Jason Seiler, the Artist Who Painted TIME's Person of the Year 2013

TIME
By D.W. Pine and Skye Gurney

ILLINOIS---To capture the essence of Pope Francis, we turned to Chicago-based artist Jason Seiler, a classically trained oil painter who recently taught himself to paint digitally on a 21-inch LCD display. Seiler spent more than 70 hours creating the Person of the Year artwork, which continues the rich tradition of great portraiture on the cover of TIME. “A lot of times before I start a painting, I see it finished in my head,” he says. “With the Pope, I let it happen organically.” [link]

Photographs courtesy Jason Seiler, Ava Seiler, and Jacqueline Patrice