By Roan Enright ’13
THE ROUNDUP

Tim Stoa ’13grabs his brown pastel and smears the soft color across his paper in hopes of perfecting the highlights in his newest portrait of Danica Patrick.

This scene has become a common occurrence for Stoa who has been a part of Ms. Debbie Cronin’s drawing class since freshman year.

During the summer of his incoming freshmen year, Stoa took Intro to Fine Arts in hopes to free up space on his schedule and be able to take a Study Hall, but he decided to take his first drawing class instead, which he said changed his view on art forever.

“During my sophomore year, my interest really flourished when I took Ms. Cronin’s 2D Advanced Drawing class and 2D Painting,” Stoa said.

“Tim’s ability to use a lot of different media (color and black and white) has expanded tremendously from freshman year,” Ms. Cronin said.

Recently Stoa has been working avidly on portraits of any type of person using primarily pastels, which has become his signature style.

“I am always drawn to art that pushes boundaries in my work,” Stoa said. “My style reflects my taste which is something bold, dramatic, colorful and new.”

With this mentality, Stoa now likes to focus on different aspects of people like their skin tone and body composition to show the viewer different kinds of emotion rather than working on inanimate objects.

Stoa also said his portfolio typically hones in on interpreting the human body and that it varies from people standing, jumping, high fiving or anything that shows positive emotion.

“Tim is also extremely creative in his ideas of putting things together and thinking of solutions to technical problems.”  Ms. Cronin said

He said he uses art to detach himself from the world and just focuses on himself for an hour a day.

“When I put in my headphones and look at my reference I begin feeling what the person in the reference was feeling at the time,” Stoa said.

But when Stoa moves past his phase in his style he hopes to retain his drawing roots, which were drawing different types of architecture.

“I have always been an avid fan of architecture and as a result, when I first started drawing, I was primarily focused on architectural drawings and items that portrayed clean line,” Stoa said. “So there is a good chance that I will continue to draw in the future.”

Stoa’s recent work of Danica Patrick was displayed at the March 2 First Friday art show as part of the Summit on Human Dignity.