Portrait of Sarah

This was a commissioned portrait of a writer named Sarah. It started with the concept sketch (first image in the gallery). She had a unique personality which I wanted to capture. The idea of having her illuminated from underneath occurred to me almost immediately as something that would reflect her style of writing. I met with her to draw her from life and the portrait was later finished from a photo. I did two versions of it. One started on gray-brown paper which I later realized was too cold, so I switched it to a lighter yellow-brown paper which provided a warm background. The drawing is in pastel pencils and is 16”x20”.