Jayce Hall -- Drawing with words

https://www.jaycehallart.com/ 

I was scrolling through TikTok when I saw a video of an artist from North Dakota drawing realistic portraits using a technique called micrography. His name is Jayce Hall (@jaycehallart on TikTok). He draws by writing the same words or phrases over and over again, overlapping them with each other to create shading and value. For example, Hall’s portrait of J Cole consists of J Cole’s name written over and over again. Another one of his drawings features a moon made out of the word ‘moon’ written in different languages. This is an extremely tedious process–many of his drawings take more than eight hours to complete, and I saw one piece that took him almost two months to finish.

I have never heard of micrography prior to seeing his videos, and I thought it was a really cool concept because it combines writing and art. I think many people enjoy his art because it is made in such a unique way, and I definitely think developing this style required Hall to think outside the box. In his website he writes that he was looking for a way to become recognizable as an artist, and he heard of the micrography style. He did some research and discovered that while many people drew using micrography, there were few who strived for very realistic pieces. Hall chose to invest time in this style in order to push his own limits and see how realistic he could make his pieces. It took him three years of practicing to get to where he is now with this style. Hall also mentions being inspired by a class called “The Foundations of Drawing” at North Dakota State University, in which his professor advised him to find his niche “but not stop there”. Essentially, what Hall took away from this class is similar to what we learned in class–creative ideas arise from the generation of lots of different possibilities. Hall hopes that his work will inspire people to try new styles of art and not give up when it doesn’t turn out right the first time, as he says it took him almost five years of trying new styles to finally find his niche and become an expert at it.