My Unexpected Journey: How Creating a Portrait Series Helped Me Cope with a Rare Disease

The Stella Luna Portrait series is part love letter and part coping mechanism.

I was far from okay when I started it. I was in the process of being diagnosed with a rare disease (blog post about that here), which required surgery. I needed a distraction. I'd just taken Charly Clements' Out of this World Portraits course for Procreate (which I highly recommend) and wanted to put my newfound skills to good use. 

Did I mention I needed a distraction?

So, I looked at the list of space-inspired 3-word prompts Charly was kind enough to give us, picked one, and got to work. 

Well, kinda.

I may or may not have gotten some friends to pick some of the prompts they liked. I don't know why I wanted to include them, just that I did. Maybe it was the sense of collaboration, something I could control, during a time when I didn't know which way was up—if I could even run my business anymore. 

I focused on the people who were there for me. The ones who were keeping me somewhat sane through easily one of the craziest, most stressful periods of my life. Before I knew it, I had 5-6 early sketches done.

Then, it was surgery time. 

I couldn't do much for the first few weeks. Just picking up my Apple Pencil was a Herculean feat. Eventually, I got back to it. I'd decided on a few things:

1. It was going to be a long-term series. Ambiguity hadn't left my life, even after the diagnosis. I had to be patient with myself.
2. I didn't want to just focus on my loved ones. I wanted to focus on my progress as an artist, on the joy, resilience, and multitudes Black women such as myself contain.
   1. I also didn't want them to look EXACTLY like my friends. They like their privacy, and I like my creative freedom. 
      
   2. Plus, only... 5 out of the potential 15? 20? are inspired by friends.
3. I wanted it to be a 'thank you' to Charly. I've always wanted to learn how to draw people. Charly's classes have allowed me to do that. They've helped me find my voice and style.
4. I wanted to have fun. I didn't want to be stuck on a particular style or theme, but still maintain a sense of cohesion. So, I included a few landmark elements: stars, clouds, sparkles, and gradients. I also try to reuse colors from previous portraits in subtler ways if I, ahem, accidentally make a portrait without some of the elements.
   
5. They all had to be celestial space goddesses. I... really have no reason behind this one. I just thought it would be cool. I even made myself one. [cough.]

My friend Lucie came up with the name Stella Luna. She has a knack for naming things. In fact, as a kid, she won a contest to name a Crayola crayon. She has many, many talents, but that's a blog post for another day. 

Over the last year, I've carved out small, medium, and large chunks of time to work on the series. I usually draw on my bed. I don't know why, as I have a perfectly good (albeit small) desk in my room, but it feels better to do it there.

Some are bright and colorful. 

Some aren't.

Some are elaborate, while others are simple.

Some completely deviate from the theme, but my reuse of colors still makes them fit in.

I've created 9 so far. 9! I've only released 3 of them (the 4th photo in the collage above is a sneak peak!)... and I've got more to make!

But I'm not scared of that.

I like that I can take my time.

I like that this is an ode to all the things that I love and keep me grounded: art, friendship, color, creativity, education, and most importantly, the unyielding power of women.

Want this in your space?
Click here to shop the collection (so far!). 

Until next time!

Love,
Cherese a.k.a. Rese