WSJ Portraits for "Spider-Man"

With "The Amazing Spider-Man" opening today I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to take another look at two separate hedcuts I created of Tobey Maguire in the role several years ago...My Art Director at The Wall Street Journal usually gave me considerable artistic license to render my subjects, but I remember everyone being a bit surprised when they saw my original portrait of Maguire for the first Spider-Man film back in 2002 (above left). They were expecting the iconic mask but I really liked how young and innocent he looked as Peter Parker. In "Spider-Man 3" (2007) the character took a darker turn so again I chose to render Maguire as Parker so that his snarling (nuts?) attitude wouldn't be hidden by the mask. I did manage to get just a hint of the Spidey costume in this time (above right).

Just a few months after this last Spider-Man film opened,  Joe Morgenstern wrote an enthusiastic review of a small British independent film called "Boy A", starring a then-unknown young actor named Andrew Garfield. He gave a really wonderful performance as a kid just released from juvenile prison for committing a murder. He was actually so unfamiliar at the time that just finding a few photos of him to use for my reference for this drawing became a real pain in the ass. I actually think both these guys are really cool actors, so it'll be fun to compare 'em.