I want to take a moment and share with you one of my older drawings from 2007. I was 19 years old and still dating my would be wife, Shiloh Silveira. My obsession with her hasn't diminished at all over the course of the years, and evidence of that is by the shear number of drawings I have made featuring her! However, even when I'm not drawing her, I still am.

I've heard it said that sometimes authors write characters loosely based on people they actually know. Even if this is done unconsciously, the fact remains that creators use their own life experiences to draw inspiration from when writing or drawing. It becomes a foundation for our work.

The Line Art

In my own life, I've had people mention to me how similar all of my female drawings are. Maybe it's my style or something, but they mention specifically that they see my wife often in my drawings, even if I'm drawing some other female character. I guess I tend to steer towards a certain jaw line, eye color, or cute nose...

Perhaps it's no secret that I illustrate the features I find most attractive. What's interesting to me, however, is that these features are present regardless of what style I illustrate in. I have made dozens of portraits of the love of my life, and no two are the same style. What can I say, I like to experiment a lot.

The Finished Illustration

I illustrated this portrait of Shiloh Silveira in 2007, the very first of many. All I'm trying to say is that I love to draw my dear Shiloh. And even when I'm not drawing her, a part of me squeezes in a little bit of her likeness in every female I draw. She's never far from my mind and my heart.