Stretching reference images over the entire canvas,
making them transparent and using them as shape and color reference is awesome.

It is a powerful idea,
that can have you selling your paintings in no time.

It is a perfect start,
of your perfect art.

Take a looooong time to paint,
and dream, and think about things, there is no time in art.

When you are ready,
the next steps are near.

I like my portfolio,
the same way I like my websites plain and simple.

This is not as simple as it sounds,
but it is simplest.

I made all my works square,
and I focused on just parading the top nine.

Which when all glued together,
make another square.

This quilt of color,
which I named pieces of nine...

Makes your website beautiful,
and your portfolio, stand out.

A consistent portfolio,
tells your customers what they are getting for the price you ask.

Because of the way catpea works,
I use the montage command from ImageMagick.

And simply say,
montage image/lg-poetry-{0695,0707,0704,0713,0714,0716,0720,0724,0727}-illustration.jpg -tile 3x3 -geometry 500x500 portfolio.jpg

When you keep things consistent, you can automate a lot of stuff,
and here I even created a little invention portfolio dot jpeg, that asks, "what are your nine best works?".

There is program hiding in here,
a swift and lightweight stream based static site generator, learning programming goes really well with learning art.

Do not get discouraged or tricked by low portrait prices,
people set them low to entice a customer to upgrades.

An honest artist will sell a portrait for a $100,
and $50 can get a business going.

A lot of people will avoid $10 or $25 dollar portraits,
because they get burned, or know it is a trick.

I find my most detailed works require nine to twelve hours,
so a full day's work.

I think the true value of a beautiful portrait,
starts at $500, and it also comes with some extras.

Time-lapse for one, the reference technique helps you create such perfect creations,
that not everyone will believe you actually painted them.

Time-lapse videos are both,
fascinating keepsakes, and proof of your perfect art.

Every powerful artist,
must also be a teacher.

So as you work on your Portfolio and sales,
you also need to prepare 12 lectures worth of material.

Ideas, customization, shortcuts, observations,
and exercises, all wrapped up in a thousand dollar tutorial set for starting artists.

It is really important to work on your lectures,
and you maybe invited for a semester or two to your local community college.

Photo realism, your technique, and body of knowledge,
is a precious treasure.

If you choose to keep your portfolio square as I do,
the works that no longer belong to it, must be featured in your Coffee Table book.

It is very important to keep a journal open as you paint,
as you may want to attach a quote, or a paragraph or even a story to each of your works.

The cover image,
is of course the pieces of nine, or your own equivalent.

Never aim to write a book,
and of my gosh, don't try to organize it into chapters.

A book, like happiness, must ensue, to paraphrase Dr. Frankl,
books are born from articles you write, from notes you take.

The truth about your Coffee Table or Art Book,
is that it creates it self, it is not a to do item, it is a thing you eventually discover that you already have.

Once portraits are part of you,
you will search for more.

Often this becomes a call to full figure poses,
where you move beyond the face, and take to fashion and especially pose and hands.

Sometimes, you will be called even higher,
and that maybe the call of Fantasy Art.

An increase in complexity,
is a very healthy thing.

It is a symptom,
of you having internalized art.