Upson's Portrait (Vain German) panels, which feature ghostly, abstracted visages, begin from a similar principle: the artist first created a miniature painting, which was 3D-scanned, enlarged and cast using a silicone mold. Working with the mold on the floor, Upson painted one layer at a time, from front to back, making marks with pigment-tinted Aqua-Resin. As she built up the image, the marks she put down first were hidden by later ones, a process she dubbed "blind painting." The final image is thus a combination of deliberate actions, chance effects and forgotten gestures, while the series as a whole relates to the theme of "vanitas" and its consequent notions of time, transience, death and beauty. In some panels the figure is clearly visible, while in others, traces of facial features are absorbed into Upson's network of Technicolor painterly motions.