Jackdaw, Learning to Stay: Making the Firewood Portraits

I promised a little info on the Firewood portraits for those who were interested, so, here it is.

I mentioned in the Firewood post that I'd wanted to do this project for a long time. Actually, I did start a version of it in 2015 - it was meant to take a long time, but I only did one portrait, and then didn't dedicate it in the intended way.

2015, North, intended to be the first Firewood portrait

This is the portrait in question - North, based on a few actual photographs of models. It was the fourth (and last) digital portrait I made, and it almost didn't get finished because my Wacom was so battered that it was almost nonfunctional by the end. It took somewhere close to thirty hours; I can't remember precisely. The original was supposed to have the FAG written across it, as in the book; the idea was to make portraits of the characters at the actual riots, as they would be, but I couldn't make the text look right. With the failure of my tablet, the strain of thirty-hour pieces during A-levels, and the fact that Dying Ember had just missed its initial publication deadline and didn't feel like it was ever going to get out there, I abandoned the project and published the portrait as a standalone.

I started with a different idea this time: to leave the slur out, but instead to add flags to each of the characters, inspired by Sia's video The Greatest, which she put out in memorial a year ago to the Pulse victims.

I was still considering adding the letters, and didn't decide not to until I had all the portraits together to leave them out. The idea was that the flags should smudge as if with tears or rain - the grief, mixed in with the pride of the memorial.

I knew the best way to pull this off would be watercolours. I used an A3 watercolour pad, two portraits per page.


The second layer of the North pencil sketch

Sketches were made multiple times for each portrait in pencils. In the past two years I've become much more confident in drawing people as I began to work on comic book style, and in particular human faces in the past few months. Still, there were some issues in the initial shape of the faces; the first three portraits initially were slightly out of proportion. Atarah was done twice because the first portrait was so badly out of proportion, and also the initial painting was too heavy - the one published with the project is much improved on it. I was intending to re-do North, but timed out on the project.

Completed lines of North

The lines were done in art pen, the same ones I use for my comic book pages. One size nib was used for the main lines, a smaller nib for details and the minimal shading. The first portrait, North, used extremely experimental shading, which I decided I liked - until that point, I hadn't considered it.

Dany's completed lines - my favourite portrait

Colour was done lightly with watercolour pencil. This involves colouring with a pencil, then adding water to use the applied colour as paint. The difficulty was in using shading right - I wanted there to be no skin colour visible beneath the flags, as if the faces were bleached by a bright light, without losing the skin tones of the people beneath. This was another issue which caused the first Atarah to be abandoned.

Finished lines of (the second) Atarah and Junayd

I had a very rough idea of how to do the flags. I have watercolours, watercolour pencils, and watercolour pens - which would work best? In the end, I set the pad upright, balanced on the open pages. The square of each flag was soaked with water, and then thick paint quickly applied. Naturally the colours smudged together, even running down the cheeks to the bottom of the page - exactly what I'd wanted. For most of them, I did have to also reapply some of the layers to add distinction and stop, for instance, the bi flag on Atarah and Clay becoming one indistinct purplish mess.

Garnet's pencil colour, before water was added

Then it was just a matter of waiting for the flags to dry... Rinse and repeat.

On average, one portrait probably took about four hours. Dany's was without a doubt the longest, but for a happy reason - I wanted to do her hair "properly". PoC hair is doubtless a... Contentious issue in certain parts of the internet. Especially black women's hair. In the books, when her hair is described it's mostly as being braided - a simple description, but vague and encompassing a broad range of actual styles. Generally when drawing her in the past, I've done simple cornrows, pulled back and either hanging loose or tied into a knot behind her head; it seems practical, and Dany is definitely practical.

Dany, half-painted - the braids in the bottom right show the stage before

I wanted to do something different for this portrait. With help from my Tumblr followers I found a few PoC hair tutorials, then looked at a lot of photographs and pieces of art to figure out what would suit her, and how I could create it well. Drawing the braids took half an hour alone; colouring them with pencil took over an hour, and even painting them was complex. I was, however, extremely happy with how that turned out.

Junayd's finished hair I was also extremely pleased with.

V, completed but for flag

Annoyingly, my second favourite portrait is probably Clay's. This is annoying because he does not deserve to be the second-favourite portrait. Although the project is based around the Firewood riots and a memorial to Ezek, and all the other characters featured are those who in the novel specifically participate, I wanted to include Clay because he is still a main LGBT+ character. Even if he is an unmatched b*stard.

The finished North (proportion slightly wack because of the angle)

My main priority with the order of the portraits was to target main characters first, but also to highlight diversity. With more time, I might have moved onto the other minor characters who join Dany and North in the final few chapters - Grace, Wren - and also contentious characters, such as Brooke, who is engaged to Clay's co-worker Bay, but whom Dany notes is extremely close to (and flirtatious with) Atarah.

North bears the traditional rainbow pride flag: gay. Atarah and Clay ID as bi, their colours being blue, purple, and pink. Dany is asexual, her flag being black, grey, white, and purple (lots of fun in the fact of me not actually having a black paint, and not quite being sure how to show the white - I think it worked out pretty well). Junayd is a gay transgender man; I considered using two flags, but decided on simply the pink-blue-white-blue-pink trans flag in the end, to highlight the identity as unique among the characters, and to maintain uniformity. Similarly, Garnet - who is mentioned as talking to Atarah at the Mid-Disc, and who later becomes a key participant in the Firewood Riots - is genderqueer and pansexual. Because Vadek (V. of Rev. B. and V.) is also pan, I chose the green-white-purple genderqueer flag for them, and the pink-yellow-blue pan flag for him.

If you do have any questions about these identities, I encourage you to look into them - most of them have an official website, and all are recognised by international LGBT+ associations. While you can drop me a comment or email with questions, the internet can help you faster and with better information. There are many helplines and websites, as well as organisations near you, if you are questioning your orientation or gender identity.

See the We Are Firewood post for all the portraits.

I considered making a similar portrait of Ezekiel - after all, the whole Firewood Riots came about because of him, just as Ferguson and Orlando all came together for their victims. But somehow it never seemed right.

Because Ezek did not get to be proud of his identity.

Clay may choose not to, but Ezek couldn't. Ezek's absence in this project about - for - him represents those who were never able to be public and proud and safe in their identities.

So, those were the Firewood portraits.

Maddie Ziegler in Sia's The Greatest

Also, I'll be away for the next two weeks on a volunteer project. I have one post prepared and scheduled to go out while I'm gone, but I won't be answering emails or actively visiting the blog during the time, so don't think I've died or anything. I might have, though. I'll delegate someone to log in and tell you I've died if I have, I guess.