Kenneth Laird's Portrait Portfolio

This is a hub showcasing my work for those that follow me. I am running out of room on FACEBOOK so I am storing my favorite works here. I am going to show some early works that many of you have never seen. Please notice all sorts if art related items that will appear on this hub. 

I have included some pics of my own drawings done in my life and my career. I guess I am most known by so many of my friends as a pencil artist. I have always rendered well. I am still trying to master drawing which is more like jazz music. I am very technical but not very loose The first piece shown is still one of my personal favorite drawings I have ever done when my nephew was three years old. "Stephan" graphite 19" x 30" was a labor of love all done. I did this rendering when my nephew Stephan was three years old. I did this piece with nothing but a really nice set of graphite pencils and a kneaded eraser. My large drawings of actually started in 1989 when I a life sized self portrait of myself. I am not that happy with the piece and I think much of the drawing was done impatiently. This piece did get me a scholarship to The Memphis College of Art. My profile picture is also a self-portrait I did while in art school in Savannah Ga. The next portrait I did while at MCA was of Ricky Henderson and I did another portrait of Nolan Ryan but I really cannot say I did a really good portrait till I did one for a friend named Jimmy Pike. Pike approached me about doing a drawing of his son Caleb. Caleb was just about to turn three when Jimmy and I took him to the park to take pictures of the boy playing his favorite sport by kicking the football. Mr. Pike sent him in a white t-shirt and engineer striped overalls. The contrast was incredible. This piece was my second life sized drawing.

My next portrait I was proud of was of William Osteen done for a community art exhibition. I really felt I was gaining good control of the medium and also how to control lights and darks and also how to produce a drawing without using alot of smudging. In 1993 I went to work for a company doing package design and other than goofing around with another self-portrait copying Mark Fredrickson's style for a self-promotion poster.

After I left this job I did not draw for almost two years then in 1998 I took on a huge assignment. I donated my time to do the grand door prize at my high school class reunion. I basically agreed to do a portrait of a classmates child or children drawn from a hat by the reunion chairperson. A beautiful eight year old african-american child named Dominia was my subject chosen. After a long departure from drawing I took on the assignment. After months of struggling to get back in the saddle. I completed the drawing and to my surprise it won second in the nation at the National Drawing Exhibition at Hilton Head Island.

After doing several paintings and drawings I will then say my next best portrait was done for graduate school. It was a postcard design for S.C. tourism. I chose a subject I had seen may times a older african-american lady fishing off a bridge.