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| 8/6/25 Charlie (reference photo by Katelyn This) |
Charlie is the last of five dog portraits I’ve made for the
same family. They’ve all been a joy to draw.
I’m taking a break from pet portraiture for the rest of the summer, and when I get back to it, I think I’ll change it up. I took up this fundraising project in December 2023 mainly because I love drawing animals. But the other motivation was to get practice in realistic portraiture, especially with colored pencils. I’ve learned a lot from nearly a hundred portraits, and I feel confident that I can do this on request. While each portrait is still challenging in certain ways, the task in general no longer challenges me.
Although I want to keep supporting animal organizations this way, I need to keep being challenged, too, or I’ll get bored. I’m at that point now, so my next task will be to figure out how I want to change. A new medium, style or approach? I have some ideas.
I have enjoyed these pet portraits, and I’m looking forward to what medium/style/approach you tackle next!
ReplyDeleteYou captured this sweetie so well! Looking forward to how you will change it up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Cathy and Joan! We'll see what happens! :-)
ReplyDeleteI don't think enough artists recognize when they have mastered something to the point that it is no longer a challenge and something needs to change. I've always enjoyed meeting challenges and gaining mastery but there did come a time when I became restless and realized my work with quilts and art quilting wasn't doing it for me anymore. Needed something new which in itself created a challenge. Hoped that some of it would transfer back to my quilting, which some did. I can envision where some of your recent experiments and classes might lead you back to a different approach to the pet portraits which would be a challenge. Sounds good to me.
ReplyDeleteI think one issue, now that so many artists need to promote themselves on social media, is that their audiences want them to stay the same, keep doing the same thing, because if they keep switching, the all-mighty algorithm will not favor them. So they feel forced to keep repeating themselves long past their personal challenge or interest. It's sad when the artist's boredom becomes apparent, yet they have to keep going.
DeleteI so agree. My brother, who was a woodworker, and I had many conversations about creating for the market if you wanted to be a successful, i.e. money making artist, and neither of us were interested in doing that. Thus few sales but more enjoyment in the making. Yet I did experience that fear of losing my audience when I was exhibiting locally, had become known for a certain kind of work and almost felt guilty branching out to something else, wondering if my followers would follow or be disappointed or confused. Ah well, I don't worry about that anymore. :-)
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