Person of Note - Roughs for postcards

I am basing my postcards on the people who were important in Ella Fitzgerald's life. 

I chose these three because they all have links to tackling racism in the music industry. 

Louis Armstrong was one of the first African-American musicians in America whose skin colour was overlooked for his talent and personality. He took a public stand against segregation in America, reached the upper levels of American society which were usually closed off to men of colour and he was a generally well respected man. 

Marilyn Monroe is partly to thank for the boosting of Fitzgerald's career when she was so appalled that Ella Fitzgerald could not perform at the Mocambo because of her race that she said she would take a front table for every night of Ella's performances so long as she could perform. Marilyn's status obviously drew the press and crowds and this helped to boost Ella's career as a performer. 

Norman Granz was Ella's agent and he took a strong view on there being no race restrictions in the music industry. He battled to get his artists booked in to prestigious venues where black artists and the jazz genre in general had previously been forbidden. 

I like the idea of having a portrait of both Ella and Marilyn side by side so their physical differences are very apparent. I want to show a somehow deeper connection within them to show that its their love of music that forms their friendship, not their appearance. 

I like the idea of having Ella singing in the foreground and Marilyn at a table further back, recreating the scene at the Mocambo. However, I am unsure of how strong this composition would be and whether there would be too much wasted space. I also need to consider the orientation of my postcards because I want them all to be the same. 

Doing my roughs without any colour made me think about doing all of these images in black and white to tackle the theme of racism by saying that colour is irrelevant here. 

I wanted to include the trumpet in these roughs because I think it gives me more opportunities to make a stronger composition than just working with two faces. I want the trumpet to almost cut across the page in some way to create a dramatic line. I particularly like my first rough where ella is slightly smaller as she is stood a bit further back. The positioning of their faces means I could make them have eye contact which could suggest their friendship as well as musical compatibility. 

I read in an article that Norman Granz wasn't blown away when he first heard Ella sing so I was thinking about having him unimpressed at her voice but I thought this may be misleading. 

Having them in a powerful pose together like a 'dream team' was another idea because Ella's talent and Norman's business skills meant they were great at working together. Having him holding her up was another idea but it made it seem like he was solely responsible for her success which isn't true. I like the idea of having him quite close-up and Ella performing in the background so I might push this idea forward later on.