NYE Belle

One of the things I accomplished this holiday season was binge-watching the entire first season of The Witcher in 2 nights. I know, you’re impressed. But seriously, it’s highly entertaining and I say that as someone who doesn’t even enjoy the fantasy genre as a rule. One of the great things about the show is all the fashion inspo, particularly as served by two of its main characters, Geralt (the titular witcher) and Yennefer (a rogue sorceress). I have been doing Witcher-inspired looks ever since I finished watching, and NYE was no exception. I decided to “Yen-up” this Nicole Miller dress by adding a faux fur vest whose silhouette is almost armor-like.

Notes: Nicole Miller dress (thrifted, $8); Skaist Taylor for Target vest (thrifted, $25); Valentino shoes (consignment, $50).

Festive, My Way

I’m not big on festive dressing – no Christmas sweaters here, no red-and-green combos. Well, not quite. I did wear dark forest green and blush pink for Christmas Day dinner with my family, a combination inspired by the Danse Lente bag I received as a gift from my husband.

This is a combination that I might not have otherwise put together, but I ended up loving it. It’s unexpected and doesn’t look garish at all. As someone who loves colour but also feels most comfortable wearing black, this is important. Also loving this Oak & Fort faux leather, half-wrap skirt – it’s such a “me” piece, and I can’t wait to use it for some Witcher-goes-corporate looks.

Notes: Aritzia sweater (thrifted, $5); Oak & Fort skirt (thrifted, $12); Melody Ehsani earrings (retail, $20); Prada shoes (retail, $330); Danse Lente bag (gift).

Laurie-Jo Mash Up

Another thing I did over the holidays was watch the new Little Women movie. A separate post on that is coming up later this week. Needless to say, however, the movie was also full of style inspo for me, especially from Jo and Laurie. This outfit was a bit of a mash-up of their styles, and also inspired by this Instagram ad from Frank & Oak:

I don’t have a pair of high waisted plaid pants (more’s the pity) so I had to make do with my paperbag-waist Anthro pants. The marigold colour paired well with my grey Comme des Garcons cardigan, a recent thrift rescue. (The cardigan had been shrunk by its previous owner, and I did my best to un-shrink it via blocking.) I like to think these Modern Vice shoes are something that Laurie – or Timmy Chalamet, let’s be honest – would wear. Timmy is one of my new style idols; I love how he mixes traditionally masculine and feminine pieces, and marches to the beat of his own sartorial drum.

Notes: Aritzia top (thrifted, $5); Comme des Garcons cardigan (thrifted, $4); Anthropologie pants (gift); Modern Vice shoes (thrifted, $25).

Gothic Fairytale

I didn’t bother much with Boxing Day sales this year, apart from checking out Goodwill’s 50% off sale and popping into Nordstrom Rack. The latter didn’t have a stellar sale, but I did find this literally stellar faux leather jacket. Actually, to be precise, my daughter found it for me. Her mission, in every store, is to find “sparkly stuff” and, this time, she really delivered. I am obsessed with star motifs, and my daughter didn’t get her predilection for sparkles from her father, ahem. I like how BlankNYC jackets fit (I have a couple of other ones), and they’re reasonably priced at Nordstrom Rack, so this one was a no-brainer. My first outfit with it was also a no brainer. I layered my Rick Owens smoke-hued tunic over an asymmetrical Oska skirt, and added some patent leather boots (my current faves) for some textural contrast. The result was very “gothic fairytale princess” and I LOVED every bit of it.

Notes: Oak & Fort turtleneck (retail, $38); Rick Owens tunic (secondhand, $133); Oska skirt (thrifted, $10); BlankNYC jacket (retail, $63); Ecco boots (thrifted, $20).

The last time we talked about my art endeavours, I had just entered on a new era – I like to think – in my experiments with portraiture. I was finally developing some finesse, and getting more adventurous with my technique. Since then … well, it’s been more of the same. I can’t say that I’ve noticed another significant “leap” in my abilities, but I trust that I am slowly improving because that’s the beauty of practice. Even when you don’t know it, you are learning. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.

Before I talk about the new direction I’m taking with my portraits, here’s a quick round-up of some you haven’t seen:

So, where am I going with this? Portrait commissions. This approach addresses a couple of ongoing issues. One, storage. I don’t have room at my house to keep accumulating canvases; people tend to want to keep their own portraits which means that my work output has a ready-made home waiting for it (assuming its subject likes it). Two, subject matter. The longer I keep at this, the more I realize that I am especially drawn to unique, interesting faces. Is it weird to say that I find real-life models to be more diverse and interesting than models in magazine spreads? I think the lack of air-brushing alone is more helpful to me as an artist. I don’t want my paintings to look like anime drawings, if that makes sense, which is what tends to happen when I am working with an inspiration photo that has been heavily Photoshopped.

As a side-note, I pause here to mention that social media photo filters are just as bad. I know everyone uses them when taking selfies – I’m guilty as charged – but they render those images pretty much useless to me as a painter. They typically bleach out the colour and shadows from the face which, while certainly dewiness-enhancing, makes for a really boring painting. That’s not something I ever thought I would complain about, but there you have it.

Anyway, commissions.

They’ve been fun but also a challenge. Painting a famous person (who will never see your work) is one thing; painting someone you know, and who will most definitely see and have opinions about your work, is another thing. Likeness matters a whole lot more. As someone who is not very good at drawing, it’s a bit nerve-wracking. I’ve learned a lot in a short time about how much of a difference very slightly changes to the proportions of a face can make. Half an inch of jaw or nose or forehead can make or break a portrait. Sometimes I think I’m on the right track at the pencil drawing stage – which is mostly just a broad outline – only to realize about 2/3 of the way into the painting that I’ve gotten the eye placement wrong, or something equally disastrous. Acrylic painting is forgiving up to the certain point – I have shortened or lengthened noses and eyebrows with some regularity – but at some point you have to admit defeat. Luckily, so far, I think I’ve been able to sell some of my lapses as “artistic license”. More practice is called for.

Here are some of my commissions so far.

This is the lovely Nicole, the wife of one of my co-workers.

I was drawn to this photo because of the lighting and soft shadows – it had a lovely, dreamy feel. While my version is brighter and contrast-y, I think I captured the romantic vibe of the original.

This is Teagan, whom I recently met through our local IG community.

This is Erin, a former co-worker.

Next, I tackled a real challenge: children. And not just any kids, but my own. The artist in me battled the mom, whose exacting standards for getting a good likeness were tough to meet. I did these portraits as a Xmas present for my father, who is impossible to shop for. Kids, like hands, are the toughest subject matter I’ve tackled yet. Their faces have different proportions, their skin is different … it’s all different and difficult. Sigh. I managed to pull off 2 pieces that I can live with, but I won’t lie – I’ll be happy to go back to painting adults.

Here’s to many more portraits in the new year, learning new techniques, getting better, dreaming bigger.

December isn’t over yet, but my work month has wrapped up so … whooohoo! I still have not wrapped my head around the fact that we are going into a new decade (my fourth!) so I will be spending this “bonus” time at month’s end pondering this milestone. I should probably write something here – after all, this blog is turning 10 in May 2020 – if only because writing helps me to organize my thoughts. It’s safe to say that I am an entirely new person now than I was in December 2009, which is a testament to the impact of very small incremental changes over a long period of time. Though, to be fair, there were some big changes in the past decade as well, not least of them getting married, having kids, and changing career tracks.

But all that is a post for another day. On to the clothes:

Because December was a short work month, combined with the fact that I worked from home more frequently, I don’t have a lot to show you. My unofficial theme for the month was “subtle sparkle”. Not sure how “subtle” that ended up being, but I like the results nonetheless. Metallics are neutrals in my book, and a little bit of shimmer never hurt anyone.

Looking forward, we are coming up on my least favourite month of the year. January is usually a long, cold, hard slog. As with November (my other least fave), I am planning to be proactive about keeping a positive frame of mind. One of those ways may be to focus on a brighter palette for my outfits; more colour, less black than usual. We’ll see how that goes.

As far as the blog goes, I would love to hear from you about what topics or conversations you’d like to see on here – the better to help us both avoid those dreaded winter doldrums.

Happy holidays!