In April 2014, a 16-year-old from Claremorris in County Mayo won the overall prize in Ireland's Texaco Children's Art Competition with a drawing many people refused to believe was hand-made. Shania McDonagh's portrait, titled Coleman, shows an elderly man's deeply lined face in such fine detail that it is regularly mistaken for a black-and-white photograph. It is in fact a pencil drawing, which she spent about a month completing.
Shania, then a student at Mount St Michael Secondary School in Claremorris, was no newcomer to the competition. According to The Irish Times, she had won first prize in her age group for the previous four years, and in 2014 she took both the 16 to 18 category and the overall award, which came with a prize of 1,500 euros.
The drawing that won: Coleman
The portrait fills the frame with a single face. The man wears a flat cap and a striped scarf, and he is caught mid-smile, a few teeth showing, eyes narrowed with amusement. Almost every part of the surface is covered in texture: the deep furrows across his forehead, the fan of creases at the corners of his eyes, the soft sag of skin along the jaw and the coarse weave of the cap.
Shania worked from a photograph published in Vanishing Ireland, a book series by the historian Turtle Bunbury with photographs by James Fennell that records the faces and memories of older people in rural Ireland. The man in the portrait was not named in the coverage, and "Coleman" is the title of the drawing; it should not be taken as a confirmed name for the sitter.
Choosing an older face was a smart artistic decision. Wrinkles, stubble and weathered skin give a draughtsperson hundreds of small edges and tonal shifts to describe, and getting them right is what convinces the eye that it is looking at a photograph. A smooth young face would have given far fewer opportunities to show that level of control.
What the judges said
The judging panel was chaired by Professor Declan McGonagle, then director of the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. He described Shania's achievement as establishing her "as one of the most talented artists of her generation", and suggested she could go on to become a leading Irish portrait artist.
That is high praise from a competition that sees a huge number of entries. Prize-giving took place at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin, home of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, where Shania was one of more than a hundred young winners honoured that year.
Seen next to the artist, the framed drawing shows its real scale: the face is drawn large, which is part of what makes the detail so striking. Working big also leaves little room to hide mistakes, because every mark is visible up close.
About the Texaco Children's Art Competition
The Texaco Children's Art Competition was established in 1955 and is one of Ireland's long-running children's art events. By 2019 it had reached its 65th edition and was attracting more than 20,000 entries a year from schoolchildren across the country, judged in age-based categories, with one overall winner chosen from the top entries.
For decades, the competition has been a first public stage for young Irish artists. Many schools encourage pupils to enter, and the prize-giving gives children the experience of seeing their work recognised in public. Shania's repeated success shows how steady practice, year after year, can build towards a breakthrough piece.
How a pencil drawing can look like a photograph
Photorealistic drawing, sometimes called hyperrealism, depends less on talent in the abstract than on patience and a precise understanding of tone. A few principles explain why Coleman reads like a photo:
- A full tonal range. Graphite pencils come in grades from hard (H), which give light, crisp lines, to soft (B), which give deep blacks. Realistic drawings use the whole range, from bright paper-white highlights to near-black shadows in the folds of skin and cloth.
- Edges, not outlines. In real life there are no black lines around a face. Realist artists describe form through the edges where light meets shadow, some sharp, some soft.
- Texture built in layers. Skin, wool and stubble each need a different kind of mark. Artists layer strokes, blend some areas smooth and lift out highlights with an eraser.
- Accurate proportions first. Before any shading, the placement of eyes, nose and mouth has to be exact, often checked with a grid or careful measurement from the reference photo.
A month of work on one portrait is typical for this level of finish. The time goes not into the big shapes but into the thousands of tiny transitions that the viewer never consciously notices, yet instantly misses when they are wrong.
Why the portrait still resonates
Viral posts in 2014 focused on the "it's not a photo" surprise, and that reaction is fair: the technical skill is astonishing for a teenager. But the drawing also works as a portrait. The man's expression is warm and mischievous, and the time spent on every crease feels like a form of respect for a long life lived outdoors.
It also connects to the purpose of Vanishing Ireland itself, which set out to record a generation whose way of life was disappearing. A young artist spending weeks studying one old man's face is a quiet meeting between those two generations.
Tips for young artists inspired by Coleman
- Draw from life or from good, sharp reference photos, and credit the photographer when you use someone else's picture.
- Start with a light, accurate outline and build darker values slowly; it is easier to darken than to lighten.
- Practise small studies of single features, such as an eye or a hand, before tackling a whole face.
- Enter local and national competitions. Shania's overall win came after several years of entering, learning and improving.
Sources: The Irish Times: Pencil portrait wins Texaco art prize for Mayo teenager; Limerick Post: Limerick talent tops at Texaco (competition history); Wikipedia: Turtle Bunbury (Vanishing Ireland). The story was also covered by Independent.ie and shared by Viral Nova via Higher Perspective. Portrait by Shania McDonagh.
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