Sophia M. Morris, Acadia Alumni, Artist, and English Major.
Sophia Norris is an emerging freelance artist based in Kingston, Nova Scotia, with a focus on acrylic painting. In addition to her acrylic work, she explores watercolor, graphite, pen and ink, and oil painting. Sophia has exhibited her work at Jack's Gallery in Wolfville on three occasions: Contemporary Nova Scotia Landscapes (2025), The Many Lives of Shelter Cats (2024), and Sharing Our Views (2023). An Acadia University alumna (2023) with a Bachelor of English, she has contributed to community art projects, including a commissioned mural titled “Clouds over the North Mountain in Spring” (2023), created alongside fellow artist Siara Silveira for Acadia's Kinesiology department. In 2024, she also participated in the Finding Our Fallen project, a collaborative group mural celebrating Acadia University’s archaeological MIA program. She received two art awards while at Acadia, namely, the Judith Jane Leidl Award in Visual Art (2020), and the Margaret Ann McKeen MacKechnie Scholarship in Painting (2023). She was also a teacher’s assistant for Judith Leidl during a floral watercolor workshop for the Acadia Lifelong Learning program back in 2024, where she helped demonstrate how to paint floral subjects.
Four weeks in total (once a week for 4 weeks), 10am – 12 pm Thursdays. Jan 15, 22, 29; Feb 5.
1. Proportional techniques – Showing how to draw proportionally using the basic shape technique, the basic facial proportion rule, and measuring by eye or sighting. The goal is to draw out the basis for a portrait by using tools and precise techniques.
2. Three-dimensionality (Bring it to life!) – Showing how to add dimension and depth by employing the gray scale through a variety of graphite pencils (2B, 4B, and 6B), blurring, and blending. The goal is to bring depth and dimension to our previously drawn basis.
3. Learning to freehand draw – We will become acquainted with the feeling of drawing portraiture without the use of tools by working from a live model: ourselves! We will practice and train our hand-eye coordination skills by warming up with blind-contour drawings, before looking at ourselves in a mirror or photo and utilizing the techniques we’ve been introduced to.
4. Stylized Studies (Illustrative Portraits) – Showing how to approach portraits from a more stylized and illustrative approach via graphite pencils and/or pen and ink, with less of a focus on realism, and more of a focus on creating depth and dimension through texture and pattern. The goal is to create portraits that utilize any techniques we’ve learned thus far, while having fun with the overall creative process.
