Concentration

This is a series of works centered around portraits and the people that they represent. I have had little previous experience drawing faces and will use this concentration to improve my artistic skills in portraying depth and proportion. I also hope to explore the ideas of personality and emotion through facial expression while experimenting with various styles and techniques.

This concentration evolved from my interest in faces and facial expressions and my desire to improve my skills depicting these things. I recently experimented by depicting a bust using a wood burner and found the structures of the face intriguing and challenging to replicate. I hope to become more accustomed to this type of work while exploring the meaning of expression and emotions.

This is a graphite drawing of a student in my art class. I used a photo for reference and added shadows in the background to create better depth.

This is a charcoal portrait of my cousin Briggs. I used a gestural style that was loosely based on a reference photo that I took. I blended the charcoal with my fingers to create better contrast, and I used white charcoal to create highlights.

This is a watercolor portrait of another person in my art class. She often uses watercolor in her pieces and so I worked with this medium to emulate her style and make the piece more personalized.

This is a charcoal portrait of my girlfriend Natalie. I used a reference picture of her that I took outside. Similar to my previous charcoal portrait I used white charcoal to emphasize the highlights where the sun hit her hair.