ROBERT PLANT

People always ask me which HALF&HALF fine art portrait is my very favorite. At first I want to say the one I’m drawing. Then I realize I do have ones that speak loudly to me. One of those is Robert Plant. Why Robert? Well, I think it is because he is an Icon of Rock from my era. I was born in the 60’s, so I grew up during Elvis, The Beatles, The Who and yes, Led Zepplin.

So why does Robert speak to me? He speaks to me because I drew his left eye higher up than reality. The left eye is sort of a raised eyebrow if you will. To me Robert Plant is like a GodFather of true rock music when the sound of one’s voice is above and beyond all instruments. The voice dominates even in apparent chaos. I love that about him and the band and the music. Just listen to the song Kashmir. Then you will hear exactly what I am talking about. It is an erie kind of song where the voice is every instrument known to man and more. The voice is haunting. I like that! The sound of a song is everything to me. I’m not as concerned about the words. I want to hear something I’ve never heard before each time I listen.

So Robert Plant is raising his eyebrow as if to say he has something to say, always has, always will. And if you listen very hard the truth will come to you a lie or something like that. I make up my own words when my ears fail me. Hey, i’m an artist. I fill in the missing pieces. I guess i could look up the lyrics on YouTube but I like what I hear. The truth will come to you a lie. So erie!!! So possible!!! So common in the world we live in today!!! Well, a deep subject… But, yes, he is raising his eyebrow as if to say I have the truth and I want to get it out of you. There is no other place to find it. It has to be in you. And Robert Plant is a passionate man. He really wants you to know your own truth. He spills his guts on to the stage every time he opens his angelic diabolical mouth. And if you listen very hard…

CREATION OF A NEW ART FORM

I, Billy Cone, created the Half&Half years ago. It was an idea that came to me through an album cover of the band Ah-Ha! And boy was that an Ah Ha moment!!!

Put the left half of a black and white portrait of a celebrity on archival paper and draw the right side of the face with black markers and Voila! And that was the origin of a Half&Half. One of my first ones was the Mona Lisa. Then it evolved into many great personalities who are or were very famous.

Then I did Jimmy Buffet’s Half&Half. I named it “Salvator Mundi” after the the Salvator Mundi portrait of Christ by Leonardo Da Vinci which is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. It sold for $450.3 million dollars to a Saudi Arabian Prince named Prince Badr bin Abdullah on November 15, 2017. But, get this. It’s whereabouts is unknown to this day. It is a mystery! Some think it should be on view in a museum for all the world to see; however, it is believed that this masterpiece is in storage in Switzerland. Billy has “Salvator Mundi” on display at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina right now in State of the Art—Art of the State until September. Go check it out!!!

Next

So Jean Cocteau inspired me to draw the Buddha because of his simple lines. Each one was unique, and each one was somewhat the same. All I had to do was follow the lines of the Buddha’s face. I did this for a couple of years. Then I started drawing women’s portraits from magazines. In 2014 I published FEMME, a book of close-up portraits of women I would meet in cafes and on the street. This was quite gratifying, but each day I would still hone in on my drawing skills with a portrait with black markers. I began to see my drawing style develop. It happened organically. Now it has stuck with me. This is how I draw the right side of my Half & Half portraits of celebrities.

In The Beginning

While staying in a rented apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis I found myself among the art galleries of the rue de Seine. I had been a photographer for over 20 years but had been toying with the idea of “controlling my medium, ie., drawing or painting. At 14, rue de Seine I entered the Anne Julian Art Gallery devoted solely to the artist and actor Jean Cocteau. Drawings of Jean were all over the walls and in the books of the gallery. His drawings were drawing me in like a light that day. It was like an epiphany. For the first time in my life it registered with something inside me. Jean Cocteau drew people the way he saw them, not the way they actually appeared to everyone else. Wow!!! Boom!!! From that moment I would begin drawing faces and portraits my way.