Self Aware

Graphite & Charcoal on Paper

This two portrait series explores vulnerability within femininity through stillness and restraint. One figure turns away, revealing her back while withholding her face. The other faces forward, holding the viewer’s gaze without offering expression. Placed together, the portraits present vulnerability as something that exists without performance or explanation.

The figures feel caught in private moments, neither fully closed off nor fully exposed. The turned body suggests hesitation and self protection, while the forward facing figure suggests emotional exposure without dramatization. Vulnerability emerges through posture, gaze, and what is withheld, rather than through overt emotion.

Working in both charcoal and graphite allowed me to explore vulnerability through contrast rather than limitation. The softness and depth of charcoal sit alongside the precision of graphite, mirroring the tension between exposure and control within the figures themselves. Moving between the two materials creates subtle shifts in texture and weight, reinforcing the emotional complexity of the portraits and the balance between what is revealed and what is restrained.