Faith in the Face of Despair

When I took AP 2D Art in high school, I chose to do portraits and figure drawings of people that I knew for my concentration. But going beyond that, I wanted the drawings to say something about the person; things they like to do, their beliefs, and for my artist friends I even used their favorite medium for their portrait.

This is a portrait of my friend Nikki. Nikki is a very spiritual person, and at the time I did this piece she was going through some tough times involving someone she cared about. Despite all that was going on in her life, Nikki remains full of faith and love for God. The idea of seeing Christ's hand laid on her shoulder but not seeing his face is: You may not be able to see God, but that doesn't mean He's not there, and it doesn't mean that you can't feel Him when He's there to comfort you and offer you His help.

To be completely fair, this doesn't look much like Nikki at all, and as a matter of fact, I think the face looks kind of funny in general. LOL. But I feel it is a good piece overall.

Medium: Prismacolor color pencils, background in chalk pastel