Longing in Monochrome

Size: 18" x 12"

Medium: Ink on Mayfair paper

The subject of this fingerprint portrait is a young black woman photographed by Count Christ (@CountChrisPhoto) on Instagram. I start the art process by sectioning the mayfair paper into a 2x4 grid so that I can draw without disproportioning her features as much as I can, and cover her eyes and jewellery with masking tape to be inked later. From there, I laid down the ink where the darkest spots should be based on the photo, mostly from the edge at first since this method was new to me and thus I could cover up any mistakes along the way. Throughout the process, I learned to blend the ink by rubbing my fingers on the paper, used the sides of my pinkies for small but sharp edges of the shadows, like the wrinkles on her hand, and chose to substitute the jewellery with red decorative stones since it would be difficult to replicate the smallest details of the pearls from the photo onto the paper.