The Fox Lady's Mysterious Business

For this latest portrait, I was inspired by a lovely artist in Finland, Noora. Utterly in love with her charming artworks, I found myself drawn more and more to this open and friendly girl, till I begged her to let me draw her. It is the first time I tried to capture a person’s portrait without having ever met them directly. On opposite ends of the Earth, I had only her artworks, photographic self-portraits and her online “voice” (from her blog, etc) to rely upon.

 At any rate, this is my impression of her. I’m delighted with this piece, and I hope you are too!

Noora's art-blog: Her Mysterious Business

I think one of the nice things about drawing figures based upon real people is that I’m not relying solely upon my own imagination to create an artwork.

I am influenced and inspired by many creative souls, from different walks of life and even from very differing backgrounds. Each one of my subjects has an interesting story to tell, and I try to capture these fragile glimpses and hint at those underlying emotions.

People are so wonderfully different, that all these little quirks can come through in a portrait. The way one holds her head, the way another has strong body language, one might have an intense expression, whilst another will hold herself in a particular way. I think it is only by observing all these different character quirks that you can create a cast of believable characters - otherwise you are relying upon your own imagination for each figure you draw, and might end up simply drawing self portrait after self portrait, your figures blurring into one hazy “character type”.

I try to be very conscious of creating a range of characters when I draw. I get told a lot that all my drawings look like self-portraits – I’m battling against it I swear!