JKPP

JKPP is for Julia Kay Portrait Party. Julia is an extraordinary artist who painted herself daily for a few years. You can read her blog here. She created a group on Flickr and this is where I come in... hmmmm... long time after the group was already created.
Members of the group post photos of themselves for other members to paint/draw.
I was the 700 and something member.

I discovered the group through Gila Rayberg, a long time Flickr friend. I followed the group as a spy. Daily. It took me at least a year of spying to have the courage to join in and then... I did.

It has been a while since I drew portraits, and drawing from photos was never any of my expertise. In the past, when I did portraits paintings or drawings it was always from life. Getting used to the 2D of a photo was a challenge. I still struggle with it. Every portrait that I make is a huge task. Some are more successful than others, some are bad, so bad that I have not posted them.
I do my best to choose different media. The most amazing thing for me is that I discovered the pastels... never touched them before during my 30 plus art years.

My first portrait was this:

The one that I love best is this:

I love it the best because it was my first ever use of pastels and because I love the light and shadows.

A lot was already written and said about Julia Kay, her project and group. So I just want to add -

THANK YOU JULIA.