Portraits and Patrons (Patreon)

Today is Thank You Patrons Day!

I feel like anything I say about you all will be inadequate. Just knowing that you care this much about my work is one of the things that keeps me going.

Because of you, I've been able to produce shows, buy art supplies, and give myself time to explore different facets of my art.

It's your support that has helped me actually find an art style. Which, honestly, is a really big deal and has freed me up to make a whole lot more visual art. 

I like painting animals but I wanted to challenge myself to do some portraits as well. Redbubble now has a licensing program where you can make fan art of whatever media they've partnered with and actually get it approved and sold by that media company. No more vaguely naming my fan art and hoping I don't get sued! And if they don't accept it, it's still practice and possibly something for my portfolio.

It also gives me an actual focus so I don't spend time dithering over OMG WHAT SHOULD I DRAW??! I know that sounds like a really stupid stumbling block but it's a BIG one.
The list of redbubble partners is finally big enough that it has stuff that I want to paint. For a while it was just RIck and Morty and, like, Zorro. When they added Community I got really excited so I tried a portrait of Annie.

It turned out to be terrifying.

Ok, so this style has to be a bit more on the creepy side.

Luckily, one of their partners is also Hitchcock. And my interest in Psycho has recently been renewed by Sady Doyle's book Dead Blonds and Bad Mothers. It's still hard to fully appreciate, since it's been parodied by EVERYTHING and even if you've never seen it you know all the twists. BUT this time I noticed that Anthony Perkins is pretty cute and I certainly wouldn't mind looking at him long enough to paint a portrait.

My first attempt was nowhere near creepy enough. In fact, he just kinda looks like my first college boyfriend. And a little like Burke Heffner.

I tried adding a background but it didn't help much.
Too damn handsome.


So I tried Dexter (also on the list.)

Not bad....

I went on to color.

Pretty good but lacking something. 

I started painting blood spatters but had to take a quick trip to the bathroom and empty my menstrual cup. And then I was like "Oh. Wait. Why use paint when I've got the real thing just lying around?"

Gross? Maybe. But you can't argue with results.

The spatters added some great visual interest and the blood ended up making a great texture for his stubble.

I posted it on instagram with the caption "Dexter. Ink, watercolors, blood." I assumed most people would think it was a joke. But then one of my FB friends was like "Do you take commissions? I'd love to have a portrait painted in blood!" And I was certainly not about to say no to that.

My first commissioned work as a visual artist! And it wouldn't have been possible without you, my darling patrons <3