I was asked to look at some artists who focus on portraiture, the two that was suggested was Graham little and Elizabeth Payton, while I was researching I stumbled upon a contemporary artists work that I really enjoyed, his name was David Booth
Elizabeth Payton
I read that her main source of inspiration from the works of Gustave Flaubert and John Singer Sergeant, this I found quite interesting as they both have a rich colourful style that seems to sit just below a realistic style, by that I mean their work while very true to life still seem like paintings. Elizabeth Paytons work is quite the opposite, it isn’t her intention to capture photo realistic images, but to capture expression or mood. In fact her work is so stylised I found that most of the portraits, while clearly recognisable looked like their subjects all seemed to have a similar appearance, in fact when I saw the artist photograph you can see quite a lot of the repeating characteristics in her own face.
Graham Little
I was quite taken back by Graham little’s use of coloured pencils, these images have a muted photographic quality, I loved the way that his small stippled strokes actually mimic film grain, adding to the photographic quality. I tried to get a close up of this as I really wanted to see his marks, but had absolutely no luck. When you use certain medium it gives a certain appearance or aesthetic, but I would never have imagined the artist was using coloured pencil.
David Booth
I had never saw any of his work until doing this research, It popped rigth out in a google image search. I like the mixed style and the way that even though the faces aren’t complete, or in some cases recognisable as human they convey a range of emotion and interest that that makes you want to look at the whole image rather than just for example the eyes. He has won several awards, and I will certainly be keeping an eye on him and wouldn’t mind attempting something similar with my acrylics when I get some down time.
