Portrait Picture

After countless number of re-thinking my idea for this portrait picture, i decided to actually portray somebody who i consider an "idol". Vinnie Accardi is the guitarist and co-songwriter in the band Brand New. Ive grown up listening to Brand New from a very young teenager and as the music has grown, Ive grown up with it....

There first album "Your Favourite Weapon" all the way back in 2001 was the very reason i picked up a guitar and struggling to play a single chord. When your starting out playing guitar you think every guitarist is better than you, and you want to be them, and you gradually get better and better and realise those guys you use to look up to and wanted to play their song weren't as good as you thought.

With Vinnie i still look up to him as a musician, and still find myself sitting in my bedroom struggling to play a song or guitar riff...as the band have also progressed over the years; adapting their musical style and become more complex and creating a genre in themselves.

Vinnie is a shy, quiet character who explodes on stage, its fair to say their is music is very much related to their personal lives therefore quite dark, and there is always an undertone of death and religion throughout their music.

With the portrait i have tried to capture the mood of his character, a more sombre feel with soft lighting and desaturated colour to give a completely different feel. Although me portraying him playing the guitar was the obvious choice i felt it just didn't need it, therefore the music theme creates the background bringing the mood of the picture to the foreground becoming the focus of the whole picture.

Although the name "Vinnie Accardi" wont turn many heads for the most popular, iconic man in history...to hell with popularity, this guy changed a small long island band into arguably the godfathers of ours generations punk rock.