How did you develop these drawings?
I created three tightly cropped images so I could emphasize the shadows on my friend’s face. The shadows add a sense of mystery since they break up his features.
Did geometry play a role in your work?
Yes, I had to make sure all the shapes in the shadows aligned and were roughly parallel to one another, and that the lines and proportions were correct. If not, the face would look distorted.
How did you capture the light on your subject’s face so precisely?
I worked totally freehand, so mostly it was about drawing exactly what I saw, not what I thought I saw. That, and drawing from different angles. If an area doesn’t look right, I rotate my paper upside down or to one side. Seeing the details from a different point of view helps me see if they are correctly proportioned.
What was most challenging about making these drawings?
The hair. It’s really hard to make curly hair realistic, especially tight, curly hair. I worked for days and days to get the details right. In some ways, capturing the hair was even harder than the shadows on his face. But that’s what makes the drawings so interesting. The rounded shapes of the curls have no lines or definition. They play off the edges of the geometric shapes in the shadows in an interesting way.