Amy Kour is an artist that I have looked up to for years because of her beautiful art pieces and unbelievable technical skills. She creates realistic portraits of people, usually only including their face. Her ability to capture light and personality in her pieces is inspiring and jaw-dropping. She often accentuates warm tones in her paintings and the colors are always vibrant. Her realism is slightly exaggerated in facial proportions, creating an elegant and dramatic feel. She does most of her art traditionally on watercolor paper with watercolor paints. Her portraits are often accompanied by blank backs which helps the portrait pop due to the contrast.

The paintings to the right are examples of Kour’s work. Kour posts her work online and has a popular Instagram page where her art can be found. Kour tends not to post the names of her pieces which almost adds a mystery to her portraits. 

 I have tried to incorporate her techniques into my own style, and it has helped me grow as an artist. Specifically, I have started using more realistic color palettes and textures to emulate her while still keeping the facial features of the painting slightly exaggerated. I also have tried exaggerating warm tones and using more intense lighting. Kour often keeps her art clean and crisp, which I have had trouble with in the past, so integrating that into my own work has helped my art style to be less muddled. Keeping her artistic approach in mind, I created a digital painting of my own. 

 When creating a piece directly in Kour’s style, I’m forced to think about shading, color work and keeping everything clean and bright. I add more vivid colors in areas where I would not usually. This brings more life and depth to the drawing. I often have a difficult time using shading to deepen portraits, but using her art as a reference gives me a greater understanding of places to darken and how to create such a dramatic effect. I believe there is a strong quality difference between the portraits I drew keeping her style in mind and the portraits I drew prior. 

My greatest takeaway from this experience was definitely that using different techniques, though it may be outside of my comfort zone, ultimately helped me grow as an artist. I’m excited to keep creating artwork using elements that are inspiring from other artists’ pieces.