Artist explores facial features in series of sketches

Courtesy of Claire Huber Huber’s sketches often focus on the imperfections in faces.

For the vast majority of people, faces are just another part of our lives. Thousands of them can pass by on a single day, yet they vanish from our minds a second after they disappear - a fleeting moment lost in the everyday shuffle.

For artist Claire Huber, a University of Wisconsin junior, faces can speak volumes. They aren’t just another part of a body - they can be representations of human beings. 

“Looking at the tiny details and intricacies of faces, an expression can tell you so much,” Huber said. 

Partly because of this fascination, Huber began her art in kindergarten, eventually drawing every single person in her class. Huber then focused on drawing impressions of celebrities, noting that high-resolution photos were easily available. Most of her pieces are based on the photos she found online. However, as she honed her craft and her skills began to improve, she yearned for wider pastures. 

“I find much more interest in trying to draw tiny details in peoples’ faces and stuff that might be wrong - asymmetry, little marks - rather than drawing a perfect, airbrushed face,” she said. “In the future, I definitely want to draw more from real life…It’s something I’d love to explore. The feeling of being in real life isn’t the same as looking at a photo, no matter how realistic or high resolution it may be.”

Huber has already made some inroads into moving away from celebrities. Her website already features dozens of original works, with more on the way. According to Huber, her sketches are rarely planned out in full before she begins drawing.

 “A lot of times, I don’t completely plan each piece out before I start it,” she revealed. “I just don’t know what it’ll look like, but it makes more sense as I keep going.”

This idiosyncrasy has led to some interesting artistic decisions on her part, she confessed. One of her most eye-catching sketches, “Bad Hair Day,” features a striking wash of vivid red color on an otherwise monochrome drawing. 

“I did that completely on a whim,” she said, laughing. “Sometimes I’ll just feel like drawing something in red.”

Her tendency for lack of planning had gotten her into trouble before, when she would lose heart halfway through a drawing. Huber went through a phase like this a few years ago, but she found that if she persevered, she would actually be quite pleased with the finished product.

Her distinctive works have begun amassing popularity, both among her friends and the public. In a recent post on the online hub Reddit, her sketches drew acclaim from everyday viewers. Despite the critical success, Huber says she still isn’t sure what she plans to do with them. 

“I don’t know if anything will happen, at all,” she said. “But no matter what happens, if I’m doing it for me, that’s fulfilling enough for myself.”

Whatever may be in store for the future, Huber considers her sketches to be one of the most important parts of her life. 

“There’s almost nothing that I feel so passionately about in my life,” she said, emphasizing that this wasn’t a mere hobby. “If I could drop everything and just draw for the rest of my life, I definitely would.” 

Claire Huber’s collected works can be viewed on her website at www.cehuber.com.