Michael Jordan

A portrait of the GOAT Michael Jordan by Erik Pingol

An art professor once told me that a portrait is not just some photograph or illustration of someone’s face. It should have the story or the character or memory that describes who the subject is. This, for me, is Michael Jordan. The hard teammate. The ultra-competitive. The proud monarch. The undefeated champion.

Truth be told, I was never a fan of MJ. I never collected his cards when I was young. I didn’t really root that much for his games, in fact I wanted my Lakers to defeat him. But my beloved ’90s era was the decade of his greatness, and it was harder not to be in awe of this certain genius.

This is the last Bulls portrait in my planned collection, and definitely one of my favorites.

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Scottie Pippen

Scottie Pippen illustrated by Erik Pingol

“Considered one of the greatest small forwards of all time, Pippen was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team eight consecutive times and the All-NBA First Team three times. He was a seven-time NBA All-Star and was the NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1994. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History during the 1996–97 season, and is one of four players to have his jersey retired by the Chicago Bulls” from Wiki.

Yup I got lazy there trying to write something about Scottie. Well, this site is about my artworks, not athlete profiles after all. I do like Scottie Pippen in the Bulls’ run during the ’90s but I just didn’t have the words to say.

Anyway, as a journal entry, I remember waking up early in the morning and sketching this. In a few hours I finished it and got to finish more on the same day. I’m getting the hang of hatching. I think I finished 5 player portraits in one day.

Next: MJ

Harper 9

Ron Harper was one of the herd that I liked—back in the 2nd Bulls’ era in the ’90s. Together of course with MJ, Pip, and Kukoc and Rodman—Harper was a very dependable role-player. But of course I was just too young to remember his details and I didn’t collect his Fleer and Topps back then. So I took a piece of Wikipedia about him:

“Harper signed a free agent deal with the Chicago Bulls, who were reloading following the first retirement of Michael Jordan. Harper found his niche with the Bulls upon Jordan’s return, eventually becoming a fan favorite by reinventing himself as a big perimeter defender, ball handler, and mid-range scorer.”

Yes. True that. And when the Bulls were over, He got to join the Lakers—my true team—and won 2 more rings. Lucky and great guy!

Ron Harper. I did this portrait because very few did. Don’t forget this guy! He’s great!

Right now, I’m just working with portraits and portraits and more portraits, but in the future I’ll do some court action for each of these guys (that I portrait). Be sure to here for it, guys!

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