Pencil on Archival Paper, 18″x14″
Original: SOLD!
A textile and art licensing client reached out to me to commission a highly detailed, realistic pencil portrait of a famous author, whom you will recognize here, and the specs included placing her in the center, incorporating elements that allude to her work, while also respecting copyright and not plagiarizing any existing images.
This is exactly the kind of challenge that I enjoy, so I set to work immediately, researching countless images of her, and practicing drawing her likeness over 20 times, from different angles, in different lighting, etc., until I finally knew that I could draw her without looking at a reference at all, from any angle, just from imagination. Her face was now embedded in my brain!
Then I created a draft, putting a rough sketch of her in the center, and adding various elements from her books to the background. A careful comparison between my sketch and the many images I had gathered of her followed, and confirmed that this angle, hairstyle and clothing choice was definitely unique and not an infringement on any existing image, and therefore we could move forward with this design.
The client was pleased, and after a few tweaks regarding the background images, I was ready to create the final image, which is what you see here, and titled it, “Flying Free.”
Stay tuned for a video of the entire final drawing process coming soon, and in the meantime, feel free to request a commission of your own here».
