All Faces Matter….to God and to me.

One of my best buddies (Hey Ann!) visited me last month and we rolled on over to IKEA to roam …. and eat. While we sat at a little table chatting and catching up I felt eyes on me. Sure enough, I turned around and directly behind me was ‘Baby Wan’! *happy heart*

I started speaking with his mom, we introduced ourselves, connected on FB and she allowed me to photograph him. Of course, I wanted to draw his sweet face. You all know by now that I love drawing faces….and the lives expressed through them…. Yep…All Faces Matter! 😉

Freckles, lollipops, and tie-dye t-shirts: How could I resist adding this drawing to my portfolio?

Although I now have a couple years of portfolio drawing under my belt, I still do not have a descriptive, or full, personal portfolio because, surprisingly, much of my work has been commissioned requests. So when I see a photo posted online that gives me the itch to grab my pencils, I am quick to contact the owner (person who posted it), and save a copy of it to my “Gotta Draw This” folder.  The photo I saw online was one of those photos. Besides bringing thoughts of summer, fun, youth, joy, laughter, ice cream, lollipops, and all things happy, the photo was in addition very professional-looking, crisp, and close-up showing a lot of details; a dream photo for me to use.

So, go ahead… try not to smile…

The biggest blessing for me in drawing portraits is that each one feels like I have partnered with the Creator of the universe and he allowed me to enjoy a small taste of his creative power through my little pencils.

Well, this child stole my heart right from my initial sketch onto the paper. His face was sort of what I imagined a child of mine whould have looked like. 😊. Tom is an orphan in Zimbabwe. My longtime friend, Marsha C. is involved in missions ministry at her church and she told me of this little boy. He is about 3 years old now but was younger in the photo I used. I am told that he is a happy little guy. I could tell in the photo I had that he was likely a bundle of joy…and energy!

I’ve had a big heart for orphans. A goal I have for my drawings is to somehow turn them into a way to raise money for orphanages and the children living in them. So far, I haven’t been able to formulate the best way to do that but I trust this will come to fruition some day soon. Maybe by simply putting this desire out there in this blog can help get the wheels turning in some way.

If you think of this drawing of Tom, say a little prayer for him, that in spite of his beginnings that he grows up to be all that God has purposed for his life. 💛

I’ve been wanting to draw a daddy/daughter portrait for some time. I love drawing moms/grandmoms with their babes so I wanted to do one of a new daddy too. Dad’s are an important part of the equation. When I was commissioned to draw this, I couldn’t wait to get started. As I was drawing, I was constantly reminded of how we can rest in our Heavenly Father’s arms.  Psalm 55:22 says “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved (or he will never allow the righteous to be shaken).”

I saw in this drawing a picture of a daddy who was preparing his daughter to know the rest and peace of being dependent on an Almighty God!  

As you can probably tell by now, some of my favorite subjects to draw are those showing relationship; grandmother/mother child, siblings, working on a daddy-daughter drawing. I love the challenge of reflecting the intimacy of a photo using a simple pencil. So glad the customer liked it as much as I enjoyed drawing it.

This customer’s first grandchild lives hundreds of miles away. The photo was taken when this first-time grandma was leaving to return home after the visiting the babe for the first time. I could instantly see the tenderness and the longing the grandma would feel as she would have to leave the babe until the next visit. She said, “That was my goodbye kiss for her when I left for home right after she was born.”  I can only imagine how she felt. This feeling is what I wanted to capture.

A ‘seasoned’artist once told me that drawing a subject’s hair will often take longer than drawing the the face. In the beginning I really shyed away from drawing subjects who had a lot of hair. Scroll through the photos of my drawings and you will see, Obama, Meryl, Bill O’Reilly, all  had no to short hair. 😉  i eventually faced my fears and gradually hair was not so intimidating.

This drawing was a new challenge… long wavy hair.  It was fun to draw  and it helped to bring this adorable face to life on paper. 

How fun it was to draw the sweet intensity in the baby’s eyes.   I wonder what she is thinking?

Wonderment!… That is what I saw I this child’s eyes. Think about it…at 1 or 2 years old nearly everything you see or do each day is NEW, an adventure… a first time doing it or seeing it. The photo of this child expressed that wonderment perfectly. In this photo, he had placed both legs into one leg of a pair of camouflage pants and was thinking about how to resolve the problem. 😊  I love drawing pictures that might in the future bring joyful memories. 

Five cousins! I love the individual expressions of each child. I like using photos like these because they tell a story that I think will evoke memories years later. My challenge was to bring each child’s expression to life on paper using graphite…. A fun and delightful challenge for me. (Paper size 18×24)

Typically, when I draw a face, it is either because I was commissioned or because there is something about the face that makes me say, “I need to practice that.”… a sort of self-study. However, I drew this little fella for one reason…. The cuteness factor was off the scale!  So much style and personality in the photo. It was begging to be sketched!

I can’t believe how much I love drawing! I wish I’d known I could do this years ago… but better late than never. Enjoy!