In my spare time I really like to explore drawing and painting my own face and body. I really struggle with getting likeness in portraits and feel that this may help a bit. I like to explore themes of transness and the struggle of being trans in my own experience in a lot of these works. This category also includes work done as practice while not in classes.

The self portrait mid process on a black and white carpeted floor. There is the full sized painting next to color studies in a smaller sketchbook. The painting itself is of a figure surrounded by hands reaching towards them.

Giant Self Portrait with Hands

A mid-process picture of the self portrait painting. It is in the beginning stages of the underpainting, zoomed in on the face cradled by hands. It shaded in monochrome blue.

A watercolor painting of a person cradling their face with their hands as many other hands reach towards them. The figure is brightly colored, and as the hands gert further from the figure, the hands lose that color.

22 x 30 in, Watercolor, Summer 2025

A circle with a painting of a hand holding an apple by the stem. The hand and apple are brightly rendered in watercolor, with blue shadows.

Summer hand practice

During the year, I had a professor tell me to go crazy with drawing hands over the summer. Hands are something I’ve always enjoyed painting, so I started doing more watercolor paintings of them. It grew into a series that is still expanding as I write this!

A watercolor painting of a hand holding a green apple, with yellow leaves in the top right corner.

A watercolor painting of a hand holding a red apple, with yellow leaves emerging from the bottom left corner.

A watercolor painting of a holorful hand reaching out towards the viewer.

A colorful watercolor painting of a hand emerging from the bottom of the frame and tensing.

A watercolor painting of a hand holding a red apple by the stem.

A watercolor painting of a hand holding up a green apple.

A Frida Kahlo inspired self portrait of Mauro. He has dark hair and eyes and a neutral, almost tired expression. He is wearing a black turtleneck and his hair is slicked back. The background has bright green foliage.

Frida Kahlo Inspired Portrait for Art History

I feel like this is probably one of the only self portraits I’ve ever done to really capture my likeness without transferring a sketch from a traced image. I didn’t have to redo the sketch a million times and the likeness carried through to the end, which doesn’t often happen for me. The background was a definite struggle and I still don’t like it very much, but it works as a background. This was for a group project with my friends Kelis and Cat. I’ve started experimenting with Sakura Koi watercolors for more realistic skin tones since they’re very different to work with than my usual Schmincke palette.

The final pieces all together after being digitally collaged and printed.

Mauro's final self portrait after being collaged together and edited.

The brown underpainting in watercolor for the skin tones.

A process picture of the brown underpainting.

The brown underpainting plus black for the hair and shirt.

A process picture right before the final step.

The self portrait without the background.

“Never Enough”

This piece is a self portrait about how, even after getting top surgery, I still struggle with gender dysphoria. It seems that now that my main concern wasn’t there anymore, I just found more things to be self conscious about. I attempted to use the grid method for this one, though the proportions were still very off so I digitally fixed it in the final. The original on paper still has weird proportions, but I don’t think it looks bad. I painted in blue and red first and then added the yellow to add more interest. This work is entirely in watercolor.

A watercolor painting of a figure reaching out, their arm obscuring the bottom half of their face. Their eyes are surrounded by red, with a trail of red tears going down their face. They have scars on their chest, also bleeding red trails.

The sketch for the painting to the left zoomed in on the face. A pencil sketch of a figure reaching out with their arm obscuring the bottom half of their face. They have short flowing hair and appear angry.

A process picture of the painting zoomed in on the face. A figure reaches out, their arm obscuring the bottom half of their face. Their skin in this stage is shaded with blue and red for accents. Their expression is neutral in this stage.

“Freedom”

I made this piece after getting top surgery, and though it was technically for a class, I view it as a very personal work to me. At this time I was finally feeling like I was able to go out and be confident in my skin in just a tshirt, rather than needing to wear oversized sweatshirts to cover myself up. I painted this with watercolor and added accents in colored pencil.

A figure stands central in the composition. They are in only long socks and shorts. They lean back with their hands at their side, cradling stars in each hand. A larger star obscures their face, but their head is leaned back, looking to the sky.

“Stretch”

This is one of my only oil paintings, since I didn’t really have the space to do any more. The sketch was done in paint which I almost never had done before, so it changed a lot since that step. I tried the grisailles method and liked it a lot, and have since started implementing it in my watercolor paintings in a similar way. This painting is about my struggle with sensory issues as an autistic person, and how sometimes I feel like there’s something else in my skin.

The greyscale underpainting with fixed proportions.

The original sketch in burnt umber, with slightly off proportions.

A study of the materials, as this was my first oil painting.