My Origin Story as a Visual Artist.
I had a good career as an advertising copywriter, writing for TV, radio, print, digital, billboards, and doing my best to avoid direct mail.
One vacation—on a whim—I bought a sketch pad at a shop on Sanibel Island, Florida. Sounds a tad romantic, doesn’t it?
The pad sat on my desk for years. Literally.
Then one day my good friend Dave offered to loan my wife and me a large painting his daughter had created, and we had long admired. We accepted and hung the artwork in our living room.
After a few days, I announced to my wife and our three dogs: “I’d like to try something like that.”
Naive? Arrogant? Foolhardy? Sometimes a huge challenge requires all three.
And so I got out the drawing pad, watched some “how-to” videos, read some art books (looked at the pictures, and I turned the pages), got some tips from real artists—and dove in.
That was the fall of 2022.
Since then I’ve drawn dozens upon dozens of portraits of friends, family, celebrities, and strangers. I work mostly with ink, pencil, and a bit of watercolor. But I have yet to try something as ambitious as that big beautiful painting that still hangs in our home.
I know my limitations which are governed by a lack of patience.
But I also know my strengths—capturing likeness and attitude—which I lean into whenever I decide to draw an interesting face. Maybe yours will be next.
Thanks for reading. Now please have a look at the “Portraits” section if you haven’t already.
—Lee H. Schmidt