Pride

Among my drawings, this is perhaps one of the most detailed and accurate. It’s an exercise in photorealistic pencil portraiture, specifically focused on studying the skin.
Any artist wishing to perfect the representation of facial skin benefits from the presence of wrinkles. For this reason, I was in search of a reference photo that depicted a not-too-young person. I also wanted a face with a prominent nose and distinctive features that deviated from conventional beauty standards and could provide me with ample exploration of the underlying layers.
The reference photo was kindly provided to me by someone dear to me, who was at the time engaged in a project of archiving and preserving the historical memory of the LGBTQ+ community, which included photographic portraits.
In this portrait, titled “Pride”, I believe I have captured beneath the complex structure of the epidermis a sense of dignified pride, almost a proclamation.