Ella 1

I chose Ella Fitzgerald out of the three people I was given. She had was an amazing person and is an inspiration to many people. I wanted my illustration of her life to be more personal and about her as a person rather than her career. I kept coming back to a quote from her when she was very ill towards the end of her life.

"I just want to smell the air, listen to the birds and hear Alice laugh,"

Although this is a quote from a time that could be considered sad it highlights her personality and spirit in the face of adversity. It also highlights a change in her life from performer to audience, she had spent most of her life entertaining people all over the world and was now being entertained by the world around her.

I wanted to make a poster that featured each element from the quote and find a way to include the sounds of birds singing and laughter.

I thought about combining bird characters with musical instruments. One of the problems I had was deciding whether to draw the birds holding instruments of make the birds beaks into the instruments. I liked the idea of the beaks forming the shape of wind instruments but the images looked quite surreal and I don't think they would have suited the feel I was wanting.