Cultural Icons Artist Fred Larucci | British Crown

From a very early age, I’ve always seen the world in an artistic way. A self-taught artist, I’ve been sketching and creating since the age of seven. As a teenager, I would recreate album covers of favorite rock bands for friends or myself. As a young man, I became interested in political cartoons and mastered those. There was a fairly long period of time between my teen-age years and my adult years before I picked up a pencil again. When I did, I suddenly found that I saw the world in a whole new way and in much greater detail than I had as a young boy. It’s as if I had to live life a little bit in order to see the world in a more complex and detailed way. This new way of seeing the world suddenly translated into my being an even better artist than I was years before, without even having drawn in all that time.

I started to re-create postage stamps, carefully and painstakingly capturing every tiny detail. I then moved onto mastering portraits of everybody from friends and family to celebrities or old movie stars. Now as a grown man, I’ve become intrigued with the beauty and subject matter of coins. Though I’ve drawn many coins, my fascination is primarily with French coins and commemorative medals who-d beauty I find unparalleled.

Before each coin I choose, I review a multitude of reference photos and actual coins, studying light, shadow, sizing, angles and layout. I choose coins that are not only beautiful but coins or medals that may hold some historical significance or coins that are rare. I think I hold such a high fascination for coins because each one has its place in history with its own unique story to tell. The person on a coin is special and though we may hold coins and trade coins and use coins to purchase items throughout life, very seldom does anyone stop to actually think about the story of the coin or the person so honored enough to be placed on a coin. Each portrait takes approximately 50-100 hours, Each coin 75-125 hours. I use 6h to 8bb pencils and 96 lb Canson Bristol sheet stock paper.

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