It’s Portrait Time!

One of my core beliefs about art is that it should be more accessible. Not only should the spaces that hold the world’s most important work be available to more people, but the techniques and ideas that can lead to great work should also be easier to access. For fear of diluting their own practice, many artists today are hesitant to teach, and that’s especially true when it comes to inexperienced students.

That tendency— treating technique as a trade secret, or worse, acting as if artists teaching art is a negative— has always struck me as another form of gatekeeping in an industry rife with it. As many of you know, I grew up in poverty, and the only way I had access to an art education was through an athletic scholarship that paid for my college tuition. I worked hard to get that scholarship, but I was also incredibly fortunate to receive it; if not for that assistance, I would not have been able to study under my amazing painting professor, Todd Lowery, who ignited my love for art and set me on a path to a career.

Sharing the knowledge I gained in college and subsequently honed over years of professional practice was the inspiration for me creating my online painting course, Not Sorry Art School, in 2020. Recognizing that an art education like I had was not an option for so many people who had a passion for painting, I wanted to make a course where students could learn technique and best practices at their own pace and at an accessible price.

Now two years in, Not Sorry Art School features 11 unique courses across various subject matters. I continue to be amazed at the progress I see from my students and the positive feedback I have received makes me excited for the future of the curriculum. I release a new course section each quarter (four per year), and today I’m excited to unveil the newest unit, portraiture. 

I came to portrait painting relatively recently compared to other subjects, but motivated by a desire to improve, I have really dug into it over the last two years and I am so excited to share my insights with y’all.

To give you a taste of the new portrait section, today I painted a self-portrait and talked through my process for a YouTube video below. I hope you like it ;)

And of course, you can check out all of my course sections at NotSorryArtSchool.com now!