Further Research

Now that I've discovered the medium I wish to stick to (being pencil and partly fineliner pen) I need to collect further artists and illustrators that produce the realistic style of pencil portrait I'am looking for, whether political or not. I intend to build on my inspiration from Iain McArthur which takes the idea of the persons portrait being divided with patterned fineliner drawing (or in my case, a form of drawing that incorporates symbolism and imagery relating to main events that occurred during the decade of Blair's power.

So far, I have found Jenny Mortsell:

I love how Jenny seams to convey a person's character with ease by capturing that character, detailing their expression in quite a momentary way which often comes across as quite humourous and casual, as if taken fresh from a set of photos from a night out. Hardly any of her work is in any way political, but the closest example I did find was this of Mrs Obama. I hope to use this quite clean style, but don't intend for any of my shading to be smoothly blurred, as the mark of the pencil still needs to be evident.

Someone else I've found is Daan Noppen:

Much like Jenny's work above, Daan works in a very photographic way, yet his work when closely observed is not quite as detailed, suggesting that Noppen's work may be slightly faster to produce (which my own work may benefit from, depending on what degree I want to create a photographic and hopefully cinematic feel). I also love the idea of leaving an illustration partly unfinished, almost as if it entices the viewer to imagine the rest of the image, without the drawing appearing lazily rendered.

Another illustrator that I need to inform my work is T.S Abe:

Abe's work speaks to me in a similiar light to Iain McArthur's, by incorporating elegant elements that grow out from the portrait, often intercepting certain areas of the face, whilst leaving areas of the illustration blank to allow the viewer to "imagine" the other parts, but also providing breathing space. The above image works specifically well for me, as it clearly speaks out about inequality towards black people, imagining the head of a black woman no different to that of a prize animal fresh from the hunt.

The final illustrator featured in this post is Carsten Oliver Bieraugel:

Much like the previous artists I decided to research, Carsten encapsulates a use of apparently clean bit distiguishably pencil portraits, use of white space and the capturing of expression in his subjects. It's this use of detailed expression that I'll have to use well to produce my three pencil portraits of Tony Blair in the way I imagine them to look. I hope this additional research can further inform and justify the style I have chosen.