Portraits

One of my first and favorite subjects was the human figure. Starting with copying illustrations from books and studying favorite cartoon characters, I gradually honed my rendering skills by drawing from photographs and giving portraits as gifts to friends and family. I love the way drawing people and characters allows me time to connect with them. Growing up as a people-pleaser, I often struggled with social anxiety and preferred spending time alone. People were fascinating to me and I wanted to know them, but I didn’t enjoy conversation. So, I listened and watched. Drawing portraits allowed me to be with people without really being with them, and the people that I drew felt seen. It was a way of relating and developing mutual respect that suited me. I was always thrilled to see them gradually come to life on the page with the movement of lines in their posture and the gradual darkening of shadows here and there to slowly reveal their unique facial structure. Although I am no longer weighed down by what made portrait drawing so therapeutic, I still love capturing the likenesses and personalities of people in my art.

charcoal drawn face of teenage boy with medium length curving hair staring emptily and dazed at camera with tilted head and goggles and collage patched cheeks and blue shirt — Under Water

a woman painted with brown, green, ochre, and cream hues looking at the camera intently, head-on and straight-faced — The Threshold

two mirror image portraits of a teenage boy sitting crouched with arms crossed on knees looking at camera one with clown -like silly expression and the other more solemn and condescending — Joker

closely cropped image of teenage boy lounging in a chair next to a window, his head only visible in the reflection — Introspection

a teenage boy and teenage girl looking at one another affectionately, the boy resting his hand on the girl's arm, only their heads necks and one shoulder of each rendered so that together the figures' outline suggests a heart shape — Young Love

Drawing of a boy blowing and trying to get a fire started outside, drawn onto a goose egg that is placed in crook of a found wooden branch, and mounted to sand-covered wooden panel — Peace of the Outsider

nose, lips and strong brow emerging from the darkness on a curved wooden branch that has been mounted to a black flat wooden panel — Protective Dark

two unrefined faces lit in very high contrast as though by a flashlight in the woods; one is laughing ferociously and the other more subtly as though they are taunting the viewer or someone unseen — The Woods

close up painting of an infant staring attentively at the camera with rosy cheeks and her toddler sister with soft features looking calmly down toward her lap and wrapping her arm and hand behind the infant's head — Two Sisters

colorful rendering of a stoic looking Great Dane named Brutus — Brutus

crosshatched ink and watercolor iguana on a branch — Iggy

Still

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