Mr. Wint And Mr. Kidd

Diamonds Are Forever was on the telly the other night and inspired me into painting a portrait of nefarious duo Mr. Wint (left, played by Bruce Glover) and Mr. Kidd (left, played by Putter Smith). Somehow these two characters didn’t make the cut for my James Bond Villains Collection from 2021. And it turns out that Putter Smith is just as famous as a jazz bassist as he is as an actor, which is why this post shows up when filtering for ted lists or for bassists.

It took a bit of searching to find a shot of the two with heads close enough together to fit into a painting. And even then, I had trouble finding an image that would work as a posterised painting, with most stills only having a narrow range of values. Eventually I settled on this one, which just about worked with three values; I couldn’t find anything that would work with four. So it was the source material that pushed me into three values and so the trippy colour scheme. Although I expect ChatGPT to tell me that the rainbow of colours on display complements the duo’s LGBT identities. And I liked the generally dark tone of the blues, suggesting menace.

So yeah, this one is a posterised painting, following my normal process. I included some starry masking fluid spatters at the start and a dark margin around the outside. I was never convinced about Mr. Wint’s likeness on the right and wasn’t surprised to find myself making some small changes to him after the masking fluid was removed. I’m happy with how he ended up though, even with his Patrick Troughton looks. I think he has what’s known as a Moe Howard haircut. Like Ruby Murray and Sweet Fanny Adams, Moe Howard’s name will still be round long after the person behind the name has been forgotten.

As for the final painting, I’m very happy. It’s the mood that I like as much as anything. Mr. Wint’s likeness might fall slightly short and I maybe should have made the half tone on the top of Mr. Kidd’s head yellow rather than green but that doesn’t change my opinion. This one works for me. It’s up for sale, with the price to be found here.