Portrait of Emily

I had the privilege of creating this portrait of Emily as a Christmas present for Ryan's wife. Unfortunately, the surprise got leaked but she loved it!

 

Here's what Ryan had to say "I have been a fan of Mike's work for a long time and after our Christmas shoot with our daughter Emily I felt like I had the perfect picture to be made into a portrait in his amazing style. While I spilled the beans on the Christmas present early, my wife loves the portrait. Mike was able to capture both the physical details of Emily, but also her joyful disposition. We are thrilled to have this keepsake marking Emily's first birthday and second Christmas".

 - Ryan 

When Art Emerges

10527425_10152357478945958_3451412962458534482_n One day a few weeks ago I decided I wanted to create something new, but I wasn't sure what. I started with just throwing down some watercolors, then took an X-acto knife to make shavings from my watercolor crayons. I spread these shaving out randomly on top of the previous (dried) watercolor. Then I grabbed a spray water bottle and sprayed around on the shavings until they started to dissolve a bit. I let that dry and washed over again with some more watercolors.

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At this point I still wasn't sure what this work would become. I knew I had created a base to work off, but that was all. As I sat pondering, I felt a need to express something that would speak about a current social issue. Having been on a trip to Nicaragua this May to help bring clean water to a village, I decided that was what this piece was about. I found some reference photos to use as inspiration, and set to drawing with black Take-Sumi ink using a bamboo pen. Once the ink dried, I carefully went back in adding some yellow gouache.

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The result was something that spoke to a lot of people, about an important issue. "A Cup of Water for the Least of These." I recently sold the original as well as some prints. Sometimes, you just need to follow inspiration where it takes you.  Sometimes I plan out what I'd like to do, but other times I like to just "play" and see what comes. There is tremendous freedom in that!

If you're interested in donating money to help provide get clean water visit here.

If you'd like to purchase a print of this or other work of mine visit my society6 shop!