Thom Yorke

Watercolor on Illustration Board
2006

A class assignment to do a portrait. I chose Mr. Yorke, whose work I admire very much. This was done around the time that his solo side project album, The Eraser had just debuted. I was hearing a lot of complaints from people that it, and Radiohead's other more recent work, were so different from the early albums. I was rather outraged at this assertion that artists not be allowed to evolve in their craft, and I couldn't help but think of the lyrics to "Fake Plastic Trees" (arguably Radiohead's greatest song.) I tried to make this piece evoke both musical sides--the dark, heavy, sweeping guitar grunge, and the light, delicate pastel digital sounds.