Time and relationship (continued)

Based on my last post, it appears that painted portraits depict a longer duration of time than photographs. This also suggests the need for a longer viewing time, thus creating a pause as the layers of the painting are absorbed by the onlooker. It also appears that paintings made from life contain a richer relational aspect: that of the see-er and the subject, as well as any deeper understanding of the other through conversation and observations made during the time of the sittings. But what of painted portraits made primarily from photographs? Certainly there is much time spent in their construction and so in this sense as a painting they can create a pause as they are absorbed by the viewer. However without the consistent presence of the subject, the artist must project more of themselves onto the still faces in the photographs. Like in the case of David Gulpilil by Ruddy, the preconceptions of the artist are more likely to play a higher role in the finished portrait. There is less tension between the see-er and the subject, the sitter is not physically there as the artist paints, demanding attention by their presence and able to speak back. My last body of work is a good example of this. I asked people from the free breakfast if I could paint their portrait then proceeded by taking some photos and working from those. This was convenient and certainly sped up my working process, but as a method it did not help me to get to know my subjects - that is, apart from the few words we spoke before and after I took the photo. Some people I got to know better, through simply chatting with them over the breakfast, but others I never saw again. I made each portrait with many time-consuming layers of paint which in itself created a pause and encouraged the viewer to stop and contemplate, but my own preconceptions and initial impressions of each subject were prominent in the painting’s construction.

This prior experience led to my desire to avoid using photographic reference material in my current project. I want to know my subjects better, for each finished portrait to be a record of our interaction. Furthermore, my intention is to meet other people in my suburb through exploring existing social connections, thus placing them in a social context. While I originally intended to make sketches and then take them back to the studio to turn into paintings, a suggestion was made by my lecturer to increase the number of sketches per subject and to turn them into animations. Already having a prior interest in animation, I heartily took this up, and have not looked back since. With regard to recording duration, animation indeed does that, but in a pointedly linear fashion. The sketches, shown in sequence, present a narrative of the shifting and movement of the sitter during the time I was with them. As a drawn image, it also produces a pause in life - that of the time taken for the viewer to watch it.

Creating more sketches of my subjects does mean I spend more time with them. However this is an important part of my process as it lends the animated portraits more authenticity than if I were to work from photographs and increases their capacity to convey real aspects of the individual.

This shift in the form of my work to animated portraits led to my next area of exploration, that of portraiture in moving images.

Video portraiture

“Put simply, the words ‘portrait’, ‘portraiture’ and ‘portrayal’ refer to the activities of artists and writers who make works to describe the individual human subject. The appeal of this type of work is that the successful portrait is both a revelation of the unique characteristics and qualities of the person as well as a reflection of general humanity.”(17)

Craig Judd made the above statement while discussing Dani Marti’s video portrait of Peter Fay. Marti is but one of a number of artists who through a process of filmed interview seek to explore and portray the human condition. Another is David Rosetzky: some of his earlier video works in the late '90’s feature personnel confessions from friends, exploring the interaction of public and personnel in an individual’s psyche within the context of ‘contemporary lifestyle culture’ (18). His 2008 video portrait of Cate Blanchette (commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra) is in a similar vein: choreographed, highly stylized, and involving the subject speaking as in an interview (19).

(Stills from Portrait of Cate Blanchett, David Rosetzky, 2008, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra)

An important thing to note about the work of  Rosetsky and Marti is its reference to film and the TV confessional. The two examples cited both focus on exploring and describing an individual: the subject is interviewed, and their responses form a part of the portrait. While it is important to acknowledge this method of human portrayal through video, this is certainly not the only way that video portraits have been made. There is a second distinctly different approach: namely, one that references painting. Here, the focus is not on intense self revelation through a combination of visuals and the spoken word, rather the impression is that of a photograph given movement; the artists do not necessarily seek to push and explore the potential of their medium but rather use video to imitate the stillness of painted portraiture.

(Video Portraits by Timothy Ryan Poe)

(Video portraits by Patrick Lawler)

From this second approach, many video portraits may be seen online (such as the two above) recording the faces of individuals who gaze awkwardly back into the camera, trying to hold a smile for the duration of the clip. Video portraitists such as Joan Logue record her subjects for ten to twenty minutes as they pose in silence. As stated on her website, she is a pioneer in this form of portraiture, having developed her practice from 1971 when a young African boy first stood in front of her camera and gazed into it. With regards to pioneering though, it must be noted that five years earlier, between 1964-1966, Andy Warhol made over 500 ‘film portraits’, also called ‘screen tests’. People who came into his factory were invited to stare into a camera for a number of minutes remaining as still as possible in order to test their ‘screen potential’. In this way, the film portraits of such people as Salvador Dali and Bob Dylan were created.





Warhol’s screen tests have indeed had their influence, with experimental film makers such as Jeff Scher (who I will discuss later) citing them. Logue seems though to have started without knowledge of Warhol, and certainly continued with her video portraits for longer than the making of the ‘screen tests’. Used in such a prolific way, video portraiture seems to be a commercial development from the photograph or water colour portrait sketch of previous decades.


(Robert Wilson, Brad Pitt, 2004)

Another artist who has engaged with this medium is Robert Wilson. His take, however, is more developed, with its poetic overtones reflecting his background in theatre. Minimalistic and heavily referencing painting, his works push video towards creating the illusion of a still image, with the subtlest of movements in the subject suggesting otherwise. In the case of his 2004 portrait of Brad Pitt, Pitt is shown standing almost motionless, staring back at the camera against a blue lit wall. This, however, is soon to change, with the addition of rain, a fun yet slightly ominous soundtrack, and Pitt's own slow shift in position.

It may seem unusual to start speaking of video portraits in the context of an art practice that focuses on animation, but there appear to be distinct connections and shared concerns between animated portraits and their video counterparts - certainly enough to make a study of the latter informative in understanding the former, such as for considerations of sound track.

More of my process.

In order to construct my animated portraits I have made multiple sketches of each subject, some up to 25, and have digitally placed them in sequence, so as to create a slow animation of their shifts and changes in expression over the time of the sitting. The portrait is a record, so to speak, of our interaction, and my sketches are testament to part of whatever happened or was said during that time; they describe the subject during the brief part of their lives that I was with them.

(Above: Pikelets and the Bunny, my first portrait for this project)

First research into animated portraiture

In intent my work is not self-portraiture (20) (and here I acknowledge the problematic nature of this statement as any artist’s work could be considered in some way to have elements of self-portraiture in it - and here I am also grossly generalising). However, through my research I have found that the number of animated portraits that are self portraits appears to be disproportionately enormous compared with the number that depict people other than the animator. There are a lot of really interesting animated self-portraits around, and since they may be seen to distantly relate to my work through helping inform my animation technique or visual style, I am going to waste some space by listing a few of my discoveries:


(Animated self portraits 1989)


(Voices, animation self-portrait by Joanna Priestly, 1985).


(Self portrait animation by Estefania Sabogal, 2011)

Additionally, I simply cannot write about influences in animation technique and not mention William Kentridge. Methodologically he has a significant place in my animation background, however his animations are often political narratives that explicitly contain self-portraiture through inclusion of his own image. I am well acquainted, however, with his technique of working on a single piece of paper per shot, erasing and adding marks, then recording each change by filming it.

While this is not my main technique this year, it still makes up a part of my animation repertoire, from which I may draw if the situation suits.


(Above: Felix in Exile, 1994. Where the character Felix Teitelbaum resembles Kentridge).

Animated portraiture.

In considering ways of animating my portraits, I also searched for other artists who work with the combination of these two elements. One artist whose work distinctly connects animation and film is Jeff Scher. A New-York based film maker, animator and painter, Scher makes vibrant animations by projecting a short section of film, slide by slide onto paper, then colouring in the image. Each slide is done in contrasting styles, creating a hand spun, psychotically vibrant effect.

In 2004 he made an animated portrait of Susan Shin, which appears to have been the start of a series, as more people soon commissioned him to do their own. This, however, was openly influenced by the work of Warhol, with the main difference between it and the ‘screen tests’ being Scher’s further processing of the filmed face into animation. Unlike other animated portraits, Scher’s portrait gives the eerie impression of being a single drawing copied and repeated in contrasting styles and colours over multiple frames which then raises its head before falling back into the same still position. The movement is so natural and fluid that the filmic reference shows through in a similar way that many paintings made from photos have a distinctive look of flatness.



For the last four years, Australian artist Julia Holden has also explored the connection between painting and animation. Through such animations as Muse (above) and Painter she looks at how faces are made up or put on to present to the world. These constitute hundreds of paintings that are recorded with a digital camera before being wiped off the board and another image painted on.

Compared with the number of animated self-portraits in existence, the number of artists whose practice gives a prominent place to the animated portrait of other people appears to be few (21). However, to add to Holden and Scher is the work of Julian Opie. Based on manipulation of his digital paintings, his animated portraits are a direct contrast to theirs. The animations are simple, presented in looping LED displays and generally come in two types. Many consist of figures side on, shown walking, while the rest are generally front-on with either the head or more of the body being depicted and small parts of the picture moving. The sheer number of named portraits produced by Opie could be seen as a community, a mass of beautiful middle-class individuals who are only distinct from each other by the variations in hair or dress. 

My take on Opie

I decided to do my own take on Opie’s style of animation. Here is a portrait of Cam, a boy who lives down the road from me on the top of a large building near Central station.

My take on Scher

Here is also my take on Scher’s visual style. The portrait is of a lady called Mary, who I met in a drop-in centre around the corner. The soundtrack is also from the same place, representing the background noise of the sitting.

Community exploration

My project engages with a community of people, drawn from across sub-communities and presenting them together as a portrait of the suburb. This is in no way comprehensive, nor strictly representative, but tries to include people from across the socio-economic range of the area. With this aim in mind, it is an exercise in social mapping, as I explore the social connections I currently have within the suburb and meet my subjects through other people or gatherings.

Animation and community portraiture

When searching for other artists who also worked with portraiture and groups of people, I found two whose work is of particular proximity to mine. While these other artists do not seem to acknowledge an underlying faith as I do, their work is still of interest for comparison with my own project as they are other approaches of combining group portraiture and social action.

The first is Todd Drake. Drake has a blog titled make art like you care which is dedicated to the combination of art with social action. In 2008 to 2009 he completed the Esse Quam Videri Project, where he facilitated the construction of a number of photographic self-portraits by Muslims living in North Carolina and Manama. The project title is the North Carolina state motto and means, ‘to be rather than to seem’. On this basis, Todd sought to emphasise the humanity of the American Muslim subjects and help break down barriers of animosity other Americans may have held against them. A website was also created to present the work. What I find interesting is observing how Drake made use of digital photography to aid in creating the portraits of a group. The snap-shot enabled the participants to present themselves as they wished in an immediate and potentially affordable fashion. While some subjects did make drawings of themselves, the photo also enabled other subjects who did not have such technical skills to participate in the self-presentation.


(Drake giving a video tour of the exhibition prior to the opening)

Another relevant community-centered portrait project that I found is one created by The Art Place, a not-for profit animation and art studio established in Suttons Bay, Michigan, and run by artists Ken Scott and Chris Allen Wickler. The Lunch Crowd (below) is a short film made up of a series of additive animations, based on photographs of a group of elderly people who share a Friday lunch together at the Suttons Bay Friendship Community Centre. People from children to 70-year olds were involved in the creation of the animations, coordinated by the two artists. The animations show the gradual revealing of the face, as lines are added, following the student as they draw from a photo. Audio is also used, with segments playing from some interviews with the subjects. I found this project an especially intriguing example as it employs not only group portraiture but animation as well. Likewise, its use of sound allows me to further consider the place and nature of this element in my own work.

In considering sound

In this animation of Kaye, I have included a recording of our conversation surrounding her typing. Despite the increasing distortion of the visuals, the sound ties the portrait back to our interaction, the start of the work itself.