[Janel Maples]

Thank you Mari and Cynthia.

I will definitely do this again, but hopefully I will get more efficient at this life stuff. I sketched Erin for two weeks before I started on a canvas with paint. Even then, I could have used more time just drawing her, but she was on the clock. I found that initial drawing to be the most time consuming. Once I was comfortable that I had everything in the right spot, then it went faster.

Another artist on the forum posted a painting from life after only three hours. I made the comment that after three hours of drawing my model my portrait didn't have eyes, nose or a mouth. I only had little hash marks on my paper.

There were days that I thought I was wasting my time and money but now I realized how much I was learning about Erin in the process.
During that painfull period (yes, it was painfull at times) I learned a lot about her face and what I wanted in the portrait. For example, it wasn't until after drawing her for days and days that I realized I wanted the portrait to show this little hole between her lips, it was only there when she was very comfortable and relaxed. If she tried too hard to think about her look, her lips were tighter together and she looked posed.

What made me sad was the realization that unfortunately I didn't have that kind of information about the people in the other portraits I painted. Those people paid good money to have me paint them, and I may have missed a hole. That kind of information should have been there and for that I feel badly.

I've attached a photo that I took shortly before I was finished with the painting. She never complained; but by the time this photo was taken, she had to be tired of sitting for me.