Thursday 27 August 2015

Welles & Murakami



Two recent portrait experiments. Both in pencil (the trusty Palomino Blackwing!) and watercolour. I've been trying to experiment with crossing my usual stylised approach to portraits with more realistic shadowing. I saw an incredible Janniot sculpture in Lisbon last year and it got me thinking. It was beautifully stylised but with it being a real 3D object reacted to light and shade in an interesting way. The same goes for the stone heads created by Modigliani (a long time influence). This is what I've tried to achieve with both of these drawings. I think I may have lost track with the Murakami drawing and veered a bit too close to realism for my tastes but sometimes it's fun to interpret rather than reinterpret.

Wednesday 12 August 2015

Tove Jansson


A sketchbook portrait of Tove Jansson to celebrate her 101st birthday. She was an incredible artist from an early age and her career was far more diverse than I'd original thought (watch this superb BBC documentary to find out more about her life and career). I think she's more influential now than ever.