Most of my work is in ink, but I also paint in oil and toy around with a variety of media. My ink drawings tend to be obsessively detailed and time consuming, but it is in the small details that I get the most satisfaction when making a work of art.

I usually create two or three large works per year. My drawings and paintings range from the imaginative and metaphorical to portraiture, but usually relate directly to my life in some way.

The drawing I entered in the portrait competition, Jana, took about nine months to complete. Jana is a portrait of my longtime girlfriend and soon to be wife (we are getting married in May). As the closest person to me throughout my artistic development she has appeared in my art many times, and has also influenced many works in which she does not appear.

The drawn portrait is a reclining nude in a metaphorical landscape. I often use nudes in my work the same way that I imagine Hieronymus Bosch to have done so, with the lack of clothing separating the subjects from preconceived cultural, social and economic notions and allowing for the work to be viewed though a more timeless lens.

At the other end of the spectrum is a more traditional oil portrait I did of Jana as a way to capture the subject's true image and personality.

All images © Ben Tolman, 2009