Malaya Woodard: Portrait Artist

About the Artist: Malaya Woodard is a young artist that has the exceptionally rare ability to draw photo-realism portraits of people. She is a self taught artist with no formal art training. Malaya does not use computer assistance or a projector to create her artwork. She simply uses graphite pencils to layout and draw her images, generally using her cell phone to find the images she wants to draw.

About the Art: Malaya often creates images of people that are well known and recognized, such as entertainers, singers, and actors. However, she is also proud to draw everyday people and likes to make commissioned portraits, often for that special gift or a family heirloom. She prefers to work from photographs rather than sitting down with her subjects, primarily due to time constraints from still being in school. She strives to capture the mood, character, and personality of each person she draws.