Development (inspiration from ALO)

From the inspiration of ALO's work in the exhibition of his that i visited, I wanted to create some designs that has an essence of his work. The child like, almost creepy atmosphere he creates in his work is something that I am very interested in portraying in my own work so i decided to make some sketches working with in a more conceptual way, rather than my typical subjective way when designing a makeup or costume piece. By doing this, I will be able to get a true feeling of the characteristics of the character I am drawing by letting that come through in the physical appearance of them. It was important to me that I did not spend too much time on this drawings and designs as I did not want them to start becoming too refined or realistic. To ensure that I stayed true to this method of working and really loosening up my way of drawing a character, I decided to do the drawings in permanent marker, meaning that my initial idea of the face and body that I draw on the page cannot be changed by me later on if I didn't like the aesthetic look of it. This would make it a true representation of what was going on in my mind at that point and these could be a starting point for me to begin working from.

I decided to begin by drawing members of my family and my friends as this would allow me to practice characterisation before I pick iconic characters from history. I also did this as i know their personalities and characteristics very well, meaning that I can allow those qualities to lead my drawing, rather than soley their physical appearance. When doing these drawings I had an array of photographs of each person to use as reference. I chose to do this rather than drawing them in the flesh as when drawing someone in front of you, you are only seeing them at that one particular point in time, in those clothes and in that mood. However I wanted to have a sense of the whole of the person I am drawing, not just how they looked or came across at one moment. This method allowed me to draw a true representation of that persons character. I wanted to avoid my drawings becoming too much like characatures, yet I also wanted there to be some aspect which reflected a slightly exaggerated representation of their physical appearance as well. I also used colour to connect with the personality of the person i was drawing as colour was such an important element of ALO's work which I was  inspired by.

Although I knew the drawings would reflect my interpretation of the people I was drawing, It was also important to me that they were recognisable to other people that knew that person. After showing the drawings to my family and friends afterwards, they were all able to recognise each person I had drawn, even though some of them had almost no physical characteristics of the person. I found this very interesting as it showed that they were able to connect with the abstract portrayal of that persons personality. It also showed that everyone shares similar perceptions of colour.