Capturing a Mood

As we approached the portrait unit of my art class, we began a project with the goal of evoking a mood. I reflected on some of the emotions I had recently been dealing with, and some of the strongest were a longing for the people I was missing and an uncertainty of what the future would hold in the next year. I thought through what facial expression, what lighting, and what composition would best express this.

I decided on a darker lighting with strong contrast so that the highlights really showed. This would give the portrait an overall gloomier mood. I took a ton of pictures with various facial expressions and poses and decided on the one that I thought best captured that feeling - more of a reflective sadness and longing.

Out of these two lighting choices I considered, I went with the darker one because I liked how the face fades into the background and disappears

Next I created a smaller sketch to experiment with something I wanted to try - using charcoal and blurring the edges to create a wispy outline that would reflect the far-away gaze in the expression.

I really liked this effect, so I used it for the final piece. I began with a basic outline of the face and facial features before I started shading with a charcoal pencil. Once I had a lot of charcoal along the edges, I used my finger to blur it into the background and create wispy strokes.

Once I had some shading done with the pencil, I went back in with a blending stump and smoothed out the lines, especially in the face. After that, I darkened some areas that were still too light and blended areas to make smoother transitions. I let some of the strokes show through in the background to give it more texture and interest. And here's the finished piece! I'm glad I tried a style that was looser and new for me - I think it worked well for this portrait and helped to capture the mood I was going for.

"Far Away"