Brief
Looking through the options I felt like choosing the editorial portraits would be my best choice as my last project focused on editorials and learning what I did from that project while implying it through portraiture. Below i've added the brief and what Is expected from this project. 1 portrait a week.
Portrait Size: 210x272mm, 3mm bleed, CMYK
Portrait Size: 210x272mm, 3mm bleed, CMYK
Artist Research
It's been a while since I used to create portraits as I've been focusing on nature based art lately so I looked into some artists that I like the way they stylized their portraits and how they all have some unique similarities within each portrait. I've noticed a use of bright colours especially pinks and minimal textures. There's a traditional like texture to how these artists work and for my project I'm thinking about starting off traditionally and then adding on colour and refining things digitally.
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David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor renowned for his versatile and compelling performances across stage and screen. Born on April 18, 1971, as David John McDonald, he gained widespread recognition for his iconic portrayal of the Tenth Doctor in the long-running British science fiction series "Doctor Who." Tennant's charismatic and emotionally resonant acting has also been showcased in various critically acclaimed roles, such as his portrayal of the cunning Kilgrave in the Marvel series "Jessica Jones" and his award-winning stage performances in Shakespearean plays. With his distinctive blend of wit, charm, and dramatic prowess, David Tennant has become a beloved figure in the world of entertainment.
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A selection of Articles:
Now for the project we DO NOT need an article but I thought to look into some anyway in case I happen to find one of these useful to create my portrait. David Tenant, when looking him up you can see he doesn't care for how he's looking as he's got a various amount of facial expressions caught on camera which I think would help with my portraits to give them more life.
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Doctor Who
Tennan'ts most popular series will always be 'Doctor Who', I thought to look at some images of him on set and somehow incorporate the way he dresses in the portrait as I need to make sure the portrait comes off as Tennant and not just some guy.
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Sonic Screwdriver & Tardis
I'm not entirely sure what the character of Doctor Who does but what I know is he uses a Tardis to move through time and space. The functions of a sonic screwdriver are based on its power over sound waves, radiation, wavelengths, frequencies, signals, and electro-magnetism.
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Rough Sketches
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Doctor Who is David Tennant's most popular series, so of course I began my sketches from the series. When I was finding images I noticed he creates a lot of facial expressions which has been fun to work with as it gives him more character than a guy in a suit. I still struggle with the hair and will need to work more on this. I'm unsure if i want to incorporate anything from the series itself.
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Good Omens
Good Omens is the only show I've seen Tennant act in, and I quite like how odd he looks. With the new season just out I feel it would also be easier to recognise him in his character.
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Snakes
"He was the snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, and thus his human form also has snake eyes, which he usually covers with designer sunglasses."
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Rough Sketches
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Good Omens was fun to do sketches for, I feel there's a lot more i can work with in terms of the idea that he's a snake and incorporating a snake into the portrait could be a cool added detail. I will need to figure out how else to add them into the portrait as the main focus is David Tennant.
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Macbeth
I found out through my research that Tennant has been involved in musicals for Shakespear. I thought the images from Macbeth could be potentially interesting.
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Other Adaptions of Macbeth
Potential Imagery I can use within my portraits that relate back to Macbteh.
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Rough Sketches
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Sketching out various portrait ideas I came to find that Macbeth was harder in terms of making sure you can still tell it's David Tennant and not just a character himself. I think for the final I will not be taking elements of this live performance.
Development
After choosing which sketch I felt would best represent David Tennant I began to play with colours and how to style the final image. These are all rough ideas of what I want the final to look like and will be redefined later in the process.
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Understanding Features
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Final
The first portrait ! I had fun thinking of different ways to stylise David Tennant, but I still wanted him to be as accurate as possible. I did in some ways avoid how his hair naturally looks in the reference and made it more larger and a bit more neater. I feel you can definitely tell this is the doctor more so with the background Tardis added.
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Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe, (born March 20, 1915, Cotton Plant, Arkansas, U.S.—died October 9, 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), American guitar player and gospel and blues singer who was popular in the 1930s and ’40s. She sang traditional gospel songs with contemporary jazz tempos that she played on her electric guitar. With these performances she introduced gospel into nightclubs and concert venues. Her work influenced early rock and rollers such as Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley.
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A selection of Articles:
All the articles I managed to find about Rosetta Tharpe have all been positive news and how she's an inspiration for other music artists. She's known as the Godmother of rock'n'roll which I thought would be an interesting piece to work with.
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Goddess of Rock'n'roll
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Rough Sketches
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I'm wanting to keep the same sort of style throughout all 3 portraits so I began with sketching out Rosetta Tharpe in the same way i've sketched David Tennant but making sure that facial features are more accurate, I feel in some you can't tell who she is but with the 4th sketch I feel resembles her the most with her personality and career as well. The reason I haven't added colours to the sketches are due to wanting to make sure she is recognisable before I move forwards.
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National Triolian Resonator Guitar
The National String Instrument Corporation was an American guitar company first formed to manufacture banjos and then the original resonator guitars. National also produced resonator ukuleles and resonator mandolins. The company merged with Dobro to form the "National Dobro Company", then becoming a brand of Valco until it closed in 1968.
To keep to the era she was performing in I had a look at what type of guitar she uses to make sure I can get the build of it right. There's a lot of details on these and it helps to visualise the colours of the guitar as all the references are in black and white.
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Final
Taking what I learned from the David Tennant sketches I wanted to proudly show Rosetta Tharpe as a guitarist! In the reference it's hard to see if she still has her mole or if it's covered up with makeup like the other images but i thought to still include it as it's a recognisable feature of hers. Even though I looked into the guitar she uses, for the reference it's build a little different so I tried my best to keep to the image itself. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, I did struggle a bit more this week to get drawing hence there's a little less compared to David Tennant.
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Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi (born November 19, 1917, Allahabad, India—died October 31, 1984, New Delhi) Indian politician who was the first female prime minister of India, serving for three consecutive terms (1966–77) and a fourth term from 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984.
During her first year in office, she visited Washington, D.C., where she won substantial support for India’s weakened economy, and her subsequent visit to Moscow reflected the continuation of her father’s policy of nonalignment. Trying to defuse Sikh agitation, moreover, and as a reward for Sikh military service in the Kashmir war, she granted the long-standing Sikh demand of a Punjabi suba (state), which required partition of the existing state of Punjab but left its newly designed capital of Chandigarh as shared administrative headquarters of the new states of Punjab, with a Sikh majority, and Haryana, with a slight Hindu majority. |
A selection of Articles:
There's not many articles about Indira that I could find but the ones I did have all been pretty negative. Most of which that only talks about her death .
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Rough Sketches
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Although a lot of photos suggest she is smilling and happy, I feel like as she's not exactly a good person that the more stern images' resembles her more. I feel the last two one both rows show this most, I'm leaning towards the first row last sketch as it's more updated on what she usually wore.
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After choosing which sketch I liked best I began to slowly begin the final piece however I feel there's a little bit still missing from this portrait. I'm going to look more into the negative parts about her and try and bring that forwards.
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1984 anti-Sikh riots
I want to add some of the negative reasons why Indira was not a good person during her time as prime minister.
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Indira Ghandi Death
Some images of her funeral. I thought to look into it and see what I could add within my work.
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Adding Blood Effects
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I got some blood splatter brushes to see how this would look with her portrait, I like the effects but I don't feel like my portrait portrays her as being a bad person. I may switch out the sketch and re work into it.
re-working the final
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Final
After some feedback I was aware that the first initial sketch I began with looked more like Indira so I went back and worked onto it more in detail. I did find this one to be more trickier as my last two articles had been positive. Trying to share a negative within my illustration was a challenge. I added the blood to show how many people died during her time as prime minister but also the assassination that occurred. I tried not to make it too dark as I want it to stand next to the other portraits well and not look out of place.
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