When I was given the assignment to paint Kanye, I wasn't very familiar with his look or his music. The art director informed me of Kanye's fashion sense, and it was important for the article for Kanye's clothing to represent his many different looks. Originally, in my painting, Kanye had really short hair . . . but while working on the painting, I saw Kanye on the Conan 'O Brian show and he had a strange Mo-hawk of sorts, so I painted it in the following day. It was interested and very helpful to see him moving and talking, I felt that really helped me capture "character" that I wasn't familiar with.