What the Mirror Couldn't Hold
This piece marks a personal shift in how I choose to represent myself — not just through form or likeness, but through process and restraint. I decided to sketch my own portrait on Strawboard, using graphite for the base and exploring a new material: a skin tint pencil for subtle color layering.
The goal wasn't realism. It was a quiet experiment. One where I could explore how much identity I could hold in a limited palette. I let the graphite do the scaffolding — light, tonal, deliberate — then brought in warmth with just one skin tone, testing how the material interacts with the strawboard’s natural texture and pull.
What came through isn’t a “perfect version” of me. It’s something more suggestive: A still face, neutral but alert — with a focus not just on features, but feeling. There’s an honesty in keeping things raw. You notice what emerges when you're not aiming for polished beauty, just presence.
This was as much a technical study as a personal dialogue. A stretch into new materials. And a chance to see myself drawn by my own hand — no filters, no framing. Just a face. A process. A pause.