Jodie Comer - Portrait Artist of the Year 2019
Did you know that Jodie Comer sat for the Portrait Artist of the Year competition in 2019? It was originally broadcast on Sky Arts, but I found it on NOW TV (I'm in the UK). If you'd like to go and look for it, you'll find her on Season 5 episode 8.
Fun fact, Jodie at the time wasn't famous for her role as Killing Eve's Villanelle, but between filming and broadcast, she evidently blew up - so they had to update her bio with an additional voiceover!
Anyway to the art! Here's my take. A fairytale realism-ish portrait of our leading lady.
I had so much fun with this one, trying out some new brushes and techniques, something I've wanted to do for some time.
Jodie has very delicate features (Hi Eve), yet incredible bone structure and it certainly felt like a challenge to try and capture that balance between soft and strong - Especially when I'm used to working with a lot of thick lines and angles in my comic style work. I didn't want to go full realism, (mostly because I'm not that good!) so I tried to keep an almost 'fairytale' element with this piece.
After laying down some quite harsh crosshatching to capture those cut-glass cheekbones, I wanted to soften the feel a little and had an idea to add some flowers to the mix. After some deliberation, and testing out various colour options, I finally settled on white as I didn't want to distract too much from her face. In the end I went with Lily's - I'm pretty sure I read that she liked them somewhere too, so it seemed fitting.
It took a lot of hours, on and off over a few different evenings, (I actually started the piece a while ago and then got imposter syndrome and left it!) but after the Killing Eve finale this week, finishing her felt like quite a cathartic experience. Hope you enjoy! Long live Villanelle!
ALSO just because I'm excited - I get to see Jodie perform Prima Facie onstage this time next week! GAH!
Giclee prints will be available in the next couple of days. If you'd like to be notified, please give me a follow on instagram @hb0m8 - or sign up to the mailing list through the link at the bottom of my website.