“My name is Michael Janosko and I live and grew up in northeastern Ohio. I am a self taught artist with no formal training and I’ve been working on this for a bit more than a decade. I actually have a background in cooking and woodworking but my brain doesn’t seem to recognize the difference between these and painting, it’s all creating as far as I’m concerned. I’m proficient with oils, acrylics, pastels, charcoals, ink and carbon pencils and I prefer to work on hardboard panels and wood as I can prepare these to have any surface I like. I prefer portraiture and figure drawing because the human element is what really draws me in. I love landscapes and some abstracts but I find I can’t paint them myself, I’m fickle and lose interest too quickly. But there’s something about a human face, and especially the eyes, that fascinates me and keeps me fixated on the piece I’m working on.”

Email: janoskofineart@gmail.com

Etsy: JanoskoFineArt

$600+ USD

Michael Janosko is a traditional artist from Ohio. You can best contact him via email at janoskofineart@gmail.com or his Etsy shop JanoskoFineArt. Please expect to wait 3 to 5 weeks for a finished piece, which will be shipped in “tank-like” packaging; although he has never experienced damage during shipping, Michael advises purchasing insurance for larger pieces. Throughout the process, Michael would be happy to work with you to find the perfect reference images and will send progress photos of your piece once he starts it. Prices start at $600 for a 12x18" inch (smallest available) charcoal portrait and $1400 for a 14x18 inch (smallest available) pastel portrait; price rises with size and depends on the media.

“I very much enjoy painting “unusual” individuals, people whose appearance differs from the cookie cutter norm (please read: people with character), I absolutely love tattoos, piercings and wild hair colors. This makes for a much more interesting piece, I find classical portraits pretty boring. I love a good emotional picture, whether it’s joy or sadness or rage, capturing that feeling is what keeps me creating. I’m a total fool for photorealistic detail, and often have a tough time putting down the brush or pencil. I’m currently enamored with pastels, I love the available array of colors and I try to do very dramatic and bright work with them. I’m also very interested in using walnut ink to paint on wood right now, allowing the grain to show through and become part of the composition, I am very open to painting on interesting wooden objects (musical instruments, furniture, etc). I am very critical about using only archival quality materials, and I use only lightfast pigments on archival quality substrates, I want to be certain that each piece lasts a lot longer than I do.”