My 'Portrait Series' // Part 1

Over the second half of my summer I wanted to do something different, and get my illustrating skills warmed up again for uni. I'm a sucker for watercolours and a good TV series, so I thought why not combine the two? I also really wanted to include hand-drawn type (which I love doing), in a form of a quote from the character, but i haven't gotten around to adding it yet, so that will come in part 2 in a different blog post!

I decided I would pick some complex characters from my favourite TV shows and illustrate them in a raw state. I've always been fascinated with peoples eyes, and how having them covered up really changes how you connect with them. So by having the eyes closed it sort of disarms the character, like you have caught them off-guard, making them more human.

So far I have illustrated Will Graham from the TV series Hannibal and Daenerys Targaryen from the epic Game of Thrones, (with the hope to do more when I get time in the future). In the past I was that person that used to sit with my 2B pencil and maticulously draw for hours from a pictures trying to make my drawings as realistic as possible, I thought that was the way you were 'mean't to do it' - a mentality from the ol' school days because that's what got you a good grade (silly looking back at it now). Over my time at university I have learned its more fun to experiment and try different techniques. For this personal project I tried out a new 'style' which I'm still figuring out, but quite enjoyed doing. I started with pencil and paper, then inked the outlines before using watercolour.

Below are images documenting the initial stages of the illustrations, in 'part 2' of this blog post I will show you how the illustrations developed when I took them onto a computer and added type!

Thanks for looking!

jog