Peter strain is an illustrator from the UK, his work primarily focuses on film and music that also incooperate social, political and cultural themes. He achieves this by using typography in his work. In this illustartion, we can see a black and White portrait of a man with glasses on. His face is serious with no expression and there are also several bold white phrases on his face. When you read them closely they are actually quite discouraing and sad. The first phrase that caught my attention is the one on his cheek, it reads ‘Nobody else Will be there’ it is almost like a cry for help. There seems to be a narrative of phrases on his face revolving around relationships and missing a signicant other. Strain includes phrases like ‘my faith is sick, my skin is thin as ever i need you alone’ which indicates a strong level of co-dependency. The Narrative here is that this person is heavily dependent on the partner to meet their physical and emotional needs which in itself is toxic. Strain uses the phrase ‘Hey baby where were you back then?’ which does confirm that this narrative is pertaining to romantic relationships. Overall, i believe Peter strain does a Good job of contextualising this portait. Not only is it just a visual representation of a man’s face but we also get a sneak peak of his emotional phrases and rhetorical questions. With that being said, i would also say that the typography goes well with the black and White theme of the portrait, it is the first thing that draws your attention to the picture. To conclude, i do like this portrait by strain, i think realism of it really does compliment the raw emotions that are expressed through the phrases.
This portrait is by Jenny saville who is a contemporary British painter. She is best known for her figurative paintings and portrait. This is art piece is called ‘prism’ and it is done in pastel colours and charcoal. The piece is called prism because of the Orange, red and indigo colours. In this piece, there is a painting of a girls face and we can see outlines and scribbles of the colours, Pink, purple, red and yellow. The girl looks like she is gazing up at something interesting. The portrait is also on a plain background which makes some of the colours look translucent. Savilles work is also quite expressive, you can see this through her mark making and brush strokes. It is almost like you can see the emotions through the portait. The mark making near the face looks quick and agressive whereas, near the neck it the lines become more linear. With that being said, Savilles work does explores the human body whilst also making it look aesthetically pleasing with different colours and brush strokes.
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