Rudy Gonzalez asks: I wanted to know how did you come up with the name Lachri?
When I got started with art, I wanted a name that I could keep forever. I knew I would eventually get married and I didn’t want the name to change. I also HATED my maiden name, between the name itself and the man it was attached to, there was no way I was going to use it. No, I’m not telling you what that name was!
When I was very young my mom used to breed show basset hounds and shih tzus. Her “kennel” name was “Lachri”. This was a combination of my name and my sister Christi’s name. I always liked how it sounded. After many years of that name being retired, I took it over to sign my artwork with. I now have a half sister named “Leanna”. Luckily her letters fit into “Lachri” too…or I would have to rename her!
The funny thing about the name Lachri, I started using it before the internet was really used. There were no artist websites or anything like that. I would like to say choosing to use the name Lachri all those years ago was some marketing genius, I mean now I have a very simple website (lachri.com), and my name was available on most social media sites. In reality though, it was just dumb luck that I chose to do that early on and was able to turn it into my brand 🙂
Angel writes: How do I create the illusion of movement in a painting. For example, if I want to paint an 1890’s Gibson Girl swinging on a swing-set. She’s going to be “frozen” in time in one place. But how would I give the feeling of air through her skirts and hair?
This may not be the answer you’re looking for…but you get it by looking at your reference photo. Look at how the cloth of her skirt moves, how her hair lies. There isn’t a trick to make that happen (and PLEASE don’t put little lines to make it look like there is movement). When you have your reference photo, really study it. The way that her hair and the fabric of her clothes are in that photo is exactly how you want yours to be to give the illusion of movement. In addition to that, the position of the swing is going to contribute to that. If the swing is positioned at the same place it would be if not moving (the center), then no one will think it’s moving. We all know that if the swing is in the air that it is moving. That fact alone is going to make the viewer automatically recognize movement.
One other thing you may want to do is use a motion blur look for your background.