Artist Heather Rooney

After the first portrait I drew in my high school art class, I became captivated with the challenge of photorealistic drawing and the meticulous attention to detail that it required. The labor-intensive commitment to photorealism caused me to feel driven to continue improving my technique. In college I spent a majority of my free time drawing portraits with colored pencil. Being in the age of growing social media platforms, I decided to share my lengthy process online through time-lapse videos. I began drawing and filming portraits of people that a broad audience would be familiar with, including celebrities, athletes, and public figures. To my surprise, my work began to attract a large audience, with videos surpassing 1 million views. Along with my studies as an art student, I continued doing this throughout my college career. This generated a large global audience for my work, with over 1 million subscribers.

I received my B.A. in Studio Art at Emmanuel College, in the vibrant city of Boston, Massachusetts. 

See more from Heather on her website.