Bullet for a Ballad

This portrait of Frank Sinatra examines the tension between image and inner reality.

Seen through a noir-inflected lens, Sinatra is suspended between personas. The fedora, the tailored suit, the unmistakable confidence - all the familiar markers of control are present. Yet his gaze suggests something unresolved, hovering between swagger and sorrow. The crooner and the gangster collapse into a single figure, blurring performance with self.

The composition is intentionally minimal. A stark tie anchors the form. A disembodied hand grips a revolver. The surrounding void removes narrative context, leaving only symbols - tools of identity rather than character. What remains is a constructed presence, carefully assembled and deliberately withheld.

By stripping the scene back, the drawing invites the viewer to question what is being projected and what is being concealed. Sinatra becomes less a subject and more a study in self-presentation - a man composed as much of myth as of flesh.

It is a portrait of façade: polished, controlled, and quietly unstable beneath the surface.