Great White Shark - Hour 6

Maybe another hour or two??? As fierce as these creatures are, they always look like they're smiling.

My Journey - Day 44

Well ... my journey is complete for the most part. Around 1:30 EST, I submitted my portfolio to Portraits, Inc. Before submitting it, I looked over everything and just stared at the screen for a few minutes. This really shouldn't be a big thing - it really shouldn't. I think that sometimes I turn a molehill into a mountain. I've been drawing for over 30 years. I completed my first portrait of Bruce Lee when I was in the 6th grade, and since then, I continued to progress at portraiture. I've spent countless hours and money, honing my skill as an artist.

Over 10 years ago I began this journey, 2 years ago, I began pushing for this portfolio, and today, I wrapped everything up. I really hope that the staff at Portraits, Inc. like what they see, and I'll post it in here whether they want to work with me or not. Even if they don't I have a remarkable, and God-given ability to capture the character in a human face. Either they'll see this or they won't. I'm fairly confident that they will, and I look forward to a positive response from them.

So to a degree, the journey is over. But in reality, it's still going on. On to my next portrait.

Great White Shark - Hour 5

Great White Shark - Hour 4

Here, the outline has been established.

My Journey - Day 42

Day 42 is upon us, and I have just a few more days ... hours really, before this portfolio is due. Oct. 1 is the deadline. On Monday, I'll post all of my submitted paintings here so you can see what they'll be seeing. I won't post all of the additional work or the reference work. I think they'll like what they see. I've committed a great deal of time, not to mention money and years into this, and like anybody else, it's my desire to be accepted at something I love to do. Dean Paules is a Fine Art Portrait artist who I spoke to about two years ago, and it was because of his conversation that I really began to pursue this and train at it. His sincere confidence in "hey, if you're good at it and can do it, give it all you've got," really motivated and inspired me. I spoke with him yesterday and he said, "send me your portfolio and I'll take a look at it." What an honor!!!

I wish they could see my work in person. It's in this moment that I'm reminded of a conversation with a client a few years ago. "I thought your work was good from what I saw online, but when i see it in person, I'm completely blown away by what I see. The screenshots don't do it any justice."

I encourage anybody who sees my work online, to come see it in person. You'll be blown away.

Great White Shark - Hour 1, 2 & 3

 

 Here is a charcoal - in progress - drawing of a commissioned shark. I'm starting out with white charcoal paper, and the size will be 18x24. I'll upload them by the hour. This first posting consists of the first 3 hours. Yes, it took 3 hours just to color in the background. I know I could've bought black paper, but I wanted to really take my time with this and make sure that I touched every single part of the paper.

My Journey - Day 41

I haven't posted here in well over a week, and there's a good reason for this. You know how things can go wrong all at the last minute? I won't go into great detail, but let's just say that last Friday, Saturday, and portions of Sunday, my temperature was at around 103, my throat was swollen, and I couldn't keep food down. I couldn't do the photoshoot on Saturday, and was forced unfortunately to wait until Monday. 

Then, after the photoshoot, I took the pics home and took a look at them. I will say that the photographer was very good at what he did, but I didn't catch two of the photos. The one of Alicia and Sydney look sunburned. I don't want to put it off on the photographer, because on his screen, it looked awesome. 

Other than that, I'm coming up on the final few days. I'm nervous again, but I think that's to be expected. I don't think a photograph does my work justice at all. I really strive for detail and accuracy, and I don't think the photographs really pick that detail up. Again, not the photographer's fault, I just think it's one of those things. In person, it's just different. I hope Portraits Inc., take that into consideration. For example, take a look at these 4 shots of Rev. Gooch. Not one of them is anything like the painting. He called me after viewing them and said, "I'm not really pleased with any of them." I invited him over and after just a few seconds of looking at it, he and his wife remarked, "wow, you got me dead on. This is me."

Then to top things off, the PDF files are really compressing the images and there's a serious loss of resolution. However ... I'll get this thing right in the end. You can count on that. I've committed my life, study, work, to portraiture, and I'm good at what I do. Just a few more days ... I'm ready.