Silhouettes and Portraits in Charleston

One of my favorite boutiques to visit for silhouette events is Southern Belles in Mt. Pleasant. I was just there again this past weekend and as usual, we had a very full day. I got to see many familiar faces and meet many new people as well as new parents. And I love seeing the children as they get older and are proud to be described as “big boys and girls.” As usual, I left the shop with plenty of “homework.” By that I mean, orders placed for products featuring specific silhouettes or pencil portraits. I’m working on the portraits already. And for the ornaments and pendants, I will be letting a colleague take that over for me. I’ll take orders – business, as usual, and then I will pass them to her to fill and ship. But I’ll write more about that later. (Perhaps the next post). For now, I wanted to leave you with an image of one of the pencil portraits. They each take about 45 minutes for me to complete. They are very stress free, which is what I like about silhouettes too, being so fast to sit for. For pencil portraits, I take photographs in the boutique and they are very informal, casual and simple. Then when I get home, I enlarge the photographs on my computer and draw them as though they were sitting across from me. After that, I slip them into a plastic sleeve and ship back to the store for pick up. These were the stepping stone for me getting into silhouettes. I learned drawing from my mother who learned from her mother who was taught by hers… I love how pencil, being such a soft medium, can create such soft effects which is perfect for children! (Tap on the images to see them progress)