Wednesday 15 September 2010

Tony Blair - A Journey - Portrait and Caricature Combination


A Journey - Tony Blair Portrait and Caricature combination.



I wanted to complete a piece that would combine a caricature and a portrait. I used the idea of the book A Journey by Tony Blair to try and formulate my idea.

Firstly I painted the caricature version of Tony Blair which I posted earlier this week on it's own. I then painted an separate portrait of Mr. Blair using the cover of the book as reference and then combined the two and distorted the angle to give me the look I wanted to reflect the cover of the book. You can see the full portrait of Tony Blair here.


Detail from Tony Blair Portrait


It was a lot of work which I hope resulted in a good strong piece for my portfolio.

3 comments:

Poussinaute said...

Wow ! good stuff !

Neil Davies said...

Looks great Steve! I'd move the book position slightly so that the corner isn't touching his ear though. Also his eyes in the caricature look a bit too dark compared to the book cover. I'd lighten them a bit and add a sharp highlight, they'd really pop then.

Steve Roberts said...

Poussinaute - thanks you.
Hi Neil, with regards to the eyes,it struck me that on 99% of the photographs I studied his eyes appear quite dark, yet on the cover of his book we have these big baby blues staring out at us, wide eyed and innocent. My opinion: he has piggy,dark little eyes that have an air of distrust. That in mind the caricature (ironically) seems to reflect the reality of our ex PM more than the 'straight' portrait and I don't suppose the cover photograph was taken to try and show us this open,innocent,serious little face by accident.
The book in relation to the ear: he's actually holding the book out in front of himself but as you say it does look a little like it's touching his ear.I'll maybe blur the ear out a little to give more depth. Thanks for the feedback, it really helps.