. Artists fill the space around the figure with details that expand the work’s semantic field. These can include toys, animals, plants, architectural elements, Victorian-era objects, or elements of contemporary pop culture. Each object carries a symbolic charge, inviting the viewer to interpret it.

Thematic features

Pop-surrealist portraits often explore the duality of childhood innocence and the darker sides of the human psyche. Cherub-like children with large eyes are juxtaposed with disturbing, grotesque elements. This juxtaposition creates a tension that forces the viewer to reflect on the nature of beauty, childhood nostalgia, and hidden psychological processes.

Many artists draw on the aesthetics of vintage Disney and Fleischer Brothers cartoons, blending it with a critical view of contemporary society. Camille Rose Garcia creates "wasteland tales" that are satirical commentaries on the failure of capitalist utopias. Her layered, fragmented narratives are influenced by William Burroughs’s cut-up technique and surrealist cinema.

Technical approaches: oil painting

Traditional oil painting remains the preferred medium for many pop surrealist artists. Mark Ryden employs Old Master techniques, drawing inspiration from artists such as Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, and William-Adolphe Bouguereau. His works are executed in multi-layered oils with glazes, giving them a distinctive depth and luminosity.

Preparing the base

Working on a portrait begins with choosing a suitable support. Most artists use linen canvas stretched on a frame or wooden panels, which provide a smoother surface. The support is then coated with a primer — usually acrylic gesso or traditional oil primer, applied in several layers. Each layer is carefully sanded to achieve a perfectly smooth surface, which is crucial for the pop-surrealist technique.

Some artists use additional preparation methods. For example, they can apply pumice or use very fine sandpaper to smooth out the dry underpainting. This creates a surface on which subsequent layers of paint lay evenly, without visible texture.

Underpainting and construction of form

The underpainting is done in monochrome or with a limited palette. Artists often begin with a meticulous drawing, which is transferred to canvas using tracing paper or projection. The facial proportions are calibrated with anatomical accuracy, although they may be intentionally altered for stylistic effect.

During the underpainting stage, the basic tonal relationships are established. Work proceeds from dark to light, gradually building up volume. Paint is applied in thin layers, thinned with solvent — this "thin" layer dries quickly and serves as a base for subsequent "thick" layers. Adherence to the "thick on thin" rule is essential, otherwise the upper layers may crack.

Glazing technique

Glazing is the application of transparent layers of paint over dried opaque layers. This technique creates luminosity and depth that cannot be achieved by mixing paints directly. Oil paint is thinned with a glazing medium — linseed oil, alkyd mediums like Galkyd or Liquin — to a transparent consistency.

Glaze is applied with a soft brush in very thin layers. Each layer must dry completely before applying the next. This process requires patience and can take weeks or months, but the results are well worth the time. Glaze can be used to build warmth in the shadows, cool light on the skin, create an atmospheric haze, or enhance color saturation.

Pop surrealist artists use glazes to create the illusion of smooth skin, soft tonal transitions, and a unique quality of light. Mark Ryden applies multiple, ultra-thin layers that modulate color and tone, creating the effect of porcelain skin on his subjects.

Working with details

Detail is a hallmark of pop surrealism. Artists devote considerable time to elaborating on the smallest details: individual hairs, fabric textures, catchlights in eyes, and folds of skin. Fine brushes — from numbers 0 to 000 — are used to render details that require extreme precision.

Eyes require special attention, as they often become the focal point of a portrait. Artists meticulously work on the iris, highlights, moisture, eyelids, and eyelashes. Eye size can be deliberately exaggerated to heighten emotional impact — a technique borrowed from anime and kawaii culture.

The brush is moved confidently but delicately. The strokes should be so thin that their traces are practically invisible on the surface. To achieve this effect, the paint is applied with a semi-dry brush, using the drybrush method, or in very thin layers that blend into each other.

Final layers and finishing

The final layers include adding the brightest highlights and the deepest shadows. Whites and light shades are applied thickly, creating a textural contrast with the smooth glaze layers. Shadows can be deepened with pure glazes of dark transparent pigments.

After the painting process is complete, the painting must dry completely. Oil paintings can take anywhere from several months to a year to dry, depending on the thickness of the layers and the pigments used. Once dry, a protective varnish is applied — dammar, ketone, or synthetic. The varnish evens out the surface’s sheen and protects the paint from external influences.

Digital technologies in creating portraits

With the advent of the new millennium, many pop-surrealist artists began to utilize computer tools. Ray Caesar became a master of digital art, creating his works in the 3D modeling program Maya. His technique demonstrates how new technologies can be used to create works visually indistinguishable from traditional painting.

3D modeling

Ray Caesar’s work process begins with creating 3D character models in Maya. The program allows for the creation of three-dimensional objects that can be viewed from any angle. The models are covered with textures — painted and processed photographic images that are superimposed on the surface like maps on a globe.

Each model is equipped with an invisible skeleton that allows for posing and positioning of the figure in three-dimensional space. This gives the artist control over pose, lighting, and composition unavailable in traditional painting. Digital light sources and cameras are added to simulate the real world, with computer-generated shadows and reflections.

Ray Caesar combines elements of Art Deco, Victorian aesthetics, and early 20th-century visual codes. His portraits contain contrasting elements of childlike innocence, grotesque physical deformations, and sexual undertones. The polished, digitally created images possess a distinctive quality reminiscent of vintage photographs filtered through a surrealist lens.

Processing in Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is used for final image processing, creating collages, and combining various elements. Artists can apply textures, apply filters to simulate traditional techniques, and adjust color and tone.

Some artists create portraits entirely in Photoshop, using a graphics tablet and stylus. A digital brush mimics the feel of oil paint, watercolor, or pencil. Photoshop layers allow for non-destructive work — each element of the composition is on a separate layer and can be modified without affecting the others.

The advantage of digital technology is speed and flexibility. You can experiment with composition, move elements, and change the color scheme with the click of a button. However, many artists note that digital art requires the same technical virtuosity and artistic vision as traditional painting.

Hybrid techniques

Some artists combine traditional and digital methods. A portrait might begin as a pencil drawing, scanned and refined in Photoshop. The digital image is then printed and serves as the basis for an oil painting. Or, conversely, a traditional painting might be photographed in high resolution and enhanced with digital elements.

This hybrid approach leverages the strengths of both techniques. The tactile quality of oil paint, its luminosity, and physical presence are combined with the precision and capabilities of digital tools.

Composition and symbolism in portraiture

The composition of a pop-surrealist portrait is rarely simple. Artists construct complex visual narratives in which every element carries a meaningful meaning. Mark Ryden uses symbolism to create mystery and spark the viewer’s imagination. His works invite multiple interpretations, none of which are affirmed or rejected by the artist himself.

The central figure

The subject is usually placed in the center of the composition or slightly offset, following the golden ratio. The face is turned toward the viewer — full-face, three-quarter view, or profile. The subject’s gaze creates an emotional connection: a direct gaze draws the viewer in, while averted gaze creates a sense of detachment or introspection.

The figure’s pose can be static, almost frozen, lending the portrait an iconographic quality. The hands often hold symbolic objects — toys, flowers, skulls, books — which expand the work’s semantic field. The clothing is stylized — Victorian dresses, old-fashioned suits, or fantasy outfits that place the character outside of a specific time.

Surrounding elements

The space around the figure is rich in detail. Animals are a frequent motif. Rabbits, birds, bees, and deer appear alongside the characters, creating associative links. Animals can symbolize innocence, instincts, spirit guides, or aspects of the subject’s personality.

Plant motifs — flowers, trees, mushrooms — add an organic element. Roses, lilies, and poppies convey traditional symbolism of beauty, death, and sleep. Roots, branches, and leaves create decorative patterns that connect the figure with the natural world.

Architectural elements — arches, columns, frames — structure the painting’s space. They can allude to classical painting, creating a connection to artistic tradition. The ornate frames that Mark Ryden often uses in his works imbue the paintings with a baroque opulence and enhance the sense that the viewer is looking at something precious and meaningful.

Color relationships

Color in pop surrealism functions not only descriptively but also creates an emotional atmosphere. The palette can be monochrome with bright accents, or, conversely, polychromatic, with a multitude of saturated hues. Contrasting combinations — warm and cool, bright and muted — create visual tension.

Mark Ryden often uses pinkish-cream tones for skin, creating a sense of porcelain fragility. Backgrounds can be muted blue-gray or ochre tones, which don’t compete with the figures but create spatial depth. Bright accents of red, gold, and emerald draw attention to important elements of the composition.

Camilla Rose Garcia uses a darker, gothic palette. Her works often feature browns, greens, and purples with contrasting flashes of toxic neon. This creates an atmosphere of anxiety, decadence, and a dark fairytale.

Stylization and deformation in portraiture

One of the freedoms of pop surrealism is the ability to move away from photographic realism toward stylization. Artists deliberately alter proportions, simplify forms, or exaggerate features to enhance expressiveness.

Changing facial proportions

Eyes are often enlarged, creating a childlike, vulnerable effect and heightening the emotional impact. Large eyes evoke the aesthetics of manga, anime, and kawaii culture, which influenced many pop-surrealist artists. The iris can be detailed with multiple shades, or, conversely, simplified to a single color.

Facial features can be softened and smoothed. The nose becomes smaller, the mouth becomes miniature, and the chin becomes rounded. This gives the face a doll-like quality. Or, conversely, features can be exaggerated, grotesquely exaggerated, to create character or for comic effect.

Body transformations

Pop surrealism embraces physical transformations that blur the boundaries between different forms of existence. Bodies can be hybrids of human and animal, plant and human, machine and organic. This technique allows for exploration of themes of identity, change, and metamorphosis.

Ray Caesar often depicts figures with physical deformities — elongated limbs, distorted proportions — that create a sense of fragility and unnaturalness. This reflects his personal experience working in a hospital, where he encountered human suffering.

Marion Pöck creates characters with exaggerated heads on small bodies, giving them a comical yet unsettling quality. Her works balance the cute and the creepy, following in the tradition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

The practical process of creating a portrait

Concept and planning

The work begins with an idea. The artist determines what they want to say — what emotion to evoke, what story to tell, what social or political issue to address. The concept may stem from personal experience, a dream, a literary work, or a historical event.

The next step is collecting references. Photographs, illustrations, paintings by other artists, museum artifacts — all can serve as a source of inspiration. Pop surrealist artists often create mood boards — image collages that define the visual direction of future work.

Sketches help refine the composition. The artist makes numerous sketches, experimenting with the arrangement of elements, the pose of the figure, and the format of the canvas. Some sketches are executed quickly, conveying the general idea, while others are more detailed.

Preparatory drawing

Once the composition is approved, a detailed preparatory drawing is created. This can be done on a separate sheet of paper, life-size, or directly on the canvas. The pencil or charcoal drawing captures the contours, basic tonal relationships, and the arrangement of details.

If the drawing is done separately, it is transferred to canvas using various methods. The traditional method is using tracing paper or carbon paper. A modern method involves projecting the image onto the canvas using a projector and tracing the contours. Some artists use the grid method, which involves applying a grid to the drawing and canvas and transferring the image square by square.

Layer-by-layer image construction

The painting is done in stages. The first layer — the underpainting — establishes the tonal structure. The work is done with broad brushes, applying paint thinly and quickly. The goal is to cover the entire canvas, defining light and dark areas, and creating a base for subsequent layers.

After the underpainting dries, the contouring of the form begins. The paint is applied more thickly, and the colors become more saturated. The artist builds the volume of the face, refines the anatomy, and refines the features. Each session ends while the paint is still wet, allowing for soft transitions of tone.

Glazes are added after the previous layers have completely dried. Thin, transparent layers modulate color, creating depth in the shadows and luminosity in the highlights. The process can be repeated multiple times — each new layer introduces adjustments, bringing the image closer to the intended look.

Detailing occurs in the final stages. Fine brushes are used to draw hair, eyelashes, skin texture, and highlights in the eyes. Surrounding elements — the background, objects, and animals — are worked with the same care as the central figure.

Materials and tools

Paints

Pop-surrealist artists prefer high-quality, professional-grade oil paints. The pigments must be durable and resistant to fading over time. Popular manufacturers include Winsor & Newton, Gamblin, Old Holland, and Michael Harding.

The basic palette includes white (titanium or zinc), black (ivory or grape), ochres (yellow and red), burnt sienna, burnt umber, cadmiums (yellow, orange, red), ultramarine, cobalt blue, alizarin crimson, and viridian. This limited palette allows for mixing a wide range of colors while maintaining harmony in the work.

Some artists expand their palette with special pigments to create specific effects — for example, Naples Yellow for flesh tones, Prussian Blue for cool shadows, Transparent Oxide Red for glazes.

Brushes

A brush set for working in pop surrealism should be varied. Flat brushes are used for covering large areas and creating sharp edges. Round brushes are used for sculpting forms and working on details. Filbert brushes (oval brushes) are a versatile tool suitable for a variety of tasks.

Sizes range from large (number 10-12) for backgrounds and underpaintings to tiny (000-0 0000) for detailed work. The bristles are synthetic for acrylic paints, natural bristles for oils, and kolinsky or sable for fine work.

Brushes require careful care. After use, they should be cleaned with solvent (white spirit, turpentine), washed with soap, shaped, and laid flat to dry.

Mediums and thinners

Mediums alter the paint’s properties — flow, drying time, transparency. For underpainting, liquid mediums with added solvent are used, making the paint "lean" and quick-drying. For subsequent layers, more oil is added, making the paint "fatter."

Linseed oil is a traditional medium that enhances paint flow and creates a glossy surface. Stand oil is thicker, dries slowly, and creates an enamel-like surface. Poppy seed oil is light, does not yellow over time, and is suitable for working with white and light tones.

Alkyd mediums (Liquin, Galkyd) speed up drying and create a smooth surface. They are especially popular among artists who work in multiple layers and want to reduce the waiting time between sessions.

Solvents (turpentine, white spirit) are used to thin the paint during the initial stages and to clean tools. It is important to use high-quality, purified, odorless solvents to minimize toxicity.

Canvases and bases

Linen canvas is the preferred support for oil painting. It is durable, has a pleasant texture, and is long-lasting. The canvas should be stretched on a high-quality stretcher frame, preferably with gussets.

Wooden panels are an alternative to canvas. They are completely flat, do not sag over time, and are suitable for small-scale works. Panels made of birch plywood or MDF are primed with several layers of gesso.

The primer creates a barrier between the base and the paint layer, absorbs excess oil, and creates a surface with the desired texture. Acrylic gesso is applied with a brush or roller in 2-4 coats, sanding between coats. For the smoothest possible surface, use fine-grit sandpaper.

Influence of classical painting

Pop Surrealist artists consciously drew on the techniques of the Old Masters. The Flemish school of the 15th and 16th centuries, with its meticulous detail and luminous colors, had a profound influence on the movement. Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, and Hans Memling created portraits with incredible detail, using multi-layered techniques and glazes.

Renaissance masters — Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Sanzio, and Albrecht Dürer — set standards of anatomical precision and compositional harmony that remain relevant today. Their sfumato technique — soft, smoky transitions — is used to sculpt the face and create atmosphere.

Nineteenth-century painting, especially the academic Salon artists William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, demonstrated virtuoso technique, idealized beauty, and meticulous surface finishing. Their influence is evident in the smooth, polished surfaces of pop-surrealist portraits.

The Symbolism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, led by artists such as Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, and Arnold Böcklin, introduced elements of fantasy, mysticism, and personal symbolism. This movement directly anticipated Surrealism and influenced the figurative language of Pop Surrealism.

Criticism and perception

Pop Surrealism faced criticism from the traditional art world. The movement was accused of kitsch, a lack of intellectual depth, and excessive commercialism. Critics argued that the bright, easily readable images of Pop Surrealism required no interpretation, failed to challenge the viewer, and served merely decorative purposes.

The movement’s supporters responded that the open embrace of popular culture was a strength, not a weakness. Pop Surrealism made art accessible to a wide audience, requiring no formal education to understand, while maintaining a high level of technical mastery. The artists’ intentions were serious, even if their expressions could be sensual, humorous, or vibrant.

The movement sought to overcome abstractionism’s denial of the expressive potential of figurative work and to overthrow the long-standing dominance of minimalism and conceptual art. In this sense, pop surrealism was a reactionary movement, returning the figure, narrative, and craft to the center of artistic practice.

Over the years, pop surrealism has gained recognition. Works by leading artists are shown in museums and respected galleries. The Los Angeles County Museum and the San Jose Museum of Contemporary Art have held retrospectives of pop surrealist artists. Collectors pay high prices for the works. The movement has spawned an entire industry — from books and magazines to designer toys and fashion collaborations.

Educational aspects

An artist wishing to work in the pop-surrealist style requires a solid academic foundation. Knowledge of anatomy, perspective, color theory, and composition are the foundation upon which their work is built. Many of the movement’s leading artists have classical art training or underwent extensive self-study through copying the works of old masters.

Drawing from life develops observation skills and an understanding of form, light, and proportion. Academic studies — drawing plaster heads, live models, and still lifes — give the skills necessary to create compelling images. Even if the final style is stylized, an understanding of realistic form remains fundamental.

Studying art history expands one’s visual vocabulary, demonstrating how different eras and cultures addressed artistic challenges. Visiting museums, viewing reproductions, and reading monographs about artists — all of this fuels the imagination and shapes aesthetic preferences.

Technical mastery comes with practice. It’s necessary to experiment with different materials, study their properties, and find the methods that best suit your individual vision. Mistakes are part of the learning process. A poorly executed piece can teach you more than a successful one.

Current status and development

Pop surrealism is now a recognized movement with a global audience. Artists from various countries — Japan, Europe, South America, Russia — work within this aesthetic, bringing their own cultural influences. The movement has diversified, with various offshoots and individual styles emerging within its overall philosophy.

Digital technologies have opened up new possibilities. Young artists who grew up with computers seamlessly transition between traditional and digital media. NFTs and digital art have created new platforms for displaying and selling works.

Social media has changed the way artists interact with their audiences. Instagram (продукт Meta Platforms Inc., компания признана экстремистской организацией, деятельность на территории РФ запрещена), Pinterest, and ArtStation allow artists to directly display their work to millions of people without the mediation of galleries. This has democratized the art world, but it has also created new challenges — the need to constantly produce content, competition for attention, and the pressure of algorithms.

Pop surrealism continues to evolve, absorbing new influences and experimenting with form and content. Artists address contemporary themes — environmental crisis, technological dependence, social justice — using familiar visual language to convey relevant messages. Born as a rebellion against elitist art, the movement remains true to its roots, creating works that speak to people in a relatable way without losing artistic depth or technical mastery.