A Fresh Start in a New Year

If you know me, you know 2024 wasn't particularly kind to me and my family. In fact, that's largely why I'm here--it's time for me to build my portrait artist dreams into something more weighty and tangible than they have been up to now.

January has been dedicated to getting the ball rolling: building the website, gathering my existing works to show my portfolio, starting to paint, and beginning a long-overdue portrait of my son, as well as working part time at my "day job" and homeschooling my littles. My days are very full, in the best way, but nonetheless, there are challenges.

When it comes down to it, I have to do most of my work after dark--sunset arrives at about 5:20 pm here currently--and that means lighting my work space is critical. Everyone knows lighting matters for photo and video, but have you paid attention to how lighting changes how you perceive colors? Even if you're looking at a reference photo on a nice big tablet screen, the lighting around you can make huge changes to how your eyes tell you to translate those colors to paper. (I learned this the hard way two years ago. Mistakes were made, never to be repeated.) But last month I bought a pair of cheap but attractive LED lamps, and this month I got to really enjoy them. They're the kind that have a gazillion temperature, brightness, and color settings--naturally I seldom play with most of those settings, but I'm still delighted. That small purchase made a monumental difference for my workspace.

The space! It's not glamorous, but the lamps make it cozy!

In lieu of portrait commissions, I will be creating a series of small works for my logo, stickers, and other merch (I LOVE stickers, so I'm unreasonably excited to make some).

I'd buy this sticker. Heck, I'd buy this on a t-shirt. This fine lady is one of my first acryl gouache works, and I absolutely love her.

I will also always have a full-sized portrait or two on my drafting table. My colored pencil portraits take me anywhere from about 20 hours to more like 50 hours--that adds up to weeks of work. I'll write a post about my colored pencil experience, methods, philosophy, and favorite brands and types in the future... but no time for that right now, the kids need some hot cocoa.

Be good, be blessed, and check back in soon!