Author Archives: Kelsey's Art

About Kelsey's Art

Expressing life through art is everything. The pencil portraits, paintings, and other work I make attempt to show the reality of the world we live in. I have been making art for the past 9 years mainly through school art classes as a hobby. I have recently become more serious and have opened my work for commission and sale. I work with pencil, acrylic, scratchboard, and stippling. I want people to get an emotion from my work that makes them think about their day-to-day lives.

Howard

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This pencil portrait represents the effects on the individual with mental decline with age. Alzheimer’s, dementia, and overall cognitive decline are diseases that have affected our parents, grandparents, friends, family, and someday maybe us. Their identity is often fading and lost to those around them, but who they are as an individual will always remain. This piece is for my grandfather, who is featured in this photo. I hope to continue to bring awareness and discussion to Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other mental diseases. (2022)

What’s Left Behind

Posted by Kelsey's Art

A self-portrait to show the effect of words. I posted a poll on my Instagram for people to submit words that people have called them. I added these to the background of the work. The words are faded because they have been said to us in the past. However, they don’t disappear completely. What you say to people matters. Whether behind their back or to their face, words leave scars. Be kind to one another. (2021)

Burdened

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This is the first pencil portrait I made in early high school. I chose this photo from Google because of her striking features and expression. I wanted to make sure that the sadness came through in this piece. I learned a lot about value transition, material texture, and pushing the values as dark as possible. (2015)

Two Little Birds

Posted by Kelsey's Art

this is one of my largest paintings. We were given a page out of an old art teacher’s artwork replica poster booklet. We got to paint over the large artwork posters. I chose pieces to work on clothing texture and form with paint. I chose a triadic color scheme and stuck mainly to purple and blue with orange as an accent. I struck out the faces of the mother and the children to make the piece my own. I find it creates a dynamic between the softness of the figures and the harshness of the face. It shows there is more to the story than just a mother holding her children. (2020)

Coffee Break

Posted by Kelsey's Art
Water based oil paint replica with a twist

For one of my classes, we were tasked with an Edward Hopper forgery. I chose to do his Nighthawks painting because of the striking colors. I wanted to make the piece my own so I marked out the faces of the people. I think it adds a mystery to the painting. Who are those people? Do they know each other? Why are they there? (2020)

Monkey See

Posted by Kelsey's Art

I enjoy using existing images and manipulating them to be more interesting. Here I took a photo of a monkey and made him smoke a bubble pipe. This piece was created on scratchboard by lifting the dark pigment off the sheet with a pointed tool. It was my first time using scratchboard as a media and was created in four hours as a result of procrastination. I will definitely have to use this media again. (2020)

Aether

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This is the first piece of the series. It is one of the mixed media works I have done. It was made using acrylic paint on a printed photo. This was the first time I have done something like this and I had no idea if the paint would even work with the photo. It was fun to work with the reality of the photos to create a new one. Here my sister is on a bridge in Cleveland but I changed it to show a bus stop in space. Art gives immense possibilities to reality. (2021)

Orphan

Posted by Kelsey's Art

We had a project in high school to create a portrait for a chosen orphan from Africa. The artwork we made was shipped to them. This was the first artwork I ever created using the stippling technique. It posed many challenges as I couldn’t undo the marks I made. The hair of the child was replicated with watercolor and pen. A few months after sending away our art, we got to see a video of the art being delivered. This was when I realize art could be bigger than myself. Art could have meaning for the people looking at it or receiving it. (2015)

Behold the Eye

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This was one of my very first pencil artworks. We got to take pictures of our own eyes and do whatever we wanted with them. This was also the beginning of my fascination with wooden art figures. Like many of my works, this one has to do with control. Who is in control? Who is pulling your stings? Our eyes are the reflectors of what we see but also a window into what is unseen. (2015)

Bruised

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This is what happens when you procrastinate exams and get new felt tip pens. My first and (currently) only color stippling art I’ve made. Pen has a very limited and challenging color pallet. It is not forgiving and blending is the overlap of dots. The bruised face offered variety and depth of color to really try the color felt tip pens. I hope to do more of this someday. (2018)

Head Stuck in Space

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This acrylic painting represents the things that hold us back from reaching our dreams. The astronaut is held back by the straight jacket just as we are held back by the many things life throws at us. Space is one of my favorite things to paint. As a perfectionist, it gives me a chance to break free from that and go with what feels right. working with colors on a black background gives different challenges to work with. Transparency of the past while creating bold colors is difficult. I found layering and adding white to be the best tool. (2020)

Joker

Posted by Kelsey's Art

Thousands and thousands of dots were the makings of this project. A felt tip pen was used for the black dots that filled in the negative values of the sad size of the face. A white charcoal pencil was used for the white dots to fill in the positive values of the happy face. This works the complexity of emotion. We are not just happy or just sad. Our emotions are changing a flowing into one another. I love stippling but this piece pushed my patience and concentration. (2016)

Cracks

Posted by Kelsey's Art

We are all just holding a mirror of how we want people to see us. In reality, we are cracked and hiding how we really feel. Be kind to others because you never know what they are struggling with. Most importantly, be kind to yourself. You don’t always have to hold up the mirror. Sometimes letting others in and asking for help is what you need. This pencil portrait was my first ever attempt at hair and only my second time shading faces. I’ve grown a lot since this piece in texture and forms. (2015)

Time Warp

Posted by Kelsey's Art

Day in and day out. Sometimes we get stuck like a mouse on a wheel. This piece is a caution about being content with the same thing every day. Without creativity and fun, you aren’t really living. You are becoming a puppet on repeat. It is a pencil drawing with coffee stains for the background. (2016)

Joy

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This was my first attempt at charcoal many years ago. I use a ruler as a stamp for the background and played around with black and white charcoal to create gradients. The technique I used was very different than my pencil drawings. I had to utilize much more physical blending and moving the media. It was almost a blend between pencil and paint. (2015)

Strings Attached

Posted by Kelsey's Art

This pencil piece was made to be a visual representation of the words we speak. Although it feels like strings are being pulled to make you say something, the person responsible for pulling the strings is still yourself. No matter what the forces are that make you feel like saying something, ultimately you have the power over your own words. (2015)