This course is one of many available to First Year Foundation students in the Spring Semester as they refine their artistic interests.

A series of faces, drawn with free-flowing black lines, covers the wall above an easel in KCAI’s Foundation North building. First-year Foundation student Thanat Singhirunnusorn (“Call me Thomas,” he says - Instagram: @thanatsinghirunnusorn) explains how he created them, working from reference photos—20+ headshots of students in the same room.

“We all got them. Sherry [Sparks] told us they didn't really print off well, with the contrast and all,” he says. “So for me, doing those sketches was a way to play around and see, well, I have this reference, what can I do with it? How can I really push it and make it my own?”

He points to his self-portrait. “I wrote ‘helmet’ on it because in that photo my hair just was black. There was no contrast and it looked like I was wearing a helmet. So I would say I’m just being playful and seeing what's possible with the paint.”

Portraits in Progress

This is the only time the students will work from a photograph. “They’ll be painting each other, and we’ll have models twice a week in costumes,” says Sherry Sparks, Associate Professor of Foundation. “They’ll also create a ‘master painting’ by selecting a piece from the collection at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, then placing themselves into it. Last year’s work was amazing.”

At the start of the Spring Semester, Sparks presents examples—rows and rows of portraits—from past students. “I line these up so they can see the different styles. I want them to understand that they can all find their own visual language.” Remember, the course is titled Portraiture: The Art of Portraying.

"This is Portraiture."

It’s a concept that Thomas is already exploring. “I’m always really interested in the human figure. But with portraiture, since all these first portraits are face-forward, it’s very flat. So I kind of question—well, that’s really interesting, you know?—but what can I do to make it more interesting?”

Thomas shares that he was born in Bangkok and has lived in the United States for 13 years. He spent most of his life in Huntsville, Alabama, and now, in Kansas City, he finds the work challenging—in a good way—finding inspiration in the assignments.

“I would say, when I first heard about our first assignment last week, it seemed like a lot. Doing 20 portraits was a really big task, you know? But it makes sense—it’s like, this is portraiture,” he says.

“They already have their bigger portraits,” Sparks says. “On the first day of class, I told them, ‘Paint one portrait today. One day, you have to paint anything you want, any way you want.’ And that’s what the bigger ones are about.”

It’s all part of a process, as Sparks describes it, that helps students find their mode of expression while also honing their technical skills—experimenting with monochromatic color schemes and tackling complex skin tones. “A lot of them can’t afford so many paints, so they use Earth tones. As you can see, those blues are all monochromatic—just blue and white, with maybe a touch of something to darken it.”

“We just want these students to find their way.”

Click here to read more about First Year Foundation at KCAI.