Here is the sample self portrait that I will be teaching at Inspirational Retreat in April. We will spend the first day working in the journals I provide, playing with drawing, mixed media techniques, and symbolism, getting comfortable in our own skin and then on the second day we will create a personal piece on canvas that will include a little shrine of the things we hold dear.

It’s a little hard to tell in this picture, but behind the optical lens is a precious little birds egg shell. The little birdie is long gone and this so speaks to how I feel about my own ‘birdies’ leaving the nest.

I’ve been asked if this is the same as my online Pursuing Portraits workshop and it is an extension of that, taking it to the next level putting into practice what I teach online. I will go into much more detail about different techniques I use to paint portraits.

The mail lady brought my advance copies of Cloth Paper Scissors which includes an article on Liquid Pencil, a fabulous product that is tons of fun to play with! I hope you give it a try. You can see an additional piece of work I did with it here.