Portraits of people
Eleanor
A graphite portrait of a grandmother commissioned from a single family snapshot for her 80th birthday.
- Medium
- Graphite pencil
- Surface
- Bristol board
- Size
- 30 × 42 cm
- Year
- 2025
- Time
- About 40 hours over three weeks
- Made
- From a photograph
- Subject
- Portraits of people
Eleanor's family sent one photograph: a slightly blurred snapshot taken on a stoep in late afternoon light. The brief was to keep the warmth of that moment and make the likeness sharp enough to hang in the hallway for decades.
Photo commissions like this one are drawn at home between Waterfront days, in layers of graphite, with progress photos sent to the client at every stage. The lace collar was drawn last, thread by thread.