Right before the beginning of the new year, I was watching a Blessed is She talk that recommended that you pick a word to reflect on for the new year. The word that was whispered to my heart was “ordinary.”

Shortly after, I was brainstorming ideas for a collective body of artwork to produce. I wanted to build up a new portfolio and though I had a couple ideas of directions I was interested in, I wasn’t sure what I would ultimately create. I do a lot of portrait work which means I need lots of human references. I thought it might be fun to use friends and family for portrait practice or references for future paintings.

I sent out a “model call” on Facebook asking if anyone would be willing to let me use their photos for practice. I was only expecting maybe 5 people would volunteer. I ended up getting over 30 (and counting) interested friends and family members. Inspiration struck and that word “ordinary” went through my mind. I wanted to create a series of portraits of ordinary women using mixed media processes.

The first of these portraits is Raven, a talented photographer I met through a mom’s group at church. When I saw this self portrait of her, I knew this was the image I would use for the piece I wanted to create. She had some beautiful photographs of her children that had a really lovely purple and blue lighting that I wanted to draw into this piece as an underpainting.

The majority of the painting was created with watercolors. I used pens for the linework in the hair, varnished the piece, and added thin layers of acrylics on top.

In progress shots of my portrait of Raven.

The finished portrait of Raven. Watercolor and mixed media 8×10”