Illustration — Kat Halko

Digital Portraits

Charlotte

Charlotte is a very happy baby. All preliminary sketches were done on paper with charcoal during a babysitting session. The challenges with this piece was learning to work with a model that doesn’t understand or accept directions and nailing the proportions of a baby face. It helps that she’s a cutie.

Maggie’s Portrait

Created on procreate, this is a digital portrait of my good friend Maggie. The reference was shot using high contrast lighting which resulted in cast shadows on her face. In the end, I decided not to include most of them and only kept a few.

Emiliegh’s Portrait

Created on procreate. This is a study of my friend Emiliegh, the challenge of lighting came up during the block in phase.

Tom Hardy

This piece was commissioned online from an avid Tom Hardy fan. The challenge came from illustrating his facial hair because the texture is much different to normal hair and it was a new obstacle.

Merry Go Round

Abandoned Merry Go Round

This is a pen and ink drawing that would later inspire my “Merry Went Round” project. I really tried to play with textures on this piece and distinguishing the background from the foreground using light.

Anatomical Self Portrait

Watercolor and pastel on watercolor paper

Anatomical Self Portrait

Possibly the largest work I’ve done, I focused on keeping a narrow color palette and conveying a sense of drama in a still image.

“A Young Girl Reading” Study

Master Copy Study

Using faber castel pastels, this is a master study of Jean Honore Fragonard’s piece, “A Young Girl Reading”

Colored Portrait

Pitt oil pencil on prepared watercolor paper

Color self portrait

Using the classic technique of sanguine, ochre, white, and black on tea stained watercolor paper, this is a self portrait with a focus on hatching as a shading method.