I started another pinterest board for this project as I have found it helpful in finding useful reference images. I saved photographs of men that remind me of the man in the excerpt or how I imagine his clothes to be. I also saved photographs of 1940’s London.

This exercise begins with an excerpt from The Daffodil Affair by Michael Innes. I read it over a few times before I started answering the following questions. I find that when I read something the first time I get an idea but if I read it again I get more of an understanding.

• If this were to be made into a film what would the main character be like?
I think he would be in his late 40’s or 50’s, it says he has been controlling the files for 15 years – therefore he has at least 15 years on the job and probably had prior experience before being put in a position of such responsibility. I think he would be quite a hard faced man after so many years in a hard job – especially wear it says that anger had become his innermost principle. He is clearly a policeman as it says he is in New Scotland Yard which is the name of the police headquarters in London. 

• What clothes would the character be wearing?
I am assuming that it is the 1940s as it says it is war time London so I imagine the man to be wearing a suit. I initially thought of the detective wearing a hat and long coat however since he is inside I thought he wouldn’t be wearing that – the 1940’s were still a time of people keeping to their manners and wearing hats indoors was considered disrespectful. I think he would be wearing a shirt and tie and the typical men’s slacks from the time and a matching suit jacket.

• What furniture is in the main area in which the action takes place?
There is definitely a desk – a large desk with papers on top. There is also a chair at the desk where the man was sat before he moved. I wonder if there are also filing cabinets of some sort – since he manages files, where would they be stored. There would probably also be a clock.

I printed some images in my sketchbook as well as the brief and excerpt so I could underline any parts I thought were important. I made notes on the next page as well as some initial sketches. I found this daunting as I am not used to drawing men, especially hard faced detectives! I made some sketches in my book of multiple different men as well as some thumbnails for ideas as to how would I portray this man and the overall mood of the scene.

I also used Historic UK for more references on this time period – link here.

When choosing a word to focus on I ended up with the word ‘harsh’. I wrote a few down in my sketchbook and I did initially like the word ‘bleak’ but I don’t feel it expresses how the man had become hardened by the world around him. Harsh seemed to fit better, the world around the man was harsh, his job was harsh, it was war time, and he himself had become a harsh man.

I liked this sketch in my book and decided to make the image based off this one. I put this sketch into procreate and played with it until I had drawn an image I was happy with. I printed just a line sketch and started sketching on top of that to indicate where the lighting would be. I wanted to indicate that light/shadow contrast suggested in the text. I decided to do this by having one side of his face lighter than the other/with less shadow. I wanted to keep the background simple as I had decided to do a head and shoulders portrait and I wouldn’t have a lot of space. The brief also asked for a simple portrait so I wanted to be mindful of my time management as this is definitely an area I need to work on.

I also wanted to play with the idea of collage again, I decided to draw the man and then layer a window on top of his face. I transferred the line drawing onto watercolour paper using a light box and started building up shadow – I kept that initial experiment close by so I could refer back to the areas of light and dark I had mapped out. I worked in black and grey because I wanted it to be reminiscent of the film noir stills I had looked at on my mood boards.

I used watercolour, pencils and pen to build the image up. I kept the pen and pencil lines ‘harsh’ too – I thought that it would help add to the overall mood of the image – as I worked though I think I made his eyes too large to be harsh, big eyes are usually friendly and even though he had this hardened expression on his face it just didn’t fit.

To create the background and window in the foreground I put the image into procreate and I did up the contrast a little as I don’t think it was high enough – the image seemed quite grey. I created the background by adding a white and black gradient and shading it further with a halftone brush. This definitely helped give it a darker moodier feel and helped give it that film noir look.

Next I created the window, I kept it looking paper-y so it would match the scan of the man himself, I also added some paper style shading.

The drawing has a lot of issues in the end, I do wish his eyes were smaller. I feel that it looks unrefined, I think that the fine-liner I used added to this. I think that because a lot of the pieces I have made are digital that I missed the ease of making it looked refined in the same amount of time. It would have taken me so long to achieve that same level using watercolour – I need to stop being so hard on myself and accept that a lot of these exercises are more about exploring and learning how to build and develop ideas. With all that being said I do think that it meets the brief as it illustrates my research and the excerpt. I do feel like it meets my theme too – Harsh. He certainly looks like a man hardened by the world around him.