Bethany Stoppard

I am an artist from Derbyshire and moved to Cambridge to study Fine Art where I have  evolved my work into something that I really enjoy doing, with my main media being coloured pencil to create portraits.

I create coloured pencil portrait drawings on paper, using lots of bold and bright colours in an abstract style. I have used elemental and seasonal colours in my work, taking inspiration from outdoor surroundings referencing this in my portraiture. The use of these colours shows the progression of time in my pictures as well as the juxtaposition of opposite seasons and how the light and shade changes.

I draw my friends and family to show this period in my life and the community around me. More recently, I have started to use the relationships with the people in my portraits to inspire me and use colour more intuitively, mainly bright colours, which represent the people I draw. The action of drawing people is enjoyable because it captures the spirit of those important to me.

To make my work, I take posed portraits, selfies and natural unposed photos of my friends and family which I then draw from. To choose the colour palettes for these drawings, I pick out colours that I feel represent the person in the drawing and colours which make me happy while drawing.