Commissioned artwork to celebrate the release of Kalyn’s new single ‘On the Line’!

I met Kalyn on Instagram a few years ago. She lives in the US and I live in Aus. The caption on her bio at the time was “Hey, you found me!” and I instantly felt like I’d stumbled upon someone special. I was immediately attracted to her down-to-earth and quick-witted captions on her photos. She’s hilarious and lovely and her enjoyment of the little things in life is obvious. However, what really got me to follow her were the videos of her singing that she’d post in between her spot-on commentary. She has a beautiful voice and soul and for whatever reason, she followed me back. We started mutually liking all of each others posts and eventually, after a year or so, she found me on Facebook and added me. That first morning (her night) we talked for hours and realised how much we have in common. Now she’s one of my favourite people in the world, so of course when she said she was releasing a new single I wanted to do something for her.

This artwork was created based on a promotional photo for Kalyn’s new album. Using Staedtler mechanical pencils from 0.3-0.9mm, I was able to add small details in the face and filigree of the chair. Drawing on a small scale meant paying more attention to simplifying areas to make the most impact. I often find drawing on a smaller scale more challenging because if something is out by even a millimetre it becomes very obvious, in this case though, simple shading worked most effectively and I focused on adding only the necessary suggestions of detail (such as in the coat and face) rather than getting too caught up in having everything photo-exact.

This has been one of my favourite artworks to date and I’m so glad to have the opportunity to know and draw this beautiful lady. Get to know her as well:

Like Kalyn’s page on Facebook

Listen and download on: Spotify, Bandcamp, SoundCloud and iTunes 

(Her instagram is @trillvanill, I promise it’s worth your time.)