Portrait number four to be in the works for the future!

Only a few days into my 365 day drawing challenge I decided to draw a portrait for a friend.  I was so overwhelmed by her love for her sister, the grief and sadness that accompanies loss.  I felt a strong desire to provide her with a special gift straight from my heart to hers.  You can read about the beginning of her portrait here and read about the completed masterpiece with the story here. It's been an emotional journey for both her and I.  I have many loved ones in heaven and the portrait has reminded me of them.  I knew that I would be drawing portraits of my loved ones as well, but thought it fitting to start out with a gift for someone else first.  I love being able to bring love and light to others.

Then, I decided to have a quick little contest on my facebook page just for friends and family.  I knew that the changes I made to the portrait that day were so slight that it would be impossible to pick them out with the eye.  (Naughty of me, I know)  So I proposed that if somebody could pick out the three body parts I made changes to and on which person in the portrait, I would draw them a portrait of a photo of their choosing.  What came next was AMAZING!  My dear, departed, friends mother guessed right!  Now, I was already going to draw a portrait of my friend and have prints made for his mother and our friends, but to have her guess correctly?  Well there is only one explanation, my friend whispered the answer to her.  It is the only possible way she could have guessed correctly, I can't even see the changes...so that portrait is next and it is going to be an emotional ride.  You can read about the story here.  The first day of Houd's portrait begins here and the completed masterpiece ends here.

After that portrait is complete, I am SURE that the next portrait will be of my Nan and Pap.  Both already gone from this earth and missed dearly.  This one is for me and me alone.  I will be keeping the original of this one.

I figure each portrait will take about a month or so, give or take depending on the amount of time each day I am afforded by my family and energy levels.  Each drawing has tremendous amounts of energy, love and time put into them and I am certain that I wouldn't have it any other way.  I like having goals and something to work towards.  I am excited about each and every portrait I am working on and have planned for the future.

That brings me to my next portrait gift that happened around 9pm last night.  Last year I happened upon a blog owned by a local mother Still Playing School, she home schools and features activities and fun ideas for kids.  One day I saw a heartbreaking post about the loss of her infant daughter.  I was very touched by her love and sadness for this tiny soul.  I myself have not experienced the loss of a child and have been following her journey filled with love, grief and remembrance.  This strong woman has also raised money for a non-profit organization called Sustaining Grace that provides non-medical ultrasounds for families of babies that have received a fatal diagnosis and has also donated a box of embossing supplies to the hospital where Violet spent her short, precious time on earth so that other families will have a special way to preserve their infants hand and footprints forever.   Her daughter passed away after 2.5 days of precious life due to a heart defect related to being diagnosed with a chromosome abnormality called Trisomy 13, you can read more about Violet here.  Yesterday I happened upon her blog post Grief Stops You In Your Tracks and was hit with tremendous sadness.  I have these little occurrences myself related to my own loved ones in heaven and her post was so powerful, I KNEW that I was going to do a portrait for her.  So it is to be my fourth portrait in waiting.

Meet Violet 

{ A tiny heart in heaven }

November 2, 2011 - November 4, 2011