What is it?

Depicted is a portrait of Nikola Tesla surrounded by blue lightning. Tesla was a total genius who was a master of understanding electricity, engineering, physics and more.

I based the drawing off this photograph of Tesla. I wanted to make it look like he was emanating powerful, dynamic energy.

Why?

I wanted to make an artwork that would give people something intellectually substantial to study. That “something” is Nikola Tesla and his works of genius.

Tesla, not Edison, is the true father of electricity and he pioneered the field in numerous, amazing ways. I highly encourage anyone who is even remotely interested in Tesla and his work to do their own research on the topic.

How?

I start the drawing with a very basic outline of Tesla.

I then add some facial details. Focusing on the eyes or any particular part of the face gives me a good foundation to base the rest of the details around.

I finish up the rest of the details. After I’m satisfied with the graphite part of this drawing, I erase the graphite where I want the electricity to be and add the lightning effect using blue colored pencils.

Finally, I darken some areas, mostly his suit.

Conclusion

Being that this is a portrait in my series of inspiring people, there will definitely be more pieces like this. So far, I have in this series Terence Mckenna, Alan Watts, and Steve Jobs. I had fun making this piece, the excitement of watching a piece of paper go from being completely blank to looking like a living being is hard to come by.

Thanks for reading! If you’re interested, this drawing is available as prints, posters, and other merchandise available here.