Portrait of Buck: Post I

Many people have asked me, how do you paint? What is the process? So I am going to take this new commission and walk through it for those who might be interested. Step by Step. The first move forward is to gesso a canvas.




The next step is to tone the canvas. Toning is simply taking a mid
value and placing it all over the canvas so that there is no
outstanding bright or dark to distract or possibly cause you to put a wrong value down as the portrait is painted. Value is the brightness or darkness of a color.

Simple things

I was making chocolate covered strawberries on Sunday-yum- when I noticed the light on the fruit from my kitchen window. So pretty. Sometimes it's nice just to take time to appreciate the
beauty of simple things.

Ruby graciously posed for me yesterday. I needed filler bridal portraits for my portfolio. Sister + my wedding dress = free (o: I have a beautiful sister.

seasons

i thought i was a poet in high school. it all started with my 6th grade teacher giving us an English project where we had to write and bind a book of poems. he then told me he thought they were good, and i was sold. i kept a notebook filled with scratching and single verses and epic pages. (o:

i also had a secret dream of singing for a living. many of the poems were song lyrics....

one of those epic writings concerned the upcoming graduation day and what might happen after it was over. i called it tapestry. after pulling the notebook out and reading it the other night, i was overcome with laughter. high school is definitely a time where we take ourselves a little too seriously. tapestry's theme was God weaving the threads of our lives into stories.

more lately as i see 30 fast approaching i am beginning to feel the same nostalgic patterns coming on. now i blog instead. and as much as i laugh at that earnest 17 year old, i do find that God does weave patterns into my life. but they are circles and seasons. as much as i think i am done with a certain group of people or time period, it reaches back into my life in various ways. most recently i had dinner with one of those friends from that same high school...someone i hadn't seen in 13 years. it is a definite movement of God that she is only 2 hours south and that we are reconnecting. to encourage each other? to build up our faith? i don't know. but interesting that here we are again. the same has happened in jobs i have held, in other friendships i have thought long gone. hindsight is 20/20, but looking back i can see the specific reason for each of those things or people and how that relates to me now.

i pray for the next decade that i have strength for the seasons. for the painful winter ones and the ones filled with love and joy. i pray for wisdom to make a difference eternally and not waste opportunities. i pray for patience with my faults and the faults of those around me...who i love and don't love so much. i pray that i choose Christ. this is my new favorite quote from CS Lewis right now:

"There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done."(From the Great Divorce)

this is not my favorite picture of me. (o; but here is a photo from the high school reunion....

Charlotte for the weekend!!

Off to Charlotte to drop my baby sister off at her best friends house, visit with a friend from church who moved away, and see a friend from high school that i haven't seen in 11 years or so. Should be an exciting weekend. Lots of photo ops I'm sure. (o: Also spending quality time with my man.

I am doing a senior picture shoot on Sunday for a friend's daughter. As much as I want to have all that I want and need right now, I think the answer to my previous post is to chill out and take it slow and let it grow one day at a time. God is telling me he will provide when he thinks I am ready to handle it. This needs to grow in its own way. And rushing it will not prosper the process.

Those are my thoughts on this Friday afternoon.

Too much Chai Tea

Secretly, I am a poser....haha..
I had lots of caffeine and a camera handy.....


I was eating lunch with a friend on Saturday and she asked what we would do if we could paid to do anything we wanted....and I am trying to do it. I LOVE creating art-- with a paintbrush or a camera...not that these are art..haha....