Thursday 13 March 2008

Fagin from Oliver Twist

I did this illustration for a pitch for some black and white work, I liked it enough to colour up.

I hope it's obvious that it's Fagin from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist.
I tried to make him look shifty and vaguely dirty. I also tried desperately to avoid him looking like Alec Guiness or Ron Moody, it's ended up more Wilfred Bramble from Steptoe and Son than anything else I think.
I had the words "You've got to pick a pocket or two..." rattling around my head the whole time I was doing it, sorry if you now have that in your head too!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have a picture just like him in my thesis. I'll have to email it to you but it is from a C19th physiognomy text and the facial features are supposed to convey cunning. How freaky and very Victorian, lol, x

matt dawson said...

I wasn't completely sure about something... but I guess the above comment shows you are on the right track! For me I think it is either the colour palette (to rich...? too clean maybe...?) and that he is possibly a bit too well fed (too much flesh on those grasping fingers maybe...?). But then I haven't read OT for a while so you might be right on Dicken's mark and I might be talking rubbish. I do like it Kev, I'm just finding things to say, as always feel free to ignore me :) PS. was Fagin a red head...?