So... I guess I'm an artist now?

It all started in 2017.

A local Melbourne artist named Vanessa Vanderhaven exhibited her art at the now defunct Henley Club (RIP), and it was the first time I'd ever seen graphite portrait work in person. The detail! The smoothness! The striking expressions! As I moved around the space, I was slowly getting closer and closer to each work - I thought if I could just get a little further in, just have a little less space between myself and Vanessa's art, I could figure out how it was done. As impressed as I was by the art itself, I was obsessed with the method because I just couldn't figure out how a pencil and paper could produce art like that. By the time I had reached the final piece, my face was practically pressed against the glass, and I was no where near figuring out the method she'd used to create her works. I was stumped, and what's more, I was poor, so I couldn't even buy a piece to take it home and mentally deconstruct it later.

A few months later, Henley brought Vanessa back to do a portrait workshop and teach select Henley members the basics of realistic portrait illustration. My artistic crush on Vanessa's works hadn't waned, so I signed up immediately, figuring that even if I was terrible at the actual illustration part, I could at least learn how she did her work. Over the course of two hours, Vanessa patiently took the class through the techniques behind drawing eyes, first showing and explaining each stage of the technique, then letting the group give it a shot.

(If you ever need to find me in a photo I'm usually the one holding the wine glass)

She explained how it's not cheating to trace off a reference photo (mind blown!), that the realism in portraits comes from the shading, not the detail (mind blown again!) and that the best tools for creating smooth shadows were your finger and a good old-fashioned tissue (I already owned both those things!)

The group got to work, carefully replicating each stage of drawing the eyes - dropping heavy graphite in the pupil and the shadows, and carefully moving the graphite around to create the shapes and shades that makes them look like, well, eyes. Two hours, a couple of glasses of wine, and some friendly table banter later, we were done. With the techniques we learned today, Vanessa assured us, we could draw entire faces if we wanted to.

My very first piece! This is where it all started!

As we were finishing up, the group was encouraged to go around the table and look at everyone else's works. Not for comparison, but to see how everyone's artistic eye is different. As I made my way around the table, I couldn't help but think holy smokes... I think I'm good at this (yes, phrases like 'holy smokes' pop up in my head more often than I would like). I had the taste, and the next day I went to my local art store and bought paper and graphite pencils and got to work.

Within two months of that class I received my first commission. Within 6 months I was experimenting with new mediums. Within 12 months I had improved a lot (#practice). Now, some 18 months later, I'm taking the big leap into trying to do this thing as a real career (alongside my other, full-time career, but that's a blog post for another day).

I'm so excited to have you here with me.

Let's do this!

xx