III (Self Portrait)
Medium: Graphite & Charcoal on paper – Duration: 500 hours – 70 x 49 cm – Year 2021
Story
What makes this portrait particularly special to me is knowing that it was commissioned and partnered with my all-time favourite pencil manufacturers Faber-Castell.
In 2015, Faber-Castell invited me to Stein, Germany to visit their factory and tour the Faber-Castell Castle. Towards the end of the tour I met with the Faber-Castell team and they asked me “what would you like to see new in a pencil?”.
I got a little emotional due to a flashback moment of being 8 years of age and discovering my love for drawing, not just with any pencil, but the Faber-Castell 9000 Graphite pencil series.
After shedding a few tears and gaining my composure, I told them about the struggle of taking a decent picture of an artwork which has dark tones due to the glistening effect the dark grades of graphite pencils produces.
5 years later (2020), Faber-Castell got back in touch and asked if I would be happy to work with them in releasing a brand new pencil – a graphite pencil which just so happens to not reflect off light the way normal graphite pencils do.
Earlier the year after (2021), they revealed to me what the pencil was which is the new Pitt Graphite Matt pencil range introducing the world’s first 14B grade pencil!
I couldn’t think of a more fitting subject to draw other than myself for this project. It was such a dream come true using the brand new pencils to create a new self portrait!
A special thank you to my photographer Agenda Brown for ‘seeing me’ and photographing me – allowing me to see myself enough to make this portrait drawing!
