Gabrielle Aplin

Gabrielle Aplin

For one of my college art homework's, I was asked to create a portrait of someone, in the style of Sarah King. So I decided to do mine on Gabrielle Aplin, because I admire the way that she has got to where she is today in the music industry. she did not enter any music contest, she uploaded videos of covers and original songs to Youtube, she released 3 EPs on her music label 'Never Fade'. She performed on her local BBC radio as part of the BBC Introducing scheme. In addition, she is now signed to Parlophone records. Furthermore, she writes all of her own music, and plays everything live. She is an amazing musician, and I love her music.

I have created this portrait of the musician Gabrielle Aplin, using the style and techniques of the artist Sarah King. I have used the lyrics from Gabrielle Aplin's songs to create my portrait: Home, Keep on Walking, Please Don't Say You Love Me, Panic Chord, How Do You Feel Today. To create the lettering I used a black fine liner, black paint and a black fountain pen. I have used two illustrations within my portrait: piano keys to create part of her hair, and a stave of music of the F major scale on, to create part of her frindge.

This Photo of Gabrielle Aplin, on the left, is the photo of her I decided to create my piece of artwork on.

The intention of this study, was to try and create a portrait of someone using the style and technique of Sarah King. I feel that this study has been a great success, because I have been able to successfully create a portrait of Gabrielle Aplin using different fonts, sizes, and thicknesses of words from her lyrics.

Now on to the analysis of colour, line, texture, light and tones, and level of realism.

I have not used much colour in this portrait, I have only used the colours of black and white to help create the portrait of Gabrielle Aplin. The use of the colours black and white has been very effective, because it has created the lines and tones of Gabrielle Aplin’s features.

In my portrait of the musician Gabrielle Aplin, the use of line has been created by the use and position of words and the two illustrations within my portrait. I have used this technique to create the lines and features in Gabrielle Aplin’s face and chest. For example, for her lips, I have used the words ‘last a year’ curved to create the shape of the top and bottom of her lips.

The use of texture in this portrait is flat when there is white space. However, when the lettering curves and twists it creates the shapes and levels within her face, neck, and chest. In addition, the lettering has been placed and the way it moves creates the features and makes them look slightly real when you look at the portrait from a far.

The use of light and tones in my portrait of Gabrielle Aplin is created by the different thicknesses, styles, and sizes of lettering. For example, I have used different thickness, fonts, and sizes of lettering to create the definition of her face and neck. The bottom of her face is made up of joined up, smooth writing. This creates the effect of the smoothness of the shadow on her skin. Then the edged of her face, where the shadow is at its darkest, I have used thicker, smaller, printed writing to create the dark shadow, which also creates the definition for her face and her neck. Then for the dark shadow on her neck, I have also used larger, thicker, printed lettering to create the difference between her neck and face, but also to create the dark shadow on her neck. This use of having very different lettering next to each other, creates the different tones of her face and neck, without using any drawn lines.

There is a large level of realism in this portrait of Gabrielle Aplin, when you look at it from a far. However, when you look at it closer up, the level of realism decreases. This is because as you look closer, you are not looking at the whole image; you are looking at only parts of the portrait. Furthermore, when you take a closer look, you see all of the words that I have used to create the portrait of Gabrielle Aplin.

I really enjoyed creating this portrait in the style of Sarah King, because i got to try out a different technique, and I got to create a portrait of a person who is one of my role models. xxx