How did you research the portrait?
Perhaps the core
objective I set myself for this new portrait of Richard III was to produce a
recognisably human figure we can all, to some extent, connect with. This
involved stripping back some layers of royalty and title, and presenting an
altogether plainer vision which lends itself to graphite and charcoal. The
tonal range cleaves closer together and unifies the image in its ordinariness
and essence, which helps to divest some of the grandeur of Richard’s position.
This is an aspect I thought lacking in other pictures I have seen of Richard
III, which contrast the figure more starkly against his robes and riches. Most keenly
was this brought to my attention when I visited London to observe the two
anonymously authored 15th/16th Century colour portraits
housed in the National Portrait Gallery. Richard is depicted with a pained
expression (in fact not unlike the expression in my portrait), dressed in all
his finery, and ambiguously fingering his ring. (Students of semiotics could
have a field day!) To me these paid close attention to the dynamic of and
contrast between the man and the title, thereby manifesting a political intention,
which I can say did not intentionally factor in to my designs. Aesthetically I
took much greater interest in capturing the scientific reality of Richard –
that is, closely analysing the recent reconstruction of his face put together by a team at Leicester University using the
craniometry of his recently unearthed skull. The bust they produced was a
revelation but, to my eyes at least, a little stale and lacking vitality. So I
went about trying to inject some emotion, some humanity and some life, as better
identified in the earlier portraits. Thus, the combination of a scientific
foundation and a human interest sensibility perhaps makes my portrait a very
contemporary production.
What impressions did you draw of Richard and how did you
convey them in the drawing?
I was aware of some
of the controversy surrounding Richard III. Certainly this is a man whose
reputation and legacy remains fluid and indefinite, and it is perhaps that contestation
and dispute that account for his endurance in the public imagination. Shakespeare’s
‘Crookback’ characterisation of course has done much to guide public perception
through the ages, but the posthumous
play seems likely part of a Tudor propaganda offensive used to discredit Richard
and distort or embellish real truths. The question of whether the ‘disappeared’
Princes in the tower, Richard’s two nephews, were executed by Richard remains a
pertinent one. To my mind, any ruler seeks to legitimate his or her right to
rule whether through ancestry, ritual, myth-making, or plain bloodshed, so the
question I posed myself was how ruthless was this man’s desire to rule? Would
he kill his nephews without feeling? Would he kill them with profound conflict?
Would he kill them at all? To that extent I weighed down more sympathetically
on Richard. I wanted to eke out something of the man, and thus rather suggest
the crown through the man. In that sense I tried to convey something of the
human impact of Kingship, such as those revealed by the fate of his nephews. To
this extent I suppose I am intimating a certain humanity and feeling to
Richard, which perhaps courts as much controversy as befits the figure.
What are your influences as an artist?
When I was young my
parents read a story to me called ‘Christopher and the Dream Dragon’, written
by Allen Morgan and illustrated by Brenda Clark. The pictures were greyscale
and the story of a boy who has to recover a coin from the dragon’s golden hoard
nestled away amongst the clouds really shook my imagination. Perhaps I can say
that since that point, fantasies, myths, fairy tales and high adventures (culturally
coloured throughout the world) have been my home away from home. Pictures, as
words, are dialogical. And like words they are both aesthetic and conceptual.
In this way pictures are the very fabric of storytelling. Certainly I like to
see the pictures I create as telling or being a part of some kind of story, however
small and inconsequential. My intention is for them to exist as a moment caught
in a long timeline of a past and future in a real or abstracted world. Therein
lies the narrative possibility. So when I think
about influences, I am certainly thinking as much about stories as I am about art.
These influences spread across multiple mediums including literature, film, documentaries,
music, and so on. Particularly I would like to mention the work of Japanese
animation house, Studio Ghibli, whose films continue to inspire me both through
their bewitching visuals and the power, emotion, and brio of their storytelling.
I share with them a wonder and reverence of both subtle and outlandish fantasy,
and remain indebted to them in that respect. A few other notable visionaries
that have fired my ambition and fed my imagination are the fairy tale artist
and old favourite, Arthur Rackham, father of modern fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien and
his artists Alan Lee and John Howe, and the lyrical and bittersweet fantasies
of Japanese author Osamu Dazai.
What are your future plans?
Reflexivity is a great asset to an artist (and indeed perhaps a curse!). Among critics of my picture, I am perhaps king (pun vaguely intended) – although perhaps that will change once this portrait is in print! But that self-criticism motivates me to improve with each picture, and demands each picture pushes my ability, both technically and methodologically. In short, I still have everything to learn, and this is just the beginning. I hope that getting my work out there might increase the possibility of producing more work for other projects, and open other pathways and opportunities that allow me to improve my skills and better articulate my ideas. Specifically I would like to illustrate children’s books, or even develop a story from scratch and run with that, with the ambition both of strengthening my portfolio and producing ever-more professional, atmospheric and imaginative work.
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