Earlier this month I was commissioned to illustrate portraits for a communications company based in Paris to celebrate International Women’s Day. I’ll share more about the project soon, but it had me thinking about how much I’ve grown when it comes to drawing people. I love drawing people these days, but if you asked me 10 years ago to draw a person or even just a face? I'd get all sweaty and panicky, then absolutely find a way to get out of it.
I thought it'd be fun to take you on a chronological journey to see how my people illustrations have evolved over the years. It feels important to me to show how practice and putting in hours is more important than talent (because clearly I wasn't born with the talent to draw people, as you'll see below).
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Early 2019
Late 2019
Early 2020
Late 2020
2021
2022
2022
I like where I currently am with drawing people, but I know there’s plenty of room to grow and evolve even more. I guess the summary of why I’m sharing all this with you is just to say that improving a certain skill is less about being born talented and more about chipping away consistently over time. It makes it all sound much more attainable to me, and I hope you find that thought just as comforting as I do.