A contemporary artist, that I draw many comparisons with between our art practises, is Marie Harnett. Like me, most of her work is from film stills, we both work in photorealism and our main medium is pencil drawings.
She takes seemingly innocuous stills from films, and by taking them out of the original film - which the audience may not be familiar with - the piece takes on a whole new context.
In an interview for Wall Street International magazine, Marie Harnett describes her work as such - "“My interest lies in transforming a digital split second and slowly making it a tangible. By removing colour and taking the still out of its narrative context, I am able to assign the image its own autonomy. Exploring these intricate details allows me to become completely absorbed in the process.”
She goes onto describe how she selects different film stills and juxtaposes the realism of the stills with raw, abstract themes.
This is an extract of an interview she did with the Alan Cristea Gallery, regarding her process and inspiration:
ACG: What drew you to the idea of doing drawings from film stills?
HARNETT: Firstly I have always loved films, I find them so intriguing and wonderful. I actually began making my own films and editing them together with found footage. I drew from them, which progressed onto my first series based on the Superman TV show ‘Smallville', as I have been a Superman fan for a long time. I loved it, so I moved onto another comic book based film ‘Sin City'. Films provide me with a never-ending exploration of stories and themes, and frequently beauty. The small size was partly in reference to comic books, but also because I had bought a small antique photo album, and I made the 'Smallville' drawings to the same scale as the photos in that. Now I pick a size that feels right for the film, which so far has always been fairly small.
ACG: How do you pick the films from which you draw?
HARNETT: I only ever watch the trailers for films, and I do so in black and white with no sound. I want to be able to watch the visuals, with no other distractions or knowledge of the actual story, so I can read the film in my own way. I look for certain images or a perceived storyline that I resonate with. There's almost always something beautiful in the films I choose. And I like all the images to connect together and balance. I always try to portray a few themes with my drawings, not a strict narrative but a sense of story and emotion.
ACG: Tell us about the process of making your drawings.
HARNETT: I have about 175 films that I have bookmarked as ‘possible drawing series', and I add to it constantly. When I start a new series, I go through these and pick one that I feel like working on which has themes I feel like exploring. I will then go through the trailer still by still, saving images that I like. I usually end up saving about 100 to 200 images. Then I try and curate a selection of five to ten images as a possible series, and begin drawing. The selection is always flexible, right up until the last image as I may change my mind on what I want the series to feel like. The actual drawing process is very simple, I pencil in a faint outline of the still and then draw it in.
While I typically work from films I've loved for years and have watched umpteen times, I too pick a selection of individual frames that communicate to me.