Contemporary Character development

Otto Dix:
Grotesque
Harshly realistic
Subjective

The Salon I, Otto Dix 1925

Paco Peregrin 

Colour
Bold

For my contemporary Sally, I was inspired by the studio lesson we had where we recreated Otto Dix's portrait of Sylvia von Harden on each others faces. Whilst researching Otto Dix I came across his painting titled "The Salon", above. The woman in the middle of the three women immediately makes me think of Sally Bowles. Her headpiece screams cabaret performer, and there is something about her expression compared to the other two women. She is looking out at something or someone, and has an intrigued, almost inquisitive expression on her face, where the other two women on either side of her appear disinterested and almost appear to have lost hope.

I then began researching Paco Peregrin, who was suggested to me as a reference, and came across the above picture.The colours of the eye makeup bore a striking resemblance to the Otto Dix portrait and I loved the way they had been contemporised.

I decided to try and use elements of each picture towards my final design. I experimented with recreating Dix's picture on one half of the face and blending it into a contemporary version on the other side of my face. The focus on the eyes and the exaggerated eyelashes is my reference to Sally, whilst the colours and the application of the cheek colour on the contemporary side references my club kid design.

Below is my face chart for this design and some experimentation I did.