Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Quiet Spirit - How I Paint Portraits

Recently, I have happily been selling sets of my portrait prints.  The most recent trio made their way to a brand new loft in Hoxton, a neighborhood in London.




I thought I'd take a few minutes to share my thoughts on portrait illustrating.

When I'm drawing someone's likeness, it's a very quiet, intimate exercise.  After all, I am trying to capture the spirit of someone.  As an artist and an introverted one at that, it's a therapeutic activity - to draw members of my community.  Discovery, or sometimes re-discovery, of one another is a veritable human tendency, necessity...instinct.  What we all have in common with one another is the desire to be seen; to have our lives recognized; our efforts noticed.

When I'm drawing someone's likeness, I can only describe myself as falling in love with the subject.  It isn't as creepy as it sounds, truly!  I learn to love their story - the one I'm seeing in their face.

I work on custom portraits regularly, but also keep "characters" in stock to be printed in a multitude of sizes, ready for you to frame!

Portrait Prints

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations on the sales, Melissa!!
    I've always admired portrait artists - your work is awesome :)

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    1. Aw thanks, Duni. Means a lot coming from someone as respected in the art world as you are!

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  2. Your awesome work looks awesome in that awesome looking loft!

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    1. Awesome! Glad you like it Marieken! I was happy with the overall look too, to be truthful ;)

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  3. Congrats on the sales! That's so exciting! They look great in the space.

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  4. I love how your pieces really brightened up their space!
    Thanks for stopping by the blog today and sharing this post :)

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