Hendrix.
Ballpoint pen on paper (black + colored Bic)

This is Jimi Hendrix, and it’s the first pen portrait I chose to sit down and actually draft after I got out of the hospital the first time—when I was in remission from Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

The whole time I was dealing with that, I kept thinking about what I wanted my drawings to look like on the other side of it. Not just “keep drawing,” but level up. The goal was to start integrating colored Bic pens in a way that felt intentional—building depth, adding energy, pushing contrast—without losing the discipline that ballpoint demands.

I’d used different colors before, sure, but they were more like separate experiments. This was the first one where the colors were working together. The purple isn’t just “color.” It’s atmosphere. It’s vibration. It’s that electric edge around him, like the drawing is humming a little.

And Hendrix just made sense for that moment. He’s always been a huge creative inspiration for me—fearless, loud, exacting, completely his own. Doing him first felt like planting a flag: I’m back. I’m still here. And I’m not done evolving.

-GIFTED-