I used to be a Ink Portrait Artist, but my life took an unexpected turn - Here's is my story...

During my teenage years my passion was drawing. I spent much of my time blasting the tunes in my bedroom with a sketchbook and pencil in my hands. Although I would draw all sorts of things, I really loved drawing portraits. The idea that with just a pencil and a piece of paper you could capture a person was amazing to me. Often I felt so much closer to my subjects, after I spent time drawing them. It was like I got to know them personally, after hours focused on their smallest details.

Many years after highschool I was still drawing portraits of workmates and there families. Eventually I moved from pencil drawings to Ink portraiture. It is quite difficult to draw in ink, because it is a very unforgiving medium. If your project involves multiple subjects, it can be very intimidating as you cannot correct any mistakes, therefore one slip of the hand or wrong pen stroke and you might have ruined days of work. Here is a Sienfeld portrait I drew to use as a cover picture for my professional portfolio. I made up business cards and postcards with this picture as an advertisement of my abilities as a portrait artist. You can imagine the nervousness as I drew this portrait in ink, moving from one subject to the next, trying to carefully make no mistakes working in archival ink.

Not long after drawing that picture I was in an automobile accident. The oncoming vehicle had missed her left hand turn and decided to dart across the highway at the last moment . She hit my vehicle head on and her moments lapse in judgement caused me a great deal of pain, years in fact. I woke up in hospital with a broken leg, wrist, multiple facial fractures and unable to open my eyes. The doctors were discussing actually peeling my face back and trying to fix the pillars of my face because of all the broken and fractured bones but thankfully everything set back in place (pretty close) on it's own, except my nose. I had to have several nose operations to get it straight again.

Here are some pictures of my car and me in the hospital. I can't even recognize myself. I can't remember ever seeing my father cry, but he was battling cancer when this all happened and was too emotional to make the 4 hour trip to see me. My mother said she tried to show him some pictures but it was too upsetting.

Here I am a few weeks after the accident, finally out of the hospital and sitting in front of a computer. Little did i know this was going to be my new career. (Online Trading)

Ok, lets throw in a picture of me today, so that this post is not so depressing.

Many things that happen to us in life are out of our control. This accident really took my life in a whole new direction. I couldn't walk for over a year and this meant physiotherapy every few days to stretch the muscles in my broken leg. It took a long time to learn to walk again, with a walker at first, then a cane, and finally with a limp. But the biggest impact on my life was my eyesight issues. I was left with double vision for years after the accident. My eyes could only hold focus for a few minutes and return to double vision. As I got stronger my eyes improved and today I can read or draw for 15-20 minutes before they become too strained to see clearly. So as a result 11 years after the accident, I am starting to draw a little again.

I have drawn hundreds of pictures in my lifetime, but I would like to share just a few, of my favorites with steemit. The most important drawing has to be my father. Who past away a few years back, he struggled for many years with lymphatic cancer. I miss him dearly.

He had the chance to meet his first grandchild, Owen. (my brothers son)

Here is my grandmother. (on my fathers side)

This is my other Grandmother and step grandfather. (sorry the image is poor quality)

Here is my brother as a child. (I laugh whenever I see his childhood photos)

These are two of my favorite cousins.

Here's some friends children, I'm not related to them but they were cute kids to draw. I just love this little guys shocked expression.

I drew this little girl in charcoal.

Well thank you for making it this far with me. I hope you enjoyed my story of a time when I was an Ink Portrait Artist, only 11 years have past, however it seems a lifetime ago. I am not too popular on steemit yet, but I have been working hard on my blog. While most of my posts have the theme of trading successfully in the stock market and cryptocurrency market, I have begun to draw again, a short cartoon strip. I've posted 6 episodes of the cartoon strip so far and will continue to post more episodes as I get time.

I love steemit, and I'm happy to have had an opportunity to share my story,

Luc