I never thought I'd find myself updating this section so quickly! I may have to just make an Art Gallery for this site sometime.
For my "White pastel on black paper" project in my 2D design class (remember I'm in college), this image was definitely the first idea that popped into my head. I had thought for a possible second idea to do one of Rotwang with Futura when he is presenting her to Fredersen, but I had never drawn Futura before and didn't want to take my chances on not being able to capture her likeness. Besides, I had been wanting to do a portrait of Rotwang in the catacombs for a long time, and this was my chance!
I wished I had taken more photos of my progress while I was working on this picture, but I can't remember everything all the time, as you all might know. So, working from memory, I've artificially blacked out portions of the picture to show how my progress went.
Here is how I started, with the large glowing lantern. I did this first as a way of getting a bit of practice with the feel of pastel and how thick I could go with it. The one thing to keep in mind is that I had never worked in pastel before I did this picture. I was very skeptical of how this was going to turn out, considering it was my first try in the medium. At least by starting with this glowing ball, I was able to center the rest of the portrait fairly easily.
This is sort of what the start of the face looked like. (I really wish I had taken progress pictures~!) The eyes made me the most nervous, as I would not be able to live with myself unless I got that "Rotwang glare" just right. Pastel is near impossible to erase! I had to be careful and lightly drew in how the eyes should look, and I did the rest of the detailing with blending. I was surprised at how the stage-light reflection in the eyes turned out.
This is appoximatley what the face looked like after I had filled it in. I waited a little while though before attempting to add on the hair, because, as always, I wanted it to be perfect. And I was going to have to switch from using the stick pastel to a pastel pencil, which I had found much harder to work with when I practiced on another sheet of paper.
And here is the only progress photo I took for the whole 6+ hours I spent drawing this! Sigh...Anyway, the hair on this picture nearly drove me up the wall, because the shot I used for the model of the portrait was not very clear and I could not see his hair that well to get enough detail. So, I had to mentally combine this shot from Moroder's Metropolis (best face, no detail on the hair, though) with this shot from the restored Metropolis (better hair, but I don't like the face) in order to get the exact image I was looking for.
Finished! This is about the best drawing I've ever done in so short a time. I usually take a few months to finish a portrait.
The paper is approximately 16x20 and the head is close to life-size (but not Rudolf life-size, of course - that would be more like a pumpkin!) I framed it in a silver frame with a black and silver matte and I have to say I am really pleased with how it looks.
