Caricatures, Silhouettes and Illustrations by Leona Hosack

Hand-cut silhouette of a bridal couple! I can do this from a photo   as a commission or even on the spot at a wedding! In fact I did this as a composite from two different photos!         A pencil portrait I did recently of a flower girl. Makes a great gift for the bride  and groom! Or for the family of the flower girl ! Wedding Season is here! Weddings are fun for a silhouette artist. Since silhouettes only take a few minutes to produce on the spot, I wander among the guest and create a keepsake that they can take home with them! I usually cut two silhouettes at a time so that one can be put into a scrapbook for the bride and groom to have. The guest can then sign their silhouettes and the book can double as a guest book! If  I'm doing caricatures at a wedding I set up my easel and work in one spot. Guests are usually eager to have their caricatures done to commemorate the day!  Here some more samples of what I ca...

23 Days to go to reach $1000 to turn my Baha'i Inspired ebook for middle readers into print! We need all the help we can get! Lots of good rewards if you contribute - including free copies of the book and as well as the illustrations! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1822318942/print-release-of-babysitter-blues-no-werewolves-in Description of Babysitter Blues: Fourteen-year-old Evan feels like there's no tomorrow. He's trapped in an unending cycle of babysitting his much younger half-siblings while his mom juggles work and classes. His has little memory of his father, who died when he was young, and his mother has just divorced the stepfather to whom he had grown close. A gang of bullies at his school delights in tormenting him. But a sympathetic English teacher and a new friend, Nava, help him to see that sometimes what seems to be a hopeless situation really isn't. This story is inspired by the Baha'i Faith. A great review by Nancy K. Knowles-...

My now Graduated son Adam!  Following on the wake of many Etsy orders (Samples below) I recently recieved for portraits with descriptive words surrounding the subject, I thought I would try it with a graduation theme, since my son just graduated from College! And since graduation season is not quite over yet, I decided to post it as an sample in my Etsy Shop! Here is a great video by children's book illustrator and teacher Will Terry entitled "Are we creating too many Artists?" He discusses a theme close to my heart-do we need more artists in the world and  how can I be unique in my own work with a world of other artists out there? He touches on the difference between being original and copying, and also talks about how an attitude of abundance rather than scarcity relates to originality. Very inspiring!

Caroline Kathleen Appler I've been very fortunate to have received many orders through my Etsy shop in the last week. Altogether (but who's counting, right?) -I had  eighteen portrait orders from Wednesday to Sunday last week. Some were requested to be done in time for Mother's Day!I had such a blast drawing these beautiful children! I must admit that I tend to fall in love with any face I draw, no matter whose face it is, but I especially love the little ones! As I worked I was grateful for several programs on both my pc and my laptop which allowed me to enlarge the photos I was working from. I worked from sketching very lightly, to gradually putting down  darker and darker pencil lines; being aware of subtle gradations of value and trying to maintain a fresh look by not blending with my fingers, which I used to always do. I find that leaving the lines in tact and visible makes the drawing more vibrant! This is the photo I worked from for the portrait...

This is one of my recent commissions through my Etsy shop! The photo I worked from is above. As I pursue being an artist, based on my passion for portrait work and illustration, I marvel in the fact that as I go forward, I am learning each day to let go of the need or habit of focusing on what I don't want. The process of practicing giving myself permission to actually go after what I do want, is beginning to produce a balance of focus that is bringing me better and better results! I have been following Katy Tafoya's work as a small business mentor and life coach for some time and have found her work encouraging and inspiring! Katy Tafoya says that lack of focus can wear us down, adding to our unhappiness.  Below is a great article by Katy Tafoya   www.successforsoloprenuers.com Want to Live a Passionate Life? Change Your Thoughts One of the first things I learned when I started working on finding my focus and rediscovering my passion was that I needed to fi...