Portrait of Stephen Alonzo Jackson and Other Artworks for Frats

Making t-shirts with custom designs for college fraternities is another idea of Buffalo Jackson’s management purposed to satisfy their young male customers who gravitate towards classic masculine values in fashion opposing today’s fashion trends aggressively promoting men with metrosexual and sleek appearance. A portrait of Stephen Alonzo Jackson was the first artwork created by me for Buffalo Jackson Trading Co’s new series of frat t-shirts.

I never knew about Stephen Alonzo Jackson until Buffalo Jackson commissioned me to create his portrait. Due to this company I learn a lot of things about the United States history. And I am now aware of Stephen Alonzo Jackson being one of the most important men for the Kappa Sigma fraternity as he managed to transform Kappa Sig from a struggling local fraternity at the University of Virginia into a strong international Brotherhood.

Stephen Alonzo Jackson is possibly the most important man in the history of the Kappa Sigma fraternity

I actually love the idea of college fraternities and sororities which we do not have in my country. I believe it feels good to belong to a community, a club which only people sharing the same traditions and common virtues can join. It must be nice to feel the team spirit which helps people withstand competition and encourage support for those brothers in need and troubles. College fraternities and sororities seem to be a powerful institutions making students’ life even more exciting and saturated with positive experience.

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No wonder Buffalo Jackson Trading Co. appeals to college fraternities when advocating their traditional rugged gentleman muscularity expressed in lifestyle and fashion. A lot of fraternity members are prone to respect traditions of past generations and, being conservatives, they are less easily enticed into new fashion trends shifting far from a classic image of a man.

Other Artworks for Colledge Fraternities

The portrait of Stephen Alonzo Jackson is not the only artwork ordered by Buffalo Jackson Trading Co. for fraternities. I also made a few drawings featuring frat crests and badges. You can see some examples below:

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Drawing an Ink Portrait from a Picture

Today I would like to tell you about my recent portrait assignment. It was another portrait-from-photo commission. The portrait was created for a Communication Consultant Andrew Hennigan, based in Aix en Provence, France, and Stockholm, Sweden. The man teaches people how to communicate properly and professionally. Not many people know that good communication skills are in fact the core of a success almost in any sphere of today’s life beginning from an individual’s private life to big companies’ popularity and recognition in their market niche. Decent communication skills are far from being something people are born with. Actually, I believe there are more people who constantly face annoying and life-ruining problems while communicating with other people than those who are able to speak clearly, convincingly and eloquently. A lot of people cannot verbalize their thoughts, some have fear of public speaking, and others do not like how their voices sound or they are self-conscious about their appearance. Therefore if you experience these or similar problems and want to overcome those difficulties or you just want improvements in your communication abilities, I believe Andrew Hennigan is the man who can be of assistance, especially after I noticed how good he is in expressing his thoughts in multiple languages.

But let’s get back to the portrait. As usually it was an ink portrait drawn using cross-hatching technique on an A4 paper sheet. You are welcome to watch the video below to see the whole drawing process, although I had to speed up the video in order to upload it on Youtube. Andrew was very kind to allow showing the portrait and his photograph I had used as a reference. And I hope he will love the original I sent him and will find a proper usage of the high resolution digital copy of the portrait. Thanks for hiring me, Andrew!

Pen and Ink Portrait Drawn from a Photograph (pic + video)

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