St. Timothy the Apostle -- Original Portrait

This is an original piece taken from a series of portraits inspired by my nieces and nephews. For this piece in particular, I challenged myself to draw the entire figure freehanded, in pen, with no pencil lines to guide my finished line work. What results is an authentic, almost stream-of-consciousness view of my own mental image of this particular saint. 

St. Timothy the Apostle was an intimate friend of St. Paul, and it goes without saying that two of the Pauline epistles were addressed to him. Tradition dates his martyrdom around 97 A.D., and he's seen as an unofficial patron against stomach ailments. 

This portrait is 9x12 inches on 80 lb. sketchbook paper. I exclusively used a Kaweco Sport with an extra fine nib, and the ink of choice was Herbin's "Perle Noir."