Happy Christmas to all my internet friends & a reflection on 2009

Kaja

8x10 inch

Graphite and coloured pencil on drafting film

What an amazing year 2009 has been!!!! I have been doing commissions right up until yesterday morning, but have decided to take a three day break to spend some quality time with family. Many of my customers requested that I wait until after Christmas, before posting their portraits on my website or blog. This time last year, I was flat out with my nursing career, feeling very stressed and quite disillussioned, and spent every spare minute on my art. This year has been such a journey of self discovery. I had no idea when making the decision to leave nursing whether art would provide me with a sustainable income, or whether I could find a sense of purpose and fulfillment from something which up until then was purely done for enjoyment. There is always a risk, when taking a hobby and turning it into a business, that some of the enjoyment disappears. I must admit it has been a year of ups and downs, where too many times I have been filled with self doubt. My wonderful, supportive husband and the fabulous friends I have made through various internet sites, especially through blogging, are the two treasures that have lifted my spirits whenever I feel lost. We come to the end of 2009, and I feel such a sense of peace and purpose. The commissions are coming hard and fast (I have 5 due in the New Year), and whilst this means there isn't a lot of time for being truly arty and creative, I think my current need was more to find a purpose from the art, and there will be time down the track for really exploring my own creativity. For now, I am thrilled to bring joy to others through commissions, and my other big goal is to write a book down the track on drawing photo realistic drawings on drafting film. I would like to take this opportunity for thanking all of you who have supported me and encouraged me throughout the year. You have no idea how much this has helped to lift my spirits on those days when despondency sets in.

Wishing all of you the most wonderful, magical Christmas and lets hope 2010 brings success and happiness to you all!!!!

Latest Commissions - Ashton

Ashton

8x10 inches

Graphite and black pencil on drafting film

Still going on Commissions, and in between commissions, I have been so inspired by Barbara A Freemans fascinating description about silverpoint, and have been experimenting with that, so will post a WIP once the commissions slow down a bit. A huge thank you to Barbara for sharing her knowledge and journey in working with silverpoint - please visit her blog if you are interested in this medium.

Latest commission - Little Cat

Little Cat

8x10 inches

Pastel on Velour

Here is my latest commission. I love working on the velour paper, but had problems this time with the pastel powder falling away. I usually do the whole portrait, fix it, and then rework highlights and details, which is what I did here, then went to scan it, and a whole lot of pastel powder fell on the scanner. So I reworked it, fixed it again, and here we are. I was wondering if anyone has used Pastelmat. It is not readily available in Australia, but I have read it requires less fixing than the velour, so thought I might order some from overseas. I'd love to hear if anyone has feeback on the Pastelmat. :)

Latest Commissions - Ivy and Bo

Ivy

8x10 inches

Graphite and coloured pencil on drafting film

Bo

8x10 inches

Coloured pencils on drafting film

These are two of my commissions from this week. Of the two, believe it or not, Ivy was the easiest to do. Poor old Bo is no longer with us and so I was working from some older, quite fuzzy photos - this is a Christmas present from his Mum to his Dad and so hopefully I have done him justice. He is a Blue Merle Collie cross.

Facebook Groups

I have created a couple of Facebook Groups if anyone is interested in joining them:
Pencil Artist Friends and Miniature Artists. I must admit I really don't get into Facebook in a big way - my poor long suffering friends mus find me a bit useless in this area, but I can see it's potential for getting our art out there to a wider audience, so anyone is welcome to join. I also welcome suggestions from anyone on how to add to or improve these groups.

Am still working on commissions, but a couple of them are children, and I always seek permission before posting them, so back to work.