THE FEARLESS PENCIL

I must say that it is not every day that I get to do a portrait for just the honor. This one was truly an honor.

We celebrate the life of David Lamont Gordon through the arts. I am glad that I was able to do this work of art because I am able to share my talents for the family. It was six months in the making, but it finally happened. I love the impression of the drawing. Not a lot of detail. Just impression, expression, and emotion.

The most important key ingredient for wonderful art is to express your talent through the creativity. When I was young, I felt that I needed to draw as much detail and make my drawing realistic like the images I used for reference. As I became more experienced, I began to work my way towards being more expressive with the pencil and the composition.

In my expression I wanted to make broad areas that appear as paint on a canvas but of course are made in graphite. The process for the drawing is the same as majority of my works of art. Starting with the Staedtler 5H pencil. Additional pencils were the 6H, 2H, 0.9B, and 2HB. In the drawing you can see that I avoided using any of the ultra-soft pencils, because I did not want deep values. I wanted to achieve a moderate expression and mid-level detail. My goal was to capture Mr. Gordon in a moment through the expression of pencil. I believe this is my new way of creating portraits and I like the results.

This is truly an honor to help preserve the memory of a childhood friend. Where I am from…. childhood friends are considered family. That’s real love.

The portrait of Mr. Gordon, came to me through his son David, who I have known since elementary. We had some battles as youngsters, but as men, all love and respect. He appreciated the art and dapped me up. That’s the love, that I love about the black community; When the love is real….it stays real.