MIKAEL TAKACS

About Mikael Takacs

The Tecknique

Mikael Takacs uses pipettes to distribute acrylic paint across a canvas to form his portraits, which he then distorts by dragging the paint around using sticks and combs, creating the marbling effect.

The canvas must be completely horizontal, or else the paint would run off.  He combines the classic abstract expression of marbling with figurative portraits.
This results in intricate razor-sharp patterns swirling across the canvas as you look at it up closely, which then takes the form of a portrait as you take a few steps back.
Even though the patterns in themselves are very sharp they can make the figure look blurry or fuzzy.
The vivid and abstract is in contrast to the vague and figurative.

Variations of this technique has been around for hundreds of years, but in spite of that, his paintings are often mistaken for digital art.
Marbling is said to originate in the 12th century Japan as "Suminagashi", and centuries later made its way to Europe through the Ottoman Empire and the "Ebru" method.