Ernie

fall 2009 • 6B pencil illustration

In 2009, my high school art class did a study on Chuck Close. I was supposed to use my finger prints to draw a gridded portrait, but I decided to go a different direction. I used a 6B pencil and filled in each box in the gridded paper with scribbles to make the entire piece. I only drew a handful of straight lines around his left eye. I was so floored with how well he turned out! I actually ended up winning Best in Show at an art competition for this handsome devil. I honestly don’t even know who this guy is. In hindsight, I wish I had chosen my grandfather to draw. I just found this guy’s photo on the internet and thought he looked really sweet and friendly. Plus, he had a lot of really great wrinkles going on that would be fun to draw!

P.S. The photo with the blue and yellow blocks was actually taken with my little camera phone in 2009!