Featured Artist Tammy Liu-Haller

The clean lines and precise detail of artist Tammy Liu-Haller’s drawings give them a larger than life quality. Enjoy more of her portfolio by visiting her website.

 

 

I was always artistic and spent my first two years in college as an art major. I was painfully shy though, and my lack of self-confidence made me doubt how I could ever earn a living as an artist. Subsequently, I switched majors and continued down other paths. I would not return to art for fifteen years.

 

 

In 2012, I was doing a little drawing and created a family tree that was given to some dear friends at a party. The response was so overwhelming that by the end of the night, they had convinced me I should have my own art business! That was the beginning. Three years later, I quit my other jobs and have never looked back.

 

 

Over time, my work has evolved from highly detailed family tree drawings to the work that you see here today.

 

 

I knew that I wanted animals as my subject matter, but I had been away from art for so long that I had a lot of skills to brush up on and that took some time. I would work on the family tree commissions during the day and practice drawing animals in my spare time. This took a few years. Now my workload consists mostly of dog portrait commissions and my own creations.

 

 

My medium of choice has always been pencil. I love the precision I get with graphite. Recently, I have incorporated charcoal into my work as well. The range of darks that it allows gives me greater freedom. There is something so satisfying about building up a drawing on paper, fine tuning the details until the subject “pops” on the page.

 

 

I am constantly looking for other pencil artists to learn from. I study their work to see how they rendered a particular object or scene. Some of those that inspire me are Robert Longo, Cath Riley and Alan Magee.

 

 

I admire clean pencil pieces that have a lot of details.  When it comes to drawing animals, one of my approaches is to render them on a large scale with a white background. This helps guide the viewer to focus solely on that subject and the beauty I am trying to highlight.

 

 

As someone who has always loved animals, my goal is to use my art to help others. I will frequently donate work to organizations that help rescue, conserve or protect those in danger or in need.

 

 

As my style continues to evolve, I have begun to experiment with trompe l’oeil drawings as a way to add depth to my compositions. I have thoroughly enjoyed drawing them and look forward to making more.

 

Artist Tammy Liu-Haller invites you to follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

 

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