I love doing portraits, but creatively I need to satiate my need for variety of subject matter. I was delighted when SooJin Buzelli called me to illustrate an article for PLANADVISER and it didn’t involve a portrait.
The article is titled “Looking Deep into a Plan”. Benchmarking can go beyond the basics of funds, and plumb deeper into a more complicated world.
When I read the article, the idea of deep sea diving instantly sprang to mind, inspired by my love of snorkeling ( yes I know that’s just surface diving).
The full painting, acrylic on wood panel.
My initial sketch.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to execute the helmet. While working on the painting, an image came to mind. As a child, I was intrigued by a brass rubbing my aunt Joan had hanging in her home, she had made the rubbing herself on one of her travels through the U.K.
I amazed how images that fascinate us as children seem to resonate with us for life.
My aunt's brass rubbing was very similar to this one.
This piece was chosen for the Society Of Illustrators 55th Exhibition.
Portrait of Philip Pullman for Mother Jones “ his Grimm Material”
Art Director Tim J. Luddy encouraged me to create a non-traditional portrait, with perhaps a fantastic tone for this article on Philip Pullman. We decided that focusing on Philip’s deamon would be a good approach.
For those of you who haven’t seen the film the Golden Compass based on his Dark Materials triology : a daemon is an animal who follows and advises his characters, and from whom they cannot usually be separated. Mother Jones: “What form would you prefer your own daemon to take, and what form do you suppose it might actually take? PP: That’s the sad truth about daemons. You can’t choose, can you? I would like my dæmon to be more photogenic than I am. Then she could take my place in the photographs I have to submit to. But I think my dæmon is probably one of those birds that steal things: a magpie, a jackdaw, a raven. She’s a scruffy, greedy, idle, old thing, but she has a very sharp eye for a story.”
