I was out at a concert in a bar in the village one night
when I noticed a local photographer checking his camera at the bar; he’d taking
some really striking portraits of the band and audience in black and white and
I was particularly struck by the dark intensity of one of the shots and knew
that I must make a drawn version. The photographer very kindly gave his
permission, saying that his photos are ‘universal’ so I set to work with a
charcoal version.
Having fixed the first layer I added more charcoal to make the background
and facial shadows more intense.
I then decided to try ‘aging’ it and giving it more
warmth by adding an acrylic wash in a sepia tone and a layer of crackle glaze
before applying a betun stain and finally a rub of white emulsion paint to the
blackest parts to highlight the cracks.
It took several weeks before I ran into the subject of
the portrait and was able to gain his permission to publish the piece which I
cropped close to emphasize the intimate pose.
I’m very pleased with the resulting mix of textures: the matte black and sketchiness of the charcoal, which I lifted with an eraser around the eyes, combined with the painterly strokes of the acrylic wash and the cracked surface works pretty well I think.
