Portrait Commissions and Sketchbooks

This year I've been kept pretty busy with some beautiful child portrait commissions to paint. This sweet girl above, Sadie, was finished a few weeks ago, and I have a little boy currently on my easel that is nearly finished as well. I feel so honored that these parents trusted me to capture their child and I hope I'm doing each one justice.

There hasn't been any time for personal paintings, but after this last commission is finished I'll be taking a break from custom work to paint some ideas I've had floating in my head for a while. I've had an idea of paintings of my boys I want to do that I'm considering using to get back into the juried show game, but we'll see how they turn out first ha! I haven't entered a painting in a competition for a long time, but I think this might be just the thing to help me push myself out of my comfort zone and level up my skills. Well. . . that's the hope anyways.

I have however been doing plenty of sketching as time allows. This is so crucial to my own satisfaction as an artist, and for personal growth. Even if I don't have time to paint on a certain day if I can squeeze in a sketch I feel like I'm still growing my skills, developing my career as an artist and that to me, is pretty priceless. Here are some of my recent faves:

I really miss blogging, but it seems to take so much time. I'm posting much more regularly on instagram if you'd like to follow me over there!