Portrait studies & leaving my job | SHW #15

Hey friends, and happy Sunday ☀️

This week I want to share some of the things I worked on as well as what’s been going on with me in my life and art.

What I made this week

Here’s an early look at some art I created that I haven’t shared on social media yet:

I’ve been continuing my practice of portrait studies. I want to branch out into different subjects, but I just love drawing portraits so much. I find facial features so interesting and fun to draw.

I’ve been studying portraits for several months now and playing around with my style and approach as I go. One of the best ways I’ve found to experiment with my style has been to do so within my comfort zone. If I’m experimenting with my style while also drawing things I’m not as familiar with, it can feel very overwhelming. For these drawings, I decided to go back to creating more defined line art with this dark, inky brush. I really enjoy the contrast between the softness of the painting and the rich blacks.

Eventually I’ll jump into new subject matter, but for now you’ll be seeing a lot more portraits from me 🥰

I quit my job

For many, many years now, I’ve known that software engineering is not the right career for me. Ever since I started drawing, I knew I wanted to pursue something more creative, and I’ve been slowly building my life around that vision.

For a while now, I have been saving money so that I could leave my job for a few years and go all in on the things I love. I’ve been financially able to leave for some time, but was just waiting for the right moment to take the leap.

I’m a huge believer in divine timing. I don’t know what the right moment will look like, but I know it when I see it. The stars aligned for me this past week (quite literally, there was a lunar eclipse!), and I decided to hand in my notice. My official last day of employment will be this Friday, and I couldn’t be more excited.

The same day I quit my job, a Youtuber I follow that goes by Katherout released a video titled “How Corporate America Rotted My Brain”. In the video, she goes through some of her old journal entries and blog posts throughout her employment. These notes go from her giving everything she has for her job, to questioning what the hell is the point, to emotionally separating herself from work altogether, with various weird stages in between.

Watching it was very cathartic for me. I felt like I was reliving my own experience from the past 7 years. It’s genuinely sad how the U.S. government and economic system has forced people into situations where they feel they will literally die without a job. We feel indebted and obligated to our employers, as though they aren’t taking as much, if not more, from us as we do from them.

I’m so grateful to the past version of me that had the audacity to make another plan. She built up a new set of skills, reduced her expenses, and saved her money to set current me up for walking down a different path.

I don’t know exactly what the future holds, but for at least the next year, I’ll be living life my way and we’ll just see how it goes! It’s going to be an adventure ✈️

To anyone reading this, thank you for supporting me and coming along for the ride. I’ll be continuing to give updates on how things are going every week, so subscribe if you haven’t already and want to keep in touch 💜

All my love,

Rachel