The aim of Daniel’s work is to produce photo-realistic portrait drawings that depict the subject at a specific moment when the photograph was taken. With the use of a photographic referent, he produces pencil, charcoal, colour pencil and pastel drawings of his sitters, including on a large-scale, trying to find oblique details and little nuances such as their posture or gestures to convey their personality. He hopes the viewer will be astonished by the level of detail he tries to capture in his work emphasising the intensity of the sitter’s facial expression through the layering of charcoal or pencil on the paper surface, making his drawings more momentous than a photograph. The use of different angles and a mixture of blurred and detailed close-ups of individual features underneath offer different ‘states’ of the viewer, conveying a sense of self. The viewer will be able to gain a deeper insight into the person being portrayed.

Through experimentation, Daniel wants to explore ways of adding greater meaning to his work through different renderings of subjects including photo-realism and blurring. His goal is to influence the way the viewer can ‘read’ his work through shifting techniques in his portraits, incorporating a sense of a narrative. He also experiments with the production of portraiture and how he can ‘manipulate’ it with ‘off-guard’ facial expressions to show a more relaxed and natural representation. Daniel’s recent body of work focuses on monochromatic colours for both a dramatic and nostalgic feel with smaller panel drawings underneath. The panel drawings underneath accentuate the sitter’s presence because they offer a nuance by extending the timeframe of an interaction, as if they are an animation, emphasised by the manner of representation through blurring or detail.