During the pandemic Philip Davies, MP showed his support for the arts by commissioning this portrait. The digital painting was printed and framed locally in order to help the creative community and support local businesses within Philip's own constituency.
The one-off giclée print shown bellow is a whopping 36 x 52 inches. It features my consistent standard of high-precision details in both the subject and the setting as you can see in the close-up images below - all carefully researched and providing insights into Philip's life.
While in lock-down, it was impossible to meet Philip and create the vital preliminary sketches for the portrait. It was also impossible to travel to London to gather images needed to paint the background scene. However, with regular communication via email, an abundance of reference material found Google Images and photos provided on request, it was possible to capture Philip's likeness.
The office itself is perfect down to the last detail thanks to close-up reference images of individual elements. Although, some items such as the parliament tea cups and Conservative website have been researched and added to embellish the environment.
The original sketch was created before I had seen Philip's Parliament office or before we had talked in detail about the setting. This background was a suggestion of Philip's home. As you can see it shares many of the same powerful elements. Some are important to the composition, while others are paramount to the story. Narrative being key to a great portrait.
Philip himself did not change since the original sketch, save for the fact that I found out that he never wears a watch. As for the background, I needed to keep a window for lighting, a desk, some greenery and pictures on the wall. It turned out that Mr. Davies did have a photograph of the late Margaret Thatcher on his wall. However, I did choose to add the photograph of Philip and his wife, Esther McVey to the desk.
One beautiful element that we managed to incorporate by changing the location from Philip's home to his London office was the inclusion of the London eye, as seen from the window. The viewing angle was exaggerated somewhat to add the big wheel - this is one great advantage to having a digital painting over simple photography for a portrait.
One beautiful element that we managed to incorporate by changing the location from Philip's home to his London office was the inclusion of the London eye, as seen from the window. The viewing angle was exaggerated somewhat to add the big wheel - this is one great advantage to having a digital painting over simple photography for a portrait.
I hope you enjoy the portrait. When seen in person the large piece is quite impactful. There really is so much more detail to the portrait than you can see here on this webpage. The titles to the books for example, Philip's certificates and the 2nd cartoon strip. As well as the stationary and the map of the constituency.
The finished piece. All framed and presented to Philip. Unfortunately the lighting in this office was awful so neither Philip or I look like real versions of ourselves. But the painting looks good and you can see the scale of it. Which is made even more enjoyable when you spend some time picking out the story telling details. A few of them are shown in close-up bellow.
In my sketch I originally had a laptop on Philip's desk. While I know he uses one, several reference images showed an Apple iPad which I felt was more space conscious for the desk in terms of the composition.
The screen originally displayed Philip's own website but I decided I wanted to show a stronger party connection. Thus the iPad showing the Conservatives website.
Philip has a reputation as a Filibuster in parliament. That would have been reason enough to add this comic strip as a story element. However, it was actually pinned to the wall in the office. If you look closely at the strip you will see that it is actually Philip in the cartoon. Whoever drew the original did a wonderful job. It was simply a matter of reproducing the line art for me but deciding what to leave in and leave out.
A photograph of Philip Davies, MP and wife Esther McVey on the desk. The original reference image was sourced from Google Images. Simple but effective.
The photograph of Margaret Thatcher on the far wall was not framed. I decided to frame this story element as an example of the importance she held for Mr. Davies as an inspiration. Being a secondary element it was important to reduce the level of detail - to that lighting played an important role.
