Stage 2

Stage 2
Editorial: Front cover for 'Little White Lies' magazine
Theme: 'Black Swan'

Stills from the movie, captured from the DVD.

Title: Black Swan, 2010
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Runtime: 108 minutes
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Winona Ryder...etc.
Plot: Nina (Portman) has won the role of prima ballerina lead in 'Swan Lake' and has the innocence and grace of the White Swan/Princess Odette. She gradually is overcome with insanity and obsession over trying to adopt the role of the Black Swan/Odile, however, and sees a lot of the character's traits in Lily (Kunis). Nina battles between the good and the bad inside her, both of which are needed for her role in the ballet.

Ideas: 
I am struggling to think of original ideas for this front cover. Little White Lies magazine notoriously features portraits for their front covers, so I know to work with bust or head shots. However, upon researching already existing cover ideas dotted around the Internet for the Black Swan cover, I found the same ideas are appearing again and again. The same image of Nina in her Black Swan make-up is being portrayed in different techniques and colours so I'm trying to steer away from that particular image.
I have researched photographs of Natalie Portman I could work with. I'd like to just submit a full grey-scale pencil portrait, as I know I can do them well and fairly quickly, but I think it may evoke copyright issues due to the direct portrayal from photographic reference. Also, it probably just isn't exciting enough for a front cover!
I will probably experiment with different angles of the actress' face that I could draw, and how the make-up would be seen from these angles. I'm interested in the black/white or dark/light within the character so may draw Nina shrowded in darkness on one side of her face...

Drawn by myself. Take from photographic reference.

Original photo. I do not own the copyrights. Photographer unknown.

I found this photo particularly dark and interesting. I liked the use of lighting on one side of her face. I improvised a lot on the drawing in my sketchbook as I couldn't see her hair properly, so I drew it a lot wilder than it actually is. I won't be using this as the final cover image, but it was good practice at getting familiar with Portman's facial features.

Natalie Portman's face:
These are the features, in detailed description, that I have discovered whilst drawing the actress:

• No defining lip line - can be difficult to render when using a reference image of Natalie without lipstick.
• Lip corners turning upwards
• Thin nose
• Eye sloping upwards (diagonal)
• Freckle on far side of left cheek
• Square jaw line
• Straight, fairly thick eyebrows