My Collection of Portrait Artwork

 I admit that I had a hard time letting go of this drawing because although I may say everything that turned out well is my favorite, this one truly did meet my vision.

The subject of this portraits name is Lylie, she's a kind hearted and beautiful woman that's more complex than meets the eye, so I hopped to convey her personality in the picture since it's hard to do with mere words. What I hope most to of accomplished with this one is that I showed you all more than just a pretty face, but what lies inside her heart, while at the same time showing all facets of her personality.

The drawing was created on 5x7 stonhenge paper, not as small as others, but not as large either. I did find that I do love this size over the old poker card sized surfaces. This was a slow and methodical work because I wanted to gain her likeness as perfect as I could get it, yet I'm a little too lazy to work with grids, so yes it was a very slow process. That being said, I should learn to use a grid.

This one is a different sort of homage to the old master, Mary Cassatt. Instead of copying her work I practiced on an old photograph of her when she was age 22. I was pretty excited to happen upon it because most of the photos I've ever seen of her depicted her as an old woman.

This was also a miniature portrait that I traded as an artist trading card. When I drew this, I was just starting to understand to be very careful about blending so much when I'm working on a tiny surface. So while working with my mechanical pencil I tried to mostly add super light layering of graphite instead of blending since even my smallest blending stump would wipe out half of her likeness with a single swipe!

Now for what made me most happy, I'm slow as hell in just about everything I do. Walking, eating it doesn't matter. Everything takes forever and I often come down on myself about it. This drawing took me two hours! Although I'm not jumping up and down pleased with the picture, I am pleased about how well it turned out for such a short amount of time. Got to give myself a victory every now and then even if it's wrong.

Now for something a little different! Here's one of my digital paintings, which is also winning as a favorite medium even over drawing. With money and space being scarce at the moment, I tend to gravitate toward digital these days.

This one in particular was created for zazzle , more specifically a design for a pair of keds shoes. Sadly they have done away with their shoes, but thankfully this design fits just as well on other goodies, also it looks better on other stuff.

My digital painting process is no different from my drawing or my traditional painting approach. I start with a blank canvas, and draw or paint using what's called a stylus on a wacom tablet instead of paper. This is not an easier method by any stretch of the imagination, nor is it a faster method. I thought I'd mention this due to a common misconception that all digital painting is somehow different or easier, like I pushed a button and the image flew out of my mouth.

I will say that I do have the freedom to experimenting my butt off since my paint doesn't dry up. So, I can canoodle a picture to death where on paper I would have probably destroyed the tooth with that amount of overworking.

In the past I kept both my traditional and digital work separate, here I'm putting it together because I make no distinction here at home, so I won't anymore outside.

I drew this purely for practice purposes from one of my all time favorite paintings "The Bacchante" by Gerome. The drawing was created on grey toned charcoal paper using graphite, charcoal and white pastel pencil, and the size is 2.5 by 3.5 inches, the same size of a poker card. This drawing is one of my all time favorites that I'll often use as an avatar around the internet.

It's funny, I had more trouble trying to draw this picture large than I did in a small format. Maybe I was too consumed with getting it exactly like Germone's painting, where he has her framed in a circle on the canvas. I suppose by doing away with the circle and letting the chips fall where they may that I finally created an image that I was happy with.

First things first, this drawing sucks so bad it sucks the oxygen from the earth. I messed up big time let's put it that way. But, let it be a lesson to me for taking commissions. lol. I only had a month to do a 9x12 in the month of December! Not only was this a busy month, but it is the most depressing month for me. I've learned to better work through December since then though. It's also kind of funny how hard it is to do something that's good for us even when we're in a funk!

What went wrong were the faces, I skewed them. Now, kids, listen, learn from my mistakes, More time spent planning before tackling the beast will prevent people with the twisted faces. More specifically no matter how you approach a face, you need to measure and judge distances, look at how the light falls on their features, and what I like to do, study what I think their skull looks like! Pretty damn creepy innit? a little map or plan would have kept my roving pencil in check.

This is a very oldie portrait when I was really struggling with the miniature format. I also was trying to be too quick. Even though I still flog myself for being so slow I've learned to live with the fact that not only do I enjoy slow and methodical work better, but I learn more by taking my time, and in so doing I become even better over time.

I'm also jumping back and forth from subject to subject and oftentimes up the anti with a new challenge each time. I hope by the time I'm on my dying bed I can say that I've learned all that I could learn. Then, I'll remember one last thing that I didn't learn the second before taking my last breath. lol.

This was part of a portrait exchange way back in the day where we were drawing each other and trading them, so with that being said time was not on my side either!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my portrait art. I'll be adding links to this page to my other artwork once I get them up, so stay tuned. Please feel free to drop me a comment below. Also, I don't mind if my work is pinned so long as you leave the link back to this page intact, also share away as long as you leave me credits and a link.