Out of my head
I'm working on my first ever commissioned illustration for a magazine, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's a gardening publication, and the article is about getting children excited about gardening, with specific instructions on building a bean pole teepee.
Okay, so I'm a portrait artist. My entire artistic premise is to paint what I see right in front of me, not something out of my head. Yes, I realize someday I'm going to have to get over that. But for this particular assignment, I enlisted the help of my kids (cheap labor!) and set up a little photo shoot for reference.
H is so dramatic, I thought her shoot would be easy. I told her to pretend that there was a secret garden right in front of her and she had to duck down to look into it. Her poses at first were stiff and overthought (wonder where she gets that?) but then she relaxed and we got this one, which will be perfect.
The ponytail was her idea. I think it was a good call.
It’s always great having helpful and unquestioning family members, isn’t it? My husband doesn’t even bat an eye anymore when I say, “Hey let’s go outside and take 75 pictures of me holding this shawl up against the sky, ok?” or “I need to go to Home Depot NOW and buy 4 feet of PVC pipe. For yarning. You wouldn’t understand.”
Oh, the price of living with an artist or crafter 😀
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