Illustration: Bad Taste

Bad Taste

Project Review 16/10/10

My knowledge on famous serial killers at the start of the project was merely that they were sick-minded people that looked scary in the photo’s I’d seen of them (Ignorant, I know). My plan was to illustrate “bad taste” by making these famously wicked people and display them as idols. I suppose my idea of bad taste was to be offensive at this point.

When I first started finding images of the murderers to draw from, I chose the most haunting pictures that I thought would have most impact on the viewer.

When drawing people I try to understand their expression before drawing the form and shape of the face. [This then guides the way I use the medium]. So whilst drawing these people, even though it was from a photograph, I really had to look them in the eyes, which was unnerving.

After watching Appropriate Adult, I felt very unsettled by how complex and twisted the whole thing was.. I now learned that Rose was just as involved and twisted as her husband. I also fully understood the difference in character of Fred and Rose West and their relationship. Before I was going to include just Fred West but I now felt that Rose West was just as significant in this series of disgusting people.

Rather than making a statement and producing reminders of the faces of these murders, I have now found myself creating in depth portraits of these people.

I find that distasteful and it is unsettling for me to make these drawings. Perhaps “bad taste” is as much about the producing of it as it is the outcome.

I feel this project is quite personal in a sense, because it is about how you perceive things. You have to have a taste to have bad taste and everyone has different tastes.