Whilst reading this exercise’s brief, I wasn’t so sure what was going to do, purely because I had never tried to create an emotion other than sadness. I must have gone through 10 ideas in my head that didn’t make any sense, until someone recommended Sir Ken Dodd, which for me just made sense. The personality that I wanted to capture was actually madness and slight insanity instead of humour, and so after creating a quick sketch, I jumped straight into painting him. In order to convey his madness, I knew his typical expression was enough, but in my painting I made his teeth a little larger, just to look a bit more disturbing, and I produced bloodshot eyes, in order to make the eyeballs look 3D.
Out of all the portraits, I do believe that this particular portrait is the most successful, simple due to the subject looking quite disturbing, and i actually noticed that when pulled over to a mirror in the dark, Sir Ken Dodd looked like a dodgy character who would frighten people. I do believe that expression can make a portrait successful and so this is why Sir Ken Dodd’s signature look seems the most accurate and successful
SOPHIE FAWCETT'S OCA LEARNING LOG 