Hi, welcome to my little site. Allow me to explain why this exists, what happened to my graphic design portfolio – and what the heck is the 30 Image Challenge?

So you’ve landed on my site, expecting to see my design portfolio. Instead, you’re confronted with this.

Oops.

This isn’t a design portfolio! What’s happening here?
Sorry about that. I’ve decided to move on from design and illustration work – while I did enjoy it, it just wasn’t viable, took up a lot of my free time, and well… there’s a lot of designers here in Innisfail. Some are way better than I was, and some are um… questionable. But they compete for business, and good on them. I just felt that the local market was over saturated, and seeing how some of the design firms in this town go on the attack with their competition – yeah, I wanted nothing to do with that. So I took a step sideways, and moved onto doing image retouching, which is something else I really enjoy and is creative.

Why does this whole website exist then?
I have created this site as a motivation for myself of sorts. As I go along, I want to see how I’ve progressed, what skills I’ve collected, and to document my journey into high end beauty retouching.

What is the 30 Image Challenge? What are the numbers for at the beginning of your posts?
In a nutshell, I intend to firstly produce 30 images over time, gaining new skills, and improving and building on others. I have read that it takes at least 30 images to see improvement, and to basically call yourself a retoucher. I want to learn. I want to improve. I hunger for it!
At the end of the 30 image challenge, I intend to make a post, showing just how far I’ve progressed – from total beginner to someone who has a grasp on the basics.

Why do you want to learn to retouch?
It’s complicated.
I enjoy it, for one. It’s calming, and clears my mind while allowing me to be creative. Funny enough too, it has actually helped my self-esteem.
I have a shocking lack of self-esteem. I abhor photos of myself, I even hate looking at myself in the mirror. However, doing these images? While the models are certainly beautiful, handsome, and have great genetics, they are also human. They have flaws. They’re not symmetrical. They don’t have spotlessly clear, even complexions. They have lumps and bumps, scars and freckles. They have wispy hair, and crooked teeth. And that’s okay. It’s okay to be human, to have flaws, to be yourself. It’s alright to want to age gracefully, or to get cosmetic work done.
And well, the next time I get caught in a photo? Then I can Photoshop that mug!
Ultimately though, each to their own.

Cheers.