I’ve completed my final portrait of 2010 – this is Takoda, a lovely white German Shepherd in a nice white mat & black frame. The size of this graphite drawing is 5×7.

It has been another wonderful and creative year for me and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you checking in on me this year! I wish you all good things for 2011.

Happy New Year!!

xox
Leanne

Custom Portrait of Bessie
12″ x 12″ Oil Painting on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

This lovely painting of Bessie was a well received Christmas surprise so this is his post-holiday unveiling! Enjoy!

Custom Portrait of Max (#2)
12″ x 12″ Oil Painting on Gallery Wrapped Canvas
©2010 Leanne Wildermuth
All Rights Reserved

I’ve painted Max a second time now, this time as a “teenager” (view his previous puppy portrait here). This lovely painting was a Christmas gift so this is his post-holiday unveiling! Enjoy!

This update is long, long overdue!

I’ve spent the last couple of days inserting all of my projects to date into my portfolio. I can’t believe 2010 is almost over!

I’ve added over 20 things to draw to my portfolio, so if you see yours here, please pop right on over to your project and leave a comment. It is so helpful to have feedback on my projects so new and old clients alike have a good feeling for the quality of my work as well as my trustworthiness and reliability!

I’ve even been able to add a few photos of framed pieces (Moggie, Lilly and Joey’s portraits) which is really neat! I love having photos from clients to share!

I’d also like to thank each and every one of my clients who entrusted me with their projects. It’s incredible to me to look back over the work I’ve done just this year and see such a variety, which means that many people put a lot of faith in me to be creative in whatever medium their project requires. That is a very cool thing, and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to create in such a variety of ways. I never get tired of it – and don’t think I’ll ever narrow down to just one “thing”, even though I have contemplated just that on numerous occasions as many people recommend a specialty – I just can’t do it!

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support on my artistic journey. Love and hugs to you all!

My portrait photography business has been pretty steady in spite of my lack of properly promoting or advertising this as one of my primary pursuits. What a blessing to have that perfect combination of faith and word of mouth working so wonderfully in my life! I am happily snapping shots of beautiful people with my lovely eldest daughter by my side as she assists with lighting and equipment.

My latest Senior portrait session was with Kayla, a real sweetheart and natural in front of the camera. I’d recently purchased a few new backgrounds for my studio (from Fuse Backgrounds) and got to try them all out on her, as well as take her on location to Augustana College for some fall photos around some gorgeous old architecture! I am excited to find out the ones she chooses so I can get those final retouches done and share them.

Hope you enjoy the sneak peek – there’s more to come!

Another recent project that I completed is a custom WordPress site design for book author & copy writer, Susan McCorkindale.

Her site previously consisted of html pages that were full of images that had text on them – which doesn’t help much with Search Engine Optimization. (Designers, if any one of you are doing this, you are doing a dis-service to your clients and need to seriously re-think this practice!) I installed WordPress for her, illustrated her “signature” and created a clean, simple site design so that her readers get an eyeful of her hilarious writing and beautiful face! I gave her site an added boost using plugins specifically for SEO and social networking, as well.

Go check her out and pick up a copy of her latest release, Confessions of a Counterfeit Farm Girl!

Another one of the very cool products I offer with my Senior portrait and Wedding sessions is a Layflat Album. I had such fun with Miranda during her session and had a great time assembling all of the photos into a keepsake album for her. The end product is a durable, beautiful book to treasure her High School graduation.

I completed this portrait of Lilly back in September, but as you can see I’ve been entirely lax in updating my blog and portfolio! My client asked for framing on this piece as well since I was to ship it wrapped as a gift to its recipient. I am so pleased with how the contemporary mat and frame sets off this sweet (5″ x 5″) portrait, it was just perfect. Especially on my recently re-painted walls!

At the moment, I am booked and busy with several projects and life in general has kept me more than hustling and distracted. I have committed myself to getting my site updated so please stay tuned as more updates are coming!

Update 9/22: Revised & replaced Salem’s portrait with the updated scan

I’ve just completed another piece of artwork, this is Salem’s Shadow. I’ve done his portrait in graphite on an 8×10 size sheet (I use Canson acid-free drawing papers) using the very same brand of pencils that I used in my high school art class. (I’m a creature of habit, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!)

Salem is a black cat, and I’ve drawn him lying on a really pretty Celtic rug, his favorite. I combined a couple of photos to create this pose.

Enjoy!