The Museum of Australian Democracy acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past, present and emerging.

The museum respectfully acknowledges the role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples continue to play in shaping Australia’s democracy.

xClose
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • About
  • Blog
  • Prime Ministers
  • Websites
  • Venue hire
  • Visiting
  • What's On
  • Collection
  • Learning
  • Democracy
Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House
  • Visiting
    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library
  • What’s On
    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Collection
    • The Building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Oral Histories
  • Learning
    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents
  • Democracy
    • Defining democracy
    • Australian democracy: an overview
    • The democratic audit of Australia
    • One thing I like about democracy
    • Links
    • Quotes
    • Notes
    • About
    • Blog
    • Prime Ministers
    • Websites
    • Venue hire
    From the blog

    Nigel Buchanan: Confessions of an illustrator

    8 minute read

    Mon 28 Mar 2022 by
    Nina Enever

    Although it’s been decades since a prime minister held office at Old Parliament House, all 30 of Australia’s former leaders are currently gathered at the Museum of Australian Democracy, just not in the flesh...  

    Award-winning Queenstown artist Nigel Buchanan has been illustrating famous faces for decades. His playful, graphic portraits have appeared published in major international publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and TIME. As part of MoAD’s latest exhibition, Democracy DNA: People, Prime Ministers and the World, Nigel created new portraits of all 30 former prime ministers of Australia. These portraits inject colour and personality into names we may only know from history books.  

    We caught up with Nigel to discuss broken teeth, tiepins and which former prime minister never seemed to smile. 

    Tell us about your background. Were portraits always your format of choice? 

    I studied in New Zealand, then I moved to Australia and lived there for 30 years. I did a lot of conceptual work for various magazines and in the advertising world. There were very few – if any – portraits for the first part of my career.  

    Later, an art director started a passion project, a soccer magazine called Eight by Eight. He asked me to do some portraits for the first few covers with the magazine winning some awards in New York. This led to a stream of portrait commissions ever since.

    An illustrated portrait of Andrew Fisher with a moustache, a serious expression and wearing a suit looking at the camera.
    Nigel Buchanan's portrait of Andrew Fisher.

    What interested you about Democracy DNA and this project? 

    The scale and the subject matter was really unusual. These people all made a big mark on Australia in their own way, for better or worse. 
     
    While illustrating the prime ministers, I realised that I've actually lived in Australia for about a quarter of them. Although there’s been quite a high turnover in the last little while.  

    The permanence of the exhibition was also really appealing. It's going to stay around for a long time and that's unusual in my work. Usually, magazines have a short lifespan before being tossed in the recycling. 

    An illustrated portrait of Robert Menzies looking directly at the camera, wearing a suit with a red background.
    Nigel Buchanan's portrait of Robert Menzies.

    Obviously, we only have black and white photos of some of the earlier prime ministers, but your portraits are in full colour. How were you able to determine eye colour and skin tone?  

    Campbell Rhodes from MoAD did a huge amount of research, he read all sorts of memoirs and notes just to find out what their eye colour was. Campbell found all of the eye colours of the prime ministers, apart from one or two.  

    Skin colour was really guesswork. [Even in black and white] you could still tell if they were pale skinned or ruddy looking. Or whether they often had a port at night! 

    An illustrated cartoon of Stanley Bruce staring at the camera with a serious expression and blue background. He wears a brown jacket, vest and a blue tie.
    Nigel Buchanan's portrait of Stanley Bruce.

    Who did you find most difficult to illustrate? 

    One of the hardest was Fisher. His moustache was so coarse it just looked like bits of string! I'd love to know exactly what he looked like, face to face in real life.  

    Then there was John Gorton, who had some quite serious war injuries. He’d been patched up during the war, so his scars made up quite a part of the character of his face.  

    And of course, Joseph Lyons, with curly hair and broken teeth. He's got an awful lot of wrinkles around his eyes and his hair's all over the place. That gave him a lot of personality. I had to make him look slightly less dishevelled than in some of his reference photos. He always seemed to be in a windy day! 

    What about some of the prime ministers you enjoyed drawing? 

    The ones I enjoyed weren't necessarily the nicest or my favourite prime ministers. Some of the early ones with their pointy beards were fun. I think beards are considered bad PR these days. Prime ministers are very aware of how they present themselves. 

    McMahon was quite good to illustrate too because he already looked like he was a caricature. He was fun.  

    Then McEwen always had a severe look on his face. There were no reference photos of him smiling whatsoever.  

    Finally, Stanley Bruce wore very dapper suits and a woollen textured tie in all his reference shots. His collars were always neat, and he had always had a tiepin in. He was obviously fashion conscious and made an effort to look right. Whereas some of the others were pretty relaxed about their appearance. 

    An illustrated portrait of Joseph Lyons smiling at the camera, wearing a suit with a blue background.
    Nigel Buchanan's portrait of Joseph Lyons.

    These portraits convey so much personality in a still image. How did you translate your reference photographs into a such vibrant work? 

    Putting personality into a portrait is about finding the right reference materials. A lot of my reference pictures were formal portraits, but it's usually the candid shots where they reveal more about themselves.  

    Especially when they’re speaking to crowds, and you can see it in action. Whether they’ve always got their head up, whether they're a bit downtrodden looking, or cheeky, or just don't care. Bob Hawke was always pretty relaxed, whereas Malcolm Fraser was always very stiff. 

    By getting a broad range of reference shots, you can get a good impression of how they would hold themselves. A lot of the portraits are combinations of different reference shots. I choose the right face, then mix and match, putting references together to give a more accurate whole. 

    An illustrated portrait of illustrator Nigel Buchanan wearing a black t-shirt and glasses with grey hair and smiling at the camera.
    Nigel Buchanan self-portrait.

    ---------------------------- 

    You can see Nigel’s portraits of all 30 former prime ministers at MoAD’s Democracy DNA exhibition. 

    8 minute read

    Mon 28 Mar 2022 by
    Nina Enever

    Nina is the Senior Media and Communications Officer at MoAD. Nina loves combining fact and narrative to tell  interesting stories. 

    Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

    18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia

    PO Box 3934
    Manuka ACT 2603

    9am to 5pm daily 
    Closed Christmas Day

    ABN: 30 620 774 963

    Telephone: 02 6270 8222

    Enquiries:
    info@moadoph.gov.au

    Please note: video surveillance is used 24 hours a day around and throughout the building and may be used for research purposes

    Visiting

    • Planning your visit
    • Families at MoAD
    • Access
    • Group bookings
    • Cafe
    • MoAD Shop
    • UNSW Canberra Howard Library

    What's On

    • Events
    • Exhibitions

    Collection

    • The building
    • Objects and rooms
    • Highlights
    • Oral histories

    Learning

    • Teachers
    • Students
    • Parents

    Democracy

    • Exploring democracy
    • Documenting a democracy
    • Australian democracy
    • Defining democracy

    About

    • Disability Inclusion Action Plan
    • Our prime minister patrons
    • OPH Board
    • Annual Reports
    • Budget
    • Corporate documents
    • Employment
    • Freedom of information
    • Public Interest Disclosure
    • Media
    • Newsletter
    • Support us
    • Partnerships
    • Democracy 2025
    • Donate to our collection
    • eCommerce terms and conditions
    • Online house rules

    Blog

    Prime Ministers

    Websites

    Further information

    View our recruitment opportunities.

    View our copyright policy.

    View our privacy statement.

    View our ticketing terms and conditions.

    Questions about the website:
    website@moadoph.gov.au

    The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet