"Facebook Portraits" 3-189, Ivy H.

Today is Sunday, January 27th. The start of the 4th week of this project I have embarked upon. I did finish the third portrait in the third week. So I'm on schedule as far as I'm concerned.

For the third week, it was another ex-coworker, Ivy. This one was quite special to me because without her, I wouldn't be where I am today in my career. You see, I was the one that replaced her old position at CURE Magazine.

When I started my career as a graphic designer in 2006, my first job was laying out oncology journals for a company called Cancer Information Group which was a sister company to CURE Media Group, publisher of CURE Magazine. I had been working for CIG for about 11 months when Ivy decided to part ways with CURE to pursue another opportunity.

They wanted to look internally for a replacement, and I really didn't intend on working for CURE since I was pretty content with what I was doing. I was poked and prodded to apply for the position by other people in CURE, including Ivy. So I did, and I've been there since.

The random number that was given to me for the third week was 189, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was Ivy. Ivy is happily married so I thought I would pic a photo with her and her husband. Luckily, according to Ivy, the one I chose is one of her favorites photos of them together. All the better. =)

I estimated that this one took around 13 hours. There were lots of details and adjustments involved in the production. Over all I'm pretty happy with the result.

18" x 24", graphite and charcoal on paper. Ivy H 3-189.

It's still not perfect, by any means. There's certain nuances that I see between the work and the photo. I don't use any grids or anything so it's something that I have to train myself to notice these things while the work is in progress. It would also probably help that I am finally getting an drafting table soon. I will finally have a place to work on portraits.

One final thought, I have been posting the progress of each portrait on Instagram, which feeds to my Twitter and Facebook. The response has been great, and I couldn't ask for more. Hashtags makes sense now =). Follow me on Instagram or Twitter, both @FlipFlash21.

On to the next.

GZ