Ten Greatest Chess Players

Continuing to experiment, today I’m trying two new approaches with the new drawing technique: multiple portraits crammed together and combining this with the use of inktense pencils.

As material, I used ten great chess players, most of them not still playing, let alone still with us.  Let’s go through them first and talk about likenesses.  So, left to right along the top row, then the bottom row:

– Bobby Fischer looks good – there’s a likeness there.

– Paul Morphy – not as good but still a likeness

– Tigran Petrosian – pretty bad.  I can tell it’s him but I can also see a lot that’s wrong.

– Mikhail Tal – there’s a likeness but it’s a cartoony caricature.  Looks like a Simpsons villain.

– Magnus Carlsen – terrible, unrecognisable

– Jose Capablanca – I’ve caught the softness of the eyes but nothing else

– Gary Kasparov – no, not got him.  Looks more like a Nigel Short.

– Boris Spassky – again, no

– Emmanuel Lasker – ok but it’s difficult to not get a likeness with a face like that

– Anatoly Karpov – another bad one

So likenesses are generally not there.  Bit how did the two experiments work out?

I think the concept of multiple portraits with overlaps is a winner.  Maybe the best approach is to decide first which are most important, draw them in, then add all the rest afterwards wherever there are gaps.  Overlaps are not a problem – they add some energy and fun.

And the inktense pencils?  They work but I could have done better.  I started by choosing and colouring loots of black areas – black and white has to work for chess players, doesn’t it?  But then I thought the space above Tal’s head looked a bit empty, so coloured that in red, adding some more red in other places to balance it.  And then I added some blues in places.  It’s come out OK but I can’t help thinking this would have looked better with a lot more white on the page and very little blue and red (if any).

Still, there’s a good feeling to this one.  You can feel the concentration.  It’s going up for sale.