I’m an artist that really enjoys creating portrait drawings from my photos, the ones that don’t quite make it as “post worthy” shots.  The off angles from fun photoshoots, lunches and hangouts.  Finding a way to photograph the in progress images and final pieces is engaging as well.

This theme came about with the ease of digital imaging back in the late 90s and early 2000s. The advancement of picture taking technology did wonders for reference photography, and of course just the pure simple joy of taking a photo to see what it looks like. The angle I hope people understand is that snapping a photo in a thousandth of second is vastly differently than the dedication it takes sitting on the floor working for hours on a drawing.  In the time it takes to really render a portrait with chiaroscuro, line weight, hatching, etc, there’s ample time to think about yourself and the state of things. And also listen to all sorts of music!

But at the end of the day it’s just artwork that is fun for me to do.  Nothing really grand or introspective about it. I’ve enjoyed it as much as the time it took to get together and hang out with friends. Which is getting more and more rare as the years go on.

Currently I enjoy using 3 different “styles” to create my artwork.

Pencil

These are my drawings in their simplest forms. I really like .5mm mechanical pencils.

Pen and Ink/CG

These drawings or illustrations begin on paper, and then scanned in sections into the computer.  I then stitch the pieces together and then color each section manually.  These 3-step drawings take a little while to do, but as a digital artist, one is blessed with the ability to never have to buy paints or mess up your jeans painting.

Black Charcoal Pencil

This might be my most favorite medium since it as such visual impact due to the stark contrast and the values an artist can attain, but it’s not as predictable as plain graphite pencil.  It also really depends on the paper and how much wear and tear has collected on the charcoal pencil’s tip.

Is it Worth it? Is anything?

The silly act of taking a picture, or having your picture taken with someone is such a short duration in the scope of our lives, but has a power that most everyone understands. In much of the earlier work in this current theme, you’ll find that a lot of the subjects are holding or looking at what seem to be small pieces of white paper. It is usually a print of the previous portrait that I did of them, if I was lucky to ever run into that person again.

That was the format I considered my artwork to reside in, not the hand drawing on paper, or some piece hanging in a gallery somewhere, but back in the hands of the person that inspired it.

In school we were so caught up in detailing size and the proper way to hang and archive things, but as I got older and a bit more free thinking I realized that it was way more fun to have the work end up as a physical print, perfect for a wallet, purse, or just stuck on someone’s refrigerator.

With the modern day consumption of images and videos on the phone though, it really makes even a humble print a rare thing of the past.  With these drawings of mine, I’m just trying to make something in this world worth saving.

Boon Vong
www.b-vong.com