For this painting of Kobe Bryant I was fortunate that I had a reference photo to work from that I owned the rights to. It’s hard when you paint a celebrity because you usually don’t have access to them and therefore you’re using someone else’s copyrighted image of them. But I had an opportunity to photograph Kobe during the 2009 playoffs on their way to winning the championship that year after a producer friend of mine arranged media access for me. At the end of practice, when all the media interviews were finished, Kobe was just standing at the edge of the court by the exit to the tunnel so I took a few more while he was looking around then he turned and looked right at me. I remembered feeling intimidated by his stare and nearly putting the camera down. I’m glad I didn’t. This was the photo I used for the painting. I liked how it captured that look that so many of his opponents faced every game throughout his remarkable career in the NBA.