End of 2015 Update

Hey!

November and December have been really busy for me which is so crazy awesome! I've had a lot of Etsy orders for Christmas presents, and it's incredible and humbling to think that my art works were what some people got for Christmas! :)

I didn't get to do an update at the end of November, so I'm combining November and December commissions in this post. Next month will be the first anniversary of my Etsy shop, so I'm planning on doing some kind of a GIVEAWAY as well! 

1. Maggie

Maggie loves Indian block print clothes and chunky jewelry and has a half-Japanese husband, an adorable boy, and two pets. Their dog was born blind and they live in the desert city of Palm Springs, so she wanted desert flowers for the border. :)

2. Nicole

Nicole found me on Instagram and we started e-mailing back in mid-October. She wanted one for her super adorable family as well as one for their friends who bought a home from them (they're realtors in NJ). She wanted this for their family Christmas card, but wanted a coastal themed border because they're beach people. :) I'll mention them again later. She's incredibly kind and generous, and I'm lucky to have been found by her!

3. Colleen

Colleen and her family live in Coronado, CA, and she wanted the Hotel Del Coronado in the background for their family Christmas card! This was a new challenge for me as I've never done a big building/structure before. But it's such a unique, beautiful hotel, and I really enjoyed it!

4. Elizabeth

Elizabeth and I connected through Julie & Amy (I wrote about them on my previous post). She wanted a portrait of her parents in front of the Idaho Falls LDS Temple. I love the blues & yellows in this portrait! :)

5. Catarina

Catarina wanted this portrait for her & her boyfriend's six-year anniversary! This order was all the way from Portugal, and whenever I get an order from outside of the U.S., I'm amazed at how connected we all can be despite the distance. (I'm not going to lie: the pattern on her shirt was rather overwhelming and challenging, but now that it's done it looks pretty cool, right??)

6. Kaitlin

Kaitlin ordered this portrait for their first anniversary. They have such a cute family, and I had fun working on them. She told me that one of their cats loves to purr and rub against people and the other has a grumpy face, so I enjoyed portraying that as well. :)

7. Mabel

(I still can't draw animals sometimes. I struggle big time.)

The Bennetts that I worked with back in June has three dogs, and one of them has a sister named Mabel (owned by Bex Bennett's sister). This was strangely hard for me. Mabel is so small and cute, and I felt like I couldn't quite get that into a drawing. I had to restart from scratch multiple times, and I still think Mabel is so much cuter in real life, but she was so happy to get it as her Christmas present. :)

8. Chloe

Chloe (second from left) ordered this custom family portrait for her parents. They have the cutest dogs ever (I'd love to get a lab one day!) and I love that this portrait shows the family expanding. She told me her parents live in central Florida where they have saw palmettos everywhere, so we decided to use them for the border.


10.  Candace

I love it when people order custom portraits because it's sometimes very improbable to have a real photo portrait as a family with pets. In their wedding clothes. And this was the case with Candace and her husband. :) Also, I love kitties with white paws!

11. Sherry

Sherry ordered this custom family portrait for her friend's family. They live in Baltimore, MD, hence the dad's shirt. :)

12. Natalie & Sione

Natalie is my pretty husband's prettier sister. She is a flight attendant, and she was generous enough to help my parents fly to Korea few months ago. She's kind and loves to help others, which are perfect qualities for her job. And Sione is just there to make Natalie look prettier. (haha just kidding! Love you both!)

13. The Hermanns

This is for their first wedding anniversary which is next week! I love that a part of my job is just looking at beautiful couples like this.

14. Julie
She's the one.
Julie is pretty much solely responsible for getting me into this whole Etsy thing. I met her family a little more than a year ago when I started my part time job as a babysitter. When she found out I like to draw, she took a look at my sketchbook and asked if I could draw her family for their Christmas card. I was flattered and overwhelmed at the idea, but it was so fun and exciting. She was the first one ever to officially commission me, and the first custom family portrait I ever drew. And the rest is history.

For this year, she approached me with this idea:

A timeline garland of all the fun, exciting things that they did this year.

So I thought it'd be fun to make them into ornaments:

And then Julie helped me with the color scheme:

For September (Ella's birth-month), we decided to use one of her drawings because she loves to draw:

And then Julie added the text:

 I love working with Julie. She's creative, fun, hardworking, and most of all, she's an amazing mom of four kids. I love and miss her family so much! :)
[insert one thousand heart emojis]


15. Kelly

A portrait of Kelly, her boyfriend, her retired racing greyhound, and his pup :)

16. Laura

I did a portrait for Laura (far right) and her husband and their "furry army" back in July, and this time she commissioned me for her mother-in-law. It includes the mother-in-law (center), her two boys and their wives, and four grandchildren. The youngest of the grandchildren are twins and when I asked Laura for a way to distinguish them, she told me one likes Spider-Man and the other likes Batman. :) They live in the U.K.


17. Teresa

Teresa wanted this portrait of her and her husband with their baby as a Christmas present! She wanted to include their cute matching glasses, and she told me she loves having my signature in Korean (if you didn't know before, now you know) because her husband is also Korean. :)

18. Jessi

This was for their wedding anniversary! The flowers used for the border are inspired by their wedding flowers, which were ivory colored roses, hydrangeas, and baby's breath.


19. Stef

Stef commissioned this portrait for her sister and her fiance for Christmas. :)
This one's all the way from Canada!


20. The Jean Baptiste Family

Remember Nicole (#2 in this post)? After she saw the finished portrait I did for her family, she wanted to order one for her friend's family for Christmas present. This family recently bought their new home, and they have two sets of twins! Their garden is more beautiful than what's portrayed on the illustration, and their family even more so!


21. Cole

Cole commissioned me this portrait of his girlfriend and her cat as a Christmas present. I love the pinks and corals and how soft it looks. And I wish I could post pictures of them here, because seriously they're so much cuter in real life! 

(Also, how cute and thoughtful is it that her boyfriend wanted to get this for her??)

22. Christie

This is Christie's Christmas present for her sister-in-law! 

They have an adorable family and a beautiful dog.

23. Michelle

This is one of my mission companions and her husband, Jake. I used the photo from their engagement day/evening with the sunset and all. She's one of the best human beings I know, and I was honored to do one of her and her incredible husband. :)
<3<3<3


24. Katie

This cute girl is Katie's niece. 

Her nursery colors are teal, black, and gold, so we wanted to incorporate those colors. 

25. Kayte

For future reference, I super enjoy doing pet portraits.

Kthanksbye.

26. Sarah Jane

One of my friends from BYU commissioned me for a portrait of her sister and her family! I love the flowers she chose for the border and their outfits, too. :)

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I still have quite a few December orders to finish before the year ends, but I didn't want to wait any longer to update the blog. Thank you so much for all of your support! Can't wait to see what the future holds. :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!