JJ Worden

Greetings Friends. Just a quick recap of Let's Face It 2025 as well as to mention that whilst I hadn't planned on doing another round, I won a place so I guess it'll be another year of portraiture for me.

Some changes.

I'll be focusing on making the lessons, the paintings MINE. My own reference photos, my choice of medium and substrate but trying to stay true to the intention of what the amazing instructors are offering. And to that end, these may actually go up for sale as my DH has decided to become my art agent. Kind of a dream come true...I can make art and let someone else do the promotion and footwork to get them seen. As long as we don't kill each other.*

So the finale of 2025.

Welp. Life! Amiright? TIME! AMIRIGHT?!?!

Suffice it to say, there were/are personal hurdles (not my story to tell) and physical ones (like breaking an ankle in the heat of the summer) to challenge me. 

The constant at any rate has been my dedication (for the most part) to my year-long "Let's Face It" course. So I'm just gonna post #allthethings 

Let's seeeee...where did we leave off? Ah yes! Weeks 19 and 20 with Sabra.

 

Finished Portrait - Weeks 19 & 20

Welp! It was a week! Firstly, gotta say I loved these two lessons by Sabra (Awlad Issa). Highly accessible, great information, and she pays attention to the viewer (ie letting us know when we need to pay attention or when we can turn on double speed). And even though my final portrait might not seem like I learned anything (spoiler alert), I really did!

I don't know about you but a good portion of my work never gets sold or hung or shown. They simply sit, waiting. And not that they're unsuccessful, though god knows there are a ton of those, too! But more because they've kinda fulfilled their purpose, I don't like them enough to hang it in my house so it needs to be repurposed. Such is the case in this "Tale of a Substrate". 

In my last post I mentioned how I'd been following Dylan Sara's Daily Portrait Practice for more, well, watercolour portrait practice. For the month of April, Dylan had given himself a challenge to create looser, wet-in-wet sketches and that fit in well with my goals as well. 

We've entered the third module in Let's Face It 2025  and I'm pleased with how it's going so far. Some weeks have been better than others but I'm pretty sure I've learned something in each...even if it's, "Nope! I did NOT like that!" And let's face it, (hah! see what I did there?!?) knowing what you don't like is just as valuable as what you do.

Still in the middle of my Lets Face It  year-long deep dive into portraiture and figurative study. I feel a bit better about my progress. Problem with progress? The more you learn, the less you know. But I think there is some forward motion. I had a good week this week. 

 

Its been an interesting first six weeks into Let's Face It 2025 but let me first say? Loving. It. Because that's the over-riding feeling I've had. I'm excited to see what each week holds, how I'll adapt/interpret the lesson and how it will inform my ongoing work. So. Yah. woot woot