The aim of this experiment was to caricature somebody drawn from life, in order to express something about them or what they represent; or change the way they are received by the viewer.
The primary observational drawings were done on an early (October?) drawing 'trip' to the St Pauls Tavern with James Baily. I hoped I might find a drinker to draw - there were unfortunately only about six people in there (including us, sitting in the window with our sketchbooks, which made it a bit awkward). Still, I did a couple of drawings:
The primary observational drawings were done on an early (October?) drawing 'trip' to the St Pauls Tavern with James Baily. I hoped I might find a drinker to draw - there were unfortunately only about six people in there (including us, sitting in the window with our sketchbooks, which made it a bit awkward). Still, I did a couple of drawings:
When
I got home I decided to take the character on the right in the second
drawing (above) and see if I could draw him again in a different way. He didn't strike me as a total scumbag but he was doing a fair bit of 'reminiscing'; perhaps a bit of a windbag.
I had been reading some of Ralph Steadman's memoir and so decided to take cue from the great man and make him look fairly horrible. Steadman has rarely if ever done a flattering drawing of anyone; below, a 93-year-old whisky distiller from his whisky book, is about the kindest Steadman drawing I've ever seen:
This one, some kind of nasty tycoon, is more familiar Steadman:
I was after something halfway for my pub man. Steadman's key weapons are physical distortion carried off with a venomous line, deliberate contrast of tone/colour and white space, and adroit design and composition. His medium is generally consistent - black ink and splatter, limited colour. I went in first with pen and brush and black ink, like Steadman, which is something you can't easily do outside the studio. It took me four goes before I got a face (top left) that I liked, and I had enough room to finish the figure:
I had been reading some of Ralph Steadman's memoir and so decided to take cue from the great man and make him look fairly horrible. Steadman has rarely if ever done a flattering drawing of anyone; below, a 93-year-old whisky distiller from his whisky book, is about the kindest Steadman drawing I've ever seen:
This one, some kind of nasty tycoon, is more familiar Steadman:
I was after something halfway for my pub man. Steadman's key weapons are physical distortion carried off with a venomous line, deliberate contrast of tone/colour and white space, and adroit design and composition. His medium is generally consistent - black ink and splatter, limited colour. I went in first with pen and brush and black ink, like Steadman, which is something you can't easily do outside the studio. It took me four goes before I got a face (top left) that I liked, and I had enough room to finish the figure:
I then cleaned it up on
photoshop:
And finally added some colour:
This was quite a fun drawing to do, this character is definitely a 'pub bore'. There is more dynamism in this drawing which in turn adds dynamism to the character - he appears more active. This chap is actively boring.
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