I've offered my services to a local funeral home and I've done my first memory portrait.  Neither one of us are earning a profit.  The director is paying for my supplies and giving the portraits to the families as a gift.  The funeral service for this individual is on Sunday so I won't be posting the portrait until then since the family knows nothing about it yet.

This feels good.  My main objective is to create something that will help the families feel a bit of the peace their lost loved one is feeling on the other side.  I wish for them to feel loved when looking at the portrait and I hope to do this for many more families who need it. 

I've taken some pictures of the Paiute Pow Wow in Cedar City, Ut, 2008.  My objective is to use some of these photos as references for portraits.  The dancing and costumes were beautiful.  It was also beautiful to hear the younger children speaking the Paiute language.  Even at other Pow Wows I don't often hear the young ones speak a native tongue.  I think it's rare for the language to be passed down anymore so it was really beautiful to hear.  The actual posed portraits were taken with permission of the individuals in them.  I explained that I wanted to draw some portraits and handed out business cards, but I think some people may have misunderstood and assumed I was selling the portraits.  That's not the case.  I planned to give them to the subjects in the portrait as a gift. The idea to draw Pow Wow portraits was mine alone and instead of paying money for the models, I planned to offer the finished artwork.  If you see anyone you recognize, please let me know- or let them know so we can get in contact. 

This little cutie loves Indiana, as you can see.  I'm making a few changes to ensure the Indiana Jones likeness in the costume area and I should finish this pretty quickly.  I just began with a 3 hour block of time and I'm ready for a break.  Usually this would be all I would get done for a few days, but my children are on vacation with my parents this week so I'll be getting a lot more done!  I have a few in line after this one, but I wish I could have gotten some commission portrait requests for this week because I have all the time in the world!  I know, they will all come at once when I am extra busy with my children.

I am currently working on a portrait of my grandmother. I'm only using a reference photo for the face. There will also be a red hat and fan... and maybe some beads. So far all I have is the hat and my hand is a little cramped from just that! Up close you can really see the detail in the weave. I'm pleased with it. I'm trying my best to bring Grandma's colorful personality into the piece.

June 5, 2008: I put in an hour or so on Grandma and I definitely caught the drawing bug again! It's difficult to stop for the night. I'm so excited with how it's coming along and I feel so much love as if she is watching my every pencil stroke and smiling at me. And how can I not smile and feel so much joy when picking out just the right colors for her bright raspberry lipstick?! I love all her color and I bought a big red hat to remind me to show and share a little color as well.

June 8, 2008:  Another 2-3 hours and I'm really excited about this portrait.  I just can't stop staring at it because it feels so much like I'm looking at Grandma.  I love that about drawn portraits- more so than photographs.  Maybe it's just because I drew it and my heart and soul is laced into the pencil strokes.  I wonder if I'm the only one who feels this way about the portraits I draw of lost loved ones.  If everyone could feel it, what a wonderful gift it could be!

It has been awhile since I've added anything new to my collection.  That doesn't mean I don't have anything.  It's actually just the result of a broken cannon rebel which is currently being worked on in Irvine, CA.  As soon as I get it back in working condition, I will be adding plenty of new images to my galleries as well as putting some up for sale!  Why not have my digital images taken by someone else?  They can charge up to $200 for a single scanned image (not including any prints) because of their expertise and time they put into getting the colors exactly like the original.  At this point, I choose to keep my prices low and use my own learned skills in photoshop to do almost the same thing.  Of course, if anyone needs this extra step to be taken and is willing to pay for it, I will obviously have it done.  So far, no one has asked for prints of their original piece of art, but I am preparing for this by keeping a raw image of each portrait.  But, now that my camera is not in working order, showcasing and record keeping are at a standstill.  Please stay tuned.  I'll be back on track soon.

Elizabeth

I just got started on this a few hours ago.  I need to start drawing portraits that I can use for other things too.  I was invited to join an art show, but I really don't have anything to sell yet.  Everything I've done is a commissioned work for someone else and a bit lacking in creativity.  I AM just starting so I think it is important for me to get the basic ideas down, but I'm starting to reach for that creativity I see in other artist's work.  You know, like the hair becoming some colorful swirly things.  Or is that a whole other style of art?  I don't even know what my style is, but I'm wanting  something beyond just a portrait.  I don't know if I will come up with anything great for the background of this one, but perhaps it could be a step closer to a more creative work of art. 

Then again... My clients ARE paying me to draw their children by using a particular reference.  I'm afraid of the reactions I might get if I let myself color outside the lines a little bit, like when I wanted to draw the four children in a monochome style.  Risks are scary, but I need to take some in order to learn.  hmmmmm.

I'm finally getting around to some commission projects that have been waiting for me.  I should finish this one by the weekend.  I'm actually pleased with how it's turning out.  The reference photos were wallet sizes and one was actually torn in half and then taped back together!  I'm patting myself on the back here because I can see the likeness I'm achieving.  Honestly, I was a little worried about this one considering the quality of the reference photos.  I'm pleased and she'd better like it!

4-25-08

I may be done with this portrait and I just wanted to say what a good idea it was.  I silently questioned it when she asked me to draw her baby picture on the same page as her children's baby pictures.  I drew the mother first which was a challenge and I fear that is a little obvious.  Like I mentioned above, the reference pic was torn in half, but it also was not in color.  At first, I drew her with jet black hair and then found out that it was way too dark.  Hopefully it's not still too dark, but if it is, it can still be remedied at this point. 

When I began drawing the daughter, I started to pick up on the genetic similarities.  I actually began to feel like I was drawing the same person over again.  All three chlidren have the same mouth and dimpled area on the corners, although I don't think I really accented it on the daughter because it wasn't that dark or obvious in the reference picture.  Not only that, but the mother and daughter's expressions are about identical in the mouth.  It was just an observation I had that I thought was precious.  I really like this idea for a portrait.  I love identifying the family traits and what better way to see that than to compare the mother and chlidren's pictures from the same age as if life were timeless.

My good camera is broken so it takes me a lot longer to upload good images to my site now.  This image was taken with my camera phone, but eventually I will get a good image uploaded.  This is a 5x7 prismacolor on bristol board.  I plan to lighten the darks on the hands.  I went a little overboard.

My new collection is entitled, "Child Goggles" (as in beer goggles or sex goggles.)  Changing our point of view can change our whole world and I'm creating a collection of works through the eyes of a child; hence, "child goggles."  The smallest or simplest things can be beautiful.  One adult's snail problem is another child's magical world of irridescent fairy trail makers.

I remember being a child, but I realize that some of us had to grow up too fast and missed out on this magical world you only see as a child (or as a parent remembering your own childhood through your children.)  So, I'm magnifying the magic that my children bring to me and I'm sharing it with everyone.  Stay tuned for a new gallery coming next week!

6/1/08  I've changed the title to a more simple one: "Childhood" series.

I'm still in a strange world trying to accept my grandmother's death, but I am on my way back to reality.  After a week's break I began 2 new pieces instead of working on others I've started or even some commission portraits I have pending.  I am excited to finally be getting some inquiries about commissioned portraits; however, I may not start on them for another week or so.  I'm having surgery next week so I've put quite a few projects on hold for now, except for these 2 little drawings.  I just needed something small and somewhat simple to work on without any pressure- just something to take my mind off of things.  My children will be staying with my parents so I will have a day and a half of quiet before the surgery.  I may actually want to draw on those days!  We'll see.  I will upload a work in progress here and maybe add these 2 pieces to my gallery on Monday or Tuesday.  It will be the begining of a new gallery, "A child's world" and it will include various little drawings of stuff for children.  Mostly I just have fabulous pictures of my children holding various treasures they've found and I realized what a great collection of colored pencil drawings they would make.  It will be a fun collection.