Portrait Requests are Now Open | Dear Brother Portrait

It's often said that what you do at home serves as practice for what you will do outside of home in life. Another popular phrase is that home is where the heart is. Family serves as the first platform that we have for relationships, experiencing dealing with others, and expressing ourselves. 

Recently, it hit me that I haven't experimenting in having much of my own artwork showcased in my own family home. I think if I just hadn't really seen it as a space for my work, if I haven't been bold enough, aware enough or open enough to say "my work is going here". I connected many dots with my epiphany and it's all relevant that I am about to announce my open call for commission requests this month with specific family based themes in mind. However, I felt that before I could even start working on blessing others and their families, I had to give back to my family first! 

Before I knew it I had planned a series of work I had to do for my fam... letting truth set in and inspire me to go through albums I began the process....

Here is a shot below of the portrait I painted of my older brother (aged 3 in photo).

Materials used: Tombo marker, gouache and ink on watercolor paper.

P.S. This experience is like no other and serves as great practice.

Finalized and framed at home.

I have just accepted a few requests to do a few portraits while I was working on this. The reactions from my family were all of the inspiration that I needed to get me ready to begin!

No feeling like spreading the love.

I am now accepting commissions. Send an email to Sarajb96@gmail or reply below for more information on portrait commissions and prices.

Keep Your Best Guard Up...

Your mind. 

Keep it free and strong. Yet, willing to expand.

SPRING SPRUNG

 

Spring is back and it's time to brighten things up a bit. I have tendencies to go the easy route with a black leather jacket and dark lips often, and it's not for nothing that this trend has been so on trend either this past fall. But this fall has had some dark clouds all over the US with all of the recent tragedies and weather conditions that keep things dark and gloomy it's about time to brighten things up some more.

Shades of the season:

Reds 

Pea Greens

Mustard

Here's  for the girl who keep it dark, possibly vamped up on no matter the season.

I haven't forgotten you... since I am that kind of girl myself.

Breeze Through the Moments

Hello everyone! Ya know, sometimes I think to myself how crazy the ups and downs of plan failing or a missed mark can be. I noticed in my own experiences, especially in the most recent moments, that I have not really taken a minute to breathe and recuperate from such things. I just had to let out  a sigh and roll with the punches. I think it's critical now especially when passionate about areas that aren't working out, to just sit back and breeze through the moments and get up again. On to the next bigger and better move for ourselves. 

Right now, this is what I ought to do.

Bush Babes | A Hand at Nature

I recently took a journey within my imagination. I found myself in a garden of what we needed and not what was in excess. I thought about my hair texture-- kinky, coily and spirally springing on top of my head. When I wake up. I have so many options with styling it makes me so happy to have this kind of hair texture. Most of the time its about the shape, not the definition of the texture of my hair. 

I thought of the appearance of Afro textured hair altogether on different women and compared a garden of plants--- rather bushes. No head of hair or shape. It's beautiful.

I imagined the idea of having a bush growing out of my scalp, designed by bush cutters into an exotic shape. I thought about different flowers and things we find in a garden area and wanted to express a different idea for each type. 

Bushes and afro hair in it's distinction from many hair types grows up and out. 

It all came together for this short series of illustrations. 

Embrace a hand at nature.

The Lotus

The Dress

The Rock

The Jewel

The Stream

Sketch Nights at the Society of Illustrations

Sketches from the last Fashion Illustration Sketch Night 2/7/13. 

I've recently been trying my hand at using new gouache brand. 

Searching for feelings. Searching for a story behind the fashion in these sketches. 

Portland Chef Illustrations

I illustrated four chefs from Portland all of different restaurants for an email template run by FUN.org.

A main note the client wanted was the vibe of the email template to be inspired by the show "Portrlandia". 

 I got the idea of incorporating a regional reference for the theme. I put their heads on emblems to keep it quirky.

Illustrations weren't used but for the final version of the email but here are my illustrations and a sample of my comp.