To Be Beautiful

Zoey Tiefenthaler "To Be Beautiful"

5.5 x 8.5”, Micron Pens, Alcohol Markers, 2023 

This piece’s inspiration started with me testing out different references in relation to beauty.  After taking some pictures of myself holding a paintbrush, I found the reference I was happiest with.  

Once I got my reference figured out, I started sketching it out with a pencil, which didn’t take too long.  Afterward, I used Micron pens to start my lineart.  I stuck with mostly thin lines and only added thickness to them once I finished the first round of lining everything.  Around the same time, I searched for a reference of a makeup brush and replaced the paintbrush with it.  Afterward, I drew in the Korean Hangeul, first drawing it out with a pencil and doing the lineart afterward.  The shading was next to do; I chose a crosshatching technique and took some inspiration from some manga shading.  To finish things off, I used a red alcohol marker to draw over the face of the subject, dotting a little bit on the tip of the makeup brush.  That way, the piece would have a subtle sense of movement to it.

The meaning behind this piece stems from the seemingly unrealistic beauty standards amongst Koreans.  The Hangeul in this piece reads “The New You!”, and the image itself serves as a sataristic take on beauty advertisements, in general.  The makeup brush acts as a sort of societal norm in terms of how people should look, and the subject can only smile crookedly in response.  Who’s to say if this woman was willing to do be the representative of this “advertisement” anyway. 

The most difficult part of this project was getting the proportions right and styling the hair.  Though the style of the piece deviates from the reference photo, I was able to figure out how I wanted the facial expression to look after some time.  And considering the size of the piece and subject, having the hair not be up in anything helped with the spacing and gave it a suitable amount of negative space.  Had I started over, I might’ve done more with the size of the Hangeul and and the proportions of the face.

This style of art is mosty a mix of Abstract and Surrealism.  The manga-like style of the subject is possibly the biggest thing pertaining to my own style.  I’m most proud of the crosshatching shading and the stark contrast of the crimson red streaked across the subject’s face.