Some new blue pearl markers arrived in the post last night. Without these, I wasn't…
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
These marker portraits always come in pairs, so here’s another Bond villain – Donald Pleasence as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. Except that my source photo has the vertical wound down the right side of his face missing, so I guess this isn’t from the film. I had to go for this shot though, just because of the gaze, a gaze that I wanted to replicate.
There are some impressionistic colours in there among the flesh tones and neutrals again: this time red and blue.
While there’s an interesting look in the eye, it looks unfinished. But after examining the source photo in detail for ages, I couldn’t identify any extra marks that I could make to improve it. And the rest of the head is just wrong. It’s too chubby and there’s no likeness. Have I turned it into a self portrait?
This is another that’s not going up for sale but that might end up in a Bond villain collection. Goldfinger has a bigger chance of making the final squad than Blofeld though.
<Renamed from Donald Pleasence to Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Makes sense given the lack of likeness.>
And now I’ve just discovered that the source photo was a mirror image. It doesn’t make sense to add the scar to the near eye as it’s so wide open. I had a go at adding it to the far eye but it’s so obviously a mirror image. I think I need to just redo Blofeld from scratch.
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