ALISON KOLESAR
Alison Kolesar is a freelance illustrator based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, who specializes in portraits.
Visit her WEBSITE
Check out her INSTAGRAM
Send her an EMAIL
CREATIVE STATEMENT
I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting portraits. The human face is endlessly fascinating and capturing a likeness is an invigorating challenge. I have drawn portraits for college publications and as private commissions, but I had an intensive period of painting over 100 of them within a few months for a book, America is Immigrants by Sara Novic, published by Random House. Whenever possible I like to have the background of the portrait tell something of the subject’s story. It’s another way in which a hand-drawn portrait can convey so much more than a photograph.
RECENT CLIENTS
- Penguin Random House
- Mt Holyoke College
- Cassandra Hudson
Q&A
Which of your portraits is a personal favorite?
One of my favorite recent portraits is of a young woman against a highly patterned background that was inspired by both a Klimt painting and a recent visit to Morocco.
What is the most important feature to capture?
I don’t believe that there is any one feature in a face that is more important than others to capture—it’s the relationship of all of them that makes a face unique.
What would your dream project be?
I would love to illustrate a book about artists or literary figures where I could join their portraits with backgrounds that reflected their art or something iconic from their writing.