Black & White 2018 Show

This show will run July 1-31, 2018. Artists from around the world were called to submit their work. There were 91 accepted entries and they came from 15 different states in the USA as well as 7 other countries: Austria, Belarus, Canada, Germany, Japan, Russia, and Taiwan. A variety of styles and mediums were entered, including but not limited to acrylic, charcoal, colored pencil, digital, felt, gouache, graphite, ink, latex, mixed media, oil, oil sticks, photography, tempera, and watercolor. Other factors, such as the clarity of the images provided and their ability to be viewed online, also contributed to our decision. “Best of Show”, “First Place”, and “Second Place” winners received a monetary award in addition to special recognition.

We were very happy to donate 10% of all entry fees from this show to Heart to Heart. HHI strengthens communities through improving health access and providing humanitarian development worldwide. For more information about them, please visit their website http://www.hearttoheart.org/. Colors of Humanity Art Gallery, LLC is not affiliated with Heart to Heart. It is our hope that this small act of kindness will blossom and grow to help someone else.

Thank you to all the artists who participated! Your talents and skills gave us a diverse body of work to create this attractive show.

Buyers- Please contact the artists directly for sales. Colors of Humanity Art Gallery does not handle any part of the sale or collect any commission, it is solely between the buyer and artist. You may find a link to the artist’s website or email address below their work.

“As a portrait artist my inspiration is drawn solely from my subjects and their hidden emotional truths. Working with a limited pallet allows me to concentrate on the forms, values and shadows. Color or lack of it alone, possesses emotion without the need to tell a story. Drawing in a limited pallet helps put things into a new perspective or literally puts specific aspects of my work into focus. Color can be very life-like but also very distracting. I also do this for dramatic purposes to capture a mood in a moment. I want the viewer to take a step closer to each drawing and realize my narratives create a mood through beautiful brushed textures and tones. Creating my work in Black and White allow me to concentrate on the forms, values and shadows instead of only concentrating on accuracy of facial colors.”

Bio

Tracy is an International award-winning artist. He spends his time teaching Colored Pencil classes at the Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, and conducting workshops to art groups across the country.

Upon receiving his BFA from The University of Kansas in 1982 he began his career in Chicago as a Package Designer working for design agencies until he retired in 2018.

My Creative Process

The Narrative Story: My process begins with creating a written narrative story. Narrative structure is about two things, the content of a story and the form used to tell the story.

Initial Sketch: Based on my narrative, I begin to create numerous sketches that help me discover the inner voice of the piece.

The Photoshoot: The selected sketched narratives are followed by a photo shoot with my subjects. During my initial photo shoot, I typically befriend my models with conversation to gain their confidence, revealing their individual inner fragility.

The Drawing: I draw from a selection of approx. 200 photographs to create a Colored Pencil piece on Grafix® drafting film in a process that I call Drawing by Subtraction.

Drawing by Subtraction

I literally strip away the textured pigment applied to the film using a tiny eraser to expose the hidden layers as it retains a textured surface, followed by adding any detail with the black colored pencil.

This process helps me form and enhance the values of the piece that define objects, create contrast and render the intricate details of light and shadow within the drawing.

I explore working with both sides of the film to create the depth that gives the illusion of distance in the subjects face and their mood.

Click here for pictures of the process.

He has been a member of The Colored Pencil Society of America since 2002 and has served as President, Exhibition Director and Treasurer for the Chicago area chapter.

Biography

Jim Little was born and raised in Calgary, Canada, where he still resides. He enjoyed pencil drawing as a child, but a life of athletics and a career in software buried the pencils for a quarter of a century. After a hip injury led to him taking his first informal drawing lesson on the eve of Calgary's devastating 2013 flood, he has been passionately pursuing the graphite medium ever since. He strives for photorealistic detail with his subject matter, which ranges from the dark to the humorous, and his work often contains hyperrealistic aspects in order to hint at an underlying story.

Artist's Statement

I admit that as a very casual mixed-martial arts viewer, I wasn’t familiar with the women’s strawweight contender - Rose Namajunas - until moments before her championship bout in November, 2017. I knew her opponent was considered to be one of the best in the game, but when I saw Rose’s calm reptilian stare as she stood in the ring staring down her foe, I had a feeling she was going to win. Within the next 5 minutes, she was victorious, and the championship belt was hers.

Most impressively, Rose proved to be a humble and kind person in her immediate post-match interview, so it was easy to become a fan. I admire people who exemplify hard work and humility and often feel a strong pull to make them a drawing subject, which was definitely the case here. For a touch of hyperrealism I was going try reptilian eyes to capture that stare, but after learning more about Rose I warmed up the personality of the eyes into the mammalian realm with a feline look and feel.

Colors of Humanity Art Gallery

"Black & White" 2018 Show

Best of Show

First Place

Second Place

Honorable Mention

Honorable Mention

"Black & White" 2018 Show