Edison Jack Portrait

I've decided that I like to draw and paint living beings more than anything else. I like to do portraits of my dogs who I love very much as well as people that I love or am simply drawn to by their heart and their personality. I used to love to do landscapes first and foremost, and while I still enjoy them as I very much love to be surrounded by the beauty of the natural world, I seem to now be more strongly pulled to subjects who reflect their heart and soul in their eyes and the expression on their face. I love the hard work that goes into recreating a face that makes the viewer feel what is there inside my model, be it an animal or a human. I'm not sure I could draw or paint someone I didn't much care for as it would be very hard for me to bring that light forth when all I saw was something ugly (and I don't mean this in the sense of being physically "pretty"). Fortunately, I have yet to be faced with someone that I could not work with. But to be able to make a divinely beautiful soul shine through on paper or canvas, in pencil or paint, is truly an art and it's something that I am now seeking to perfect as much as I possibly am able with the skills I have.

Portrait of Edison Jack Looking Up, graphite on paper, 2009