365 Days of Drawings

It is the beginning of a new year. Time for resolutions, renewed focus and hanging on to the belief that with a fresh start we can breath new life into our dreams.   There is no better way to keep the creativity flowing than to keep up your basic skills. So in the spirit of a fresh start and the desire to keep those creative juices flowing I am embarking on a 365 day project. Wish me luck and follow me on instagram where I will also be posting daily drawings. 

I have been working on bringing something creative to do every where I go. Lately I have been grabbing my drawing pad or camera bag every time I leave the house and it has paid off. These are from a quick photo sesh with my bestie Amy Lynn Scott Hillman Treme during our laundromat visit. 

*Please note Amy's stink face.
**Please note my "tinsel". Im a little proud of it.

Bopadoobop

So, sometimes I think that it is not fair that as the oldest of my siblings I turned out the shortest. But good news for Hannah, since she is tall her dreams of modeling are a little more realistic than mine ever were. Here are a couple of the photos that she brought on her last audition.

Photo by: Andrew Toups; Edit: Danielle Miller

Photo/edit: Danielle Miller

She went on an audition to go on a cruise to meet with different modeling agencies and take some more modeling classes. The audition was the usual: walk, show her portfolio, answer some questions and this time around: do a commercial! She was not expecting to be filmed, but she didn't let her nerves get the best of her and nailed it like a champ. I am so so proud of my baby sister.

Wherever you go, whatever you do, I love you and am so proud of you Boo Bear.

Thanksgiving Feast...

At school the students could dress up as indians and pilgrims and of course Lesli and I did too, because we never ever miss out on a chance to dress up. 

Thankful for:

   my family:

Mom: You taught us the importance of loving God, people and the arts. You encouraged us to be our own by not caring what other people thought of you; you showed us how to care for our environment by teaching us to clean and picking up trash wherever you went. And you did it all smiling and dancing and being crazy. And still are.


Dad: You are the coolest. I may have gotten my shyness from you, but you also passed on your love for music and your cleanliness (OCD?).

Dylum: You are still my best bud. Keep dancing and creating. For.ev.er.

Lesli: Best fran. Wild Heart. Grumpy angel on my shoulder. Hee hee. Best singing partner.

Cody: I was remembering you as a toddler tonight and almost cried. And then I thought of you calling me buddy. And I laughed. You are one of the best artists I know. Seriously.

Hannah: Ooga Booga Suga Boo, Hannah Banana, Bopadoobop, Scooterboo. You know what I just said.

My honey: (secrets, sppp sppsss, psstt) It is kind of embarressing how long me and our friends can go on and on talking about how amazing you are and then realizing you are someone we know and we are about to see you walking through the door. I love your tender heart, your bending voice, your sharp wit and your sweet hugs. I am so proud of you.  And totally in love with you.

 


 my job(s):

I get paid to hug a bunch of precious children and teach them to read and draw and tell them they are loved.                    Best.Job.Ever.



   my home:

I am a homebody. I just love laying on my bed in the most beautiful bedroom ever. I love sitting at home and drawing or reading. I love listening to one (or four) of the different bands living in our house practicing down the hall. I love hearing roommates and friends chatting in the other room. I love just sitting on the porch enjoying Highland.


  my friends:

So many of my friends are like extended family. I love you all!

Wildhearts:
Sisters for life.


I am thankful for so much.

This has been mushy enough, but I just wanted to let y'all know. K?

Im gonna miss this man next month.

What do you do when you attend a workshop? Make sure your best friend comes along too. Mine being fellow Wild heart Amy Lynn Scott Treme (photographer and collector of all things vintage) made for an especially fun and exciting time. The photographers that attended were split into 4 groups. And guess who was in group one. Yea, that's right, me and Amy, the ones who have never been to a workshop before. Amy was all game, but I was nervous.

The best way to relax your nerves is to laugh, at least that's what my body tells itself when I get uncomfortable (Amy, sorry again for the time I laughed in your face when you told me Shotgun ate your new glasses; sorry girl at my 4th grade camp who happened to open the door when I was spraying it with bug spray, oh, just about eye level). Anyways, Amy was here to help those nerves of mine by serving up some delicious shots like this one here:

My Best Friend: funny, creative, beautiful.

The models, Jacob and Lillie Duncan are really married. How cute is that!

So these are some more photos of what we were SUPPOSED to be shooting, but we were in a beautiful location with PERFECT lighting with nothing but time and cameras on our hands. What were we to do, but keep taking pictures of each other? Right, my thoughts exactly. So in-between taking pictures of these beautiful creatures we snapped a few shots of each other. 

I would like to apologize here for the terrible editing. I just recently got Photoshop and am still learning how to do this. I am most pleased with the shots that looked great even before editing, like that last one of the couple on the farm.

Three Nails Photography Workshop

I have always done photography as a hobby. I use to use a lot of magazines as the basis for my art compositions, but once I got a nicer camera decided it was time to step away from the murky waters of copy right infringement and work from my own photographs. While I still occasionally use magazines for personal pieces or for practice sketches, more often for commissioned work I use photos of my friends and family. Since more and more of my artwork was starting at the photography level I was interested in developing this hobby a little more.

I went to the Three Nails Workshop not knowing what to expect. I was a little nervous since I had never been to a workshop before and I knew that this one would be filled with other photographers with much more experience than me, but that was shaded by my excitement. I have seen Hunter's work nearly from the beginning and watching his progression and seeing the beautiful shoots he was creating let me know that the sets he would have us shooting were going to be spectacular. I was also curious to just hear the stories of his crazy journey and learn some "how to's" of this trade.

It was everything I hoped. Walking into the workshop was like stepping into one of his photographs. Somehow he made this large open space seem cozy and inviting with a cute backdrop of ladders, canvas and string lights. ...

The photoshoots were magical and I want to share more about those later. I just want to end this by saying that the most valuable thing I took away with me from this workshop was this:  it is important to have a clear vision and to have confidence in yourself as an artist. As a person and an artist I am interested in so many things! So many things that instead of taking the time to do one thing well I scatter my energy into a bunch of things. So right now I am working on finding out what I really love and going for it with all that I've got, realizing that focusing on one thing isn't necessarily shutting the door on everything else. I think that is what I have been afraid of.

That being said, this workshop was an insightful, freeing, beautiful experience. I was spurred to ask myself some meaningful questions. I got to witness what confidence in your craft can look like and I met a lot of nice, talented, encouraging people. If you have a chance to take one of his workshops, I highly recommend it. It was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed it so, so much!

This handsome goat was on the location of the engagement shoot.

More photos to come.

Three Nails Blog