This is a 4″x6″ mini portrait painting of a young woman and man. Mediums used include watercolor, markers, paint pens, acrylic paints, pens, colored pencils, and crayons. After working with abstracts for a prolonged period of time, an attempt was made at portrait paintings again. Some of the abstract qualities from previous artworks were maintained in the background and loosely painted hair, while finer details like the noses and mouths were worked and reworked to a breaking point. While painting accurate portraits can require attention to these details, some lingering sense of impressionistic mark making has still been achieved.

This is an oil painting of an old sailing ship at sunset, which looks vaguely like a ghost ship. The big boat was painted in 1997 and the artwork is approximately 2′x3′. The background sky and sunset were painted first, followed by the glowing hills and buildings. Water and reflections were painted next, simply by mirroring the shapes and colors painted above. Deep greens and blues were added to the murky water, and there is some tension created by the bright sun disappearing into the surrounding darkness. Lastly the boat and foreground were painted with similarly brisk brush strokes. Details like rope, flags, netting, sails, and waves splashing around the ship were painted last.

These two colorful portraits of a woman and a man were drawn with markers in 2002, and are approximately 8″ x 5″. Both portraits were drawn in a very loose and expressive style with unconventional color palettes to create tension. The expressions on their faces also provide insight about the uneasiness of the art. Colorful markers of varying thicknesses and shades of grey were used to layer the shapes and colors of each drawing in stages. In some places the markers started to run out of ink, so the same colors from fresh markers were applied over faded areas. This helps to create more depth in the shadows. Also, the vivid oranges and reds bring a heightened energy and intensity to the portraits and offsets the darker areas.

This is a marker drawing of a woman wearing a hat. The portrait was drawn in 2002 with varying shades of grey and black markers. A thin black pen was used to sketch in eyes first, then other facial features and proportional marks for the hair and hat were drawn next. Light shades of gray marker were then layered in broad strokes. Drawing from light to dark, shapes and forms were built up to define the shadows and highlights of the woman’s portrait. Alternating values of dark and light areas, or chiaroscuro, help to create the illusion of surface structure in the drawing.

This colorful abstract drawing of a woman’s profile was sketched with markers and white acrylic paint. Thin blue pen lines were initially used to sketch in her profile. Layers of blue and black marker where then used to fill in patterns and shapes in and around the woman’s face. Sometimes the shapes indicate shadows, or define contour, or they are just expressive mark making that affects the composition of the art. White acrylic paint was used to add hot spots and highlights. In some areas of the drawing, the black marker started to fade out while blocking in thick lines, which also adds to the rough unfinished feeling in the art. And the portrait drawing is honest in its mistakes and successes, from the boldness of the initial sketch to the transparency of the finished drawing.

This is an expressionistic painting of a walrus, using acrylic paint. Thick layers of black and red paint were pushed and smeared around the paper to create the abstract and expressionistic shapes and textures of the walrus. The paint was scraped off and rubbed on, and parts of the paper are untouched by paint to enhance the glowing white background. This acrylic painting was created in the year 1998.

These three pen sketches and drawings of women’s portraits were drawn in 2002. Each portrait was drawn in a unique style, using pen with washes of water, and grey marker. The first woman’s face uses the grey marker to block in abstract shadows and shapes, giving the impression of a bright light source. The second portrait is a girl with her eyes closed, sketched with shakily drawn lines and a wash of water to add shadows and soften the image. The third portrait drawing utilizes bigger shapes of darker ink to block in eye shadow and hair. The contrast of the stark white of the paper with the deep shadows pop the face forward on the page. Also, the relatively accurate placement of facial features helps to define the structure of the face with minimal value changes and shading.

These are 2 portrait drawings, one sketch of a male and one sketch of a female. Both portrait drawings were sketched with black pen in the year 1999. The drawing of the woman’s face uses minimal lines to highlight the placement of the most recognizable features of the face, like the eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. No outlines were used to define the structure of the face or jaw, which allows the drawing to breathe a little more than usual.

The portrait of the man was drawn similarly, with minimal lines, and sparse definition of facial features. More attention was paid to the shadows and lines of his suit in order to contrast with the open face. And the piercing eyes of both the man and woman were drawn with tiny pupils to enhance their minimalistic cold gaze. Very little value was used as well, with minimal washes of water applied to soften some the hard pen lines in both portrait sketches.

This is a character art drawing of a fuzzy monster face. Mediums used in the drawing are markers, pens, paint pens, and even watercolor and white paint. It started with broad washes of color over loosely sketched lines defining the placement of the eyes. Layer after layer of squiggly lines of color, in both ink and paint form, were continuously applied after that. And the eyes were redrawn multiple times after each pass of color. The head of the monster is slightly defined by the opacity and bulk of lines in particular areas, but the drawing was still kept loose and energetic. Also some abstract elements were added, like the heavy black line on the right side of the artwork.

These two expressive abstract portrait drawings of male faces were drawn in the year 2003 with markers and a white paint pen. Each portrait was drawn with quick energetic lines and multiple vibrant colors. Unorthodox colors encourage putting extra emphasis on the shapes, planes, lines, and contours of the male face. And artistic strategies other than value changes must be used to define the structure of an easily identifiable image, the human face. This process can help expand the creativity and visual language available to the artist.