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This is Jacqueline—an incredibly talented artist who sees and captures so much depth and emotion in her paintings and sketches. There’s a lot of pain in this world, and @glossypeach manages to show that in the honesty of her lines and strokes while bringing in strength and beauty, too. She just finished an absolutely incredible portrait of Nina Simone! I had to borrow her bold colors for this portrait, in the hopes that I’d be able to show her a little of the same confidence and talent in herself as she sees and paints in others. She is a beautiful soul who has much to say. Thank you so much for letting me paint you! 💛
A quick little painting from last night. I’m still working toward finishing all my portraits of you lovely folks, don’t worry! I’m just listening to myself a bit more, paying attention to how I’m doing, and mostly only painting when I’m feeling ready to. I hope it’ll mean I capture your beauty better.
Thank you for being here. For paying attention. For listening. For caring. For volunteering to let me see you and paint you. All of it is an incredible gift to me.⠀ ⠀ Today I sat down to record my monthly Patreon podcast (I call them “coffee chats” because they’re very relaxed and not at all professional, just me sitting down with a hot drink to chat with my patrons), and as I told them more about this portrait project and specifically the reaction to the last one I posted, I actually started crying. I’m so very grateful to all of you for supporting my work with everything from a like to a purchase, and most importantly for your trust. Your connection. It’s been a difficult seven months for me, and somehow talking about this project and how deeply I was touched by @mikidevivo and Renee’s reaction to Renee’s portrait reminded me why I want to keep doing this. Creating art, yes, but more specifically looking, paying attention, seeing you, your stories, and trying to put it to paper. Seeing more of how it touches and affects you, too... can you tell I just don’t have the words? It’s like a beautiful giving circle or dance I just can’t find the way to put into words.⠀ ⠀ Anyway, I tried to express it all today in my podcast, and I wanted to make it public so you can all hear it, too, and hopefully catch even a tiny glimpse of the immense thankfulness and love I’m trying to pour out to you now, typing on my phone. It’s never enough, but I hope you’ll understand anyway. ⠀ ⠀ The link’s in my bio if you’d like to give it a listen, friend.
The best way I could think of to introduce this portrait was to use a small piece of the poem @mikidevivo wrote about the subject, her daughter: “It seems like There’s a phoenix trapped Inside her, Burning this child To ashes So the wings She carries inside Can fly her to freedom.” Miki sent me some pictures of her for me to paint from, and although I don’t know her, I saw a Phoenix in her, too, and tried to paint her wings in her eyes. That may sound weird, but it’s the best way I know to describe the reaching, longing, hoping feeling I get when I’m painting you all—that fervent wish to give back a piece of truth and beauty when you give me the gift of trust and love and yourself to paint. Thank you.
There’s a Happy Mail day coming up for my patrons! I’ve started putting together different kinds of packages instead of just postcards, and the first new envelopes with original art and an extra little surprise are going out in the mail tomorrow for patrons in my Happy Mail tier ($25 a month). I love sending mail to anyone, and would love to have you on my list! Hop over to my Patreon page if you’d like that, too—and don’t be afraid to only sign up for a month or two, you don’t have to stay at that top tier (or any tier) indefinitely. I’d be delighted to send you mail like this, whether it’s for one month or twenty!
Working on my very first #drawthisinyourstyle contribution based on @joriouxdraws’ amazing piece. Do I need to share the original for an in-process photo? I’m not sure. Swipe to see it if you’re curious! I’ll share the final of my version when I’m done, but if I’m honest I’m terrified of coloring it. This is the first time I’ve gone back to good old graphite in awhile, I’m loving how much more it feels like me, and I’m nervous I’ll ruin it. But I’ve got to try!
The very lovely, talented, adventurous Rachel. I tried to capture a bit of your spark in about 45 minutes, with my take on a photo you shared from your trip to Ireland. I don’t have your gift of words to explain why I chose that moment and pose, but it said something to me from your feed and I hope this piece speaks to you, too. 💛
Took a break from doing portraits (seriously friends, I’ve done soooooo many that have ended up in the bin) to paint this guy. We drove by a lonely looking lion statue in the snow awhile back and I’ve been wanting to draw him. This is the only thing I’ve done in quite awhile that feels even remotely like me, or natural in any way. I’m not sure why it’s been so hard—maybe I’m trying to force the materials too much, or I just don’t have enough space around my personal creative time right now, or both. It’s been so busy and go, go, go, for months now and I’m pretty tired most of the time, which isn’t really the best way to create. I’m trying to show up and do the work and keep hoping that somewhere in there it’ll pay off and something good that feels like me will come out. In the meantime, I’m over here going through lots of paper and paint and not even wanting to share how horrible you all end up looking when I try to paint you!
Next up is @itskamee with her beautiful spunk and fantastic glasses! I was going to do everyone in order, but have since just gone with whoever and whatever strikes me in the moment. It’s been a struggle, guys. You all are so great and I want to draw you well but it’s been hard to figure out the best way how. I’ve actually drawn several of you so far-two and three and four times over, but most of them ended up in the recycling bin. Keeping the palette minimal helped limit the number of different ways I could do Kamee’s lovely face and it helped keep me focused! Another surprise that hasn’t sped things up: I discovered not all pieces of my Ellie Pooh paper are equal thicknesses! The two I started with were abnormally thick compared to the rest, and I thought they were perfect, so I’m having to adjust.
I thought it only fitting to start this portrait project with @inandof, who inspired it all. Lindsey, when I sat down to paint you, I couldn’t get the paper mache goose you created out of my head, so I stopped trying. Perhaps you imbued her with a little of your spirit, and I had to try to capture it. (I know she doesn’t have any wings yet, but it seemed right this way.) Thank you for sharing your beautiful self with us, and allowing me to draw you!