the most beautiful portrait ever!

my friend, lotta joy, does some really wonderful portraits. she has posted some of her work on her blog - go and check it out here. i feel that the famous people that she has drawn come to life when i look at her work.

anyway, i asked her if could get her to do a portrait for me. and she agreed. i sent her the pic of jambaloney and i that you see on the sidebar, as well as one of my favourite pics of jambaloney. she chose to do the portrait of jambaloney although if i can "hire" her properly, i think that i will get her to do the one of jambaloney and i because the portrait that she did of jambaloney is to die for!

here is the pic that i sent her:

this pic is one of my favourites of him because it really shows the beautiful shape of his eyes. it also shows his smile lines and i have always loved his little smirk. i think he is the most beautiful man in the world!

on the day that this pic was taken, we had spent the day putting down hardwood strips on our stairs. we had spent the day walking around our garden, of course this was back in the city, and we had just had a really ordinary day together. but we were together. he was tired when i took this pic but i just knew at the end of such a wonderful day, spent doing ordinary things together, that i had to capture an ordinary day that was filled with love and ordinary things. i was so in love with him on this day and i had to capture the feeling with a pic of him. i said, "babe, let me take your picture". he hates having his picture taken. so he gave me his little sideways grin that i love and i took the pic.

lotta joy had no idea what this picture meant to me.

and yet somehow, she managed to capture everything i feel in his portrait.

she did an amazing job. she captured his beautiful eyes with such detail. i think i can see myself reflected in his eyes. the eyes are what really kills me in this portrait - i don't know how she does it?!?!? she nailed every one of his smile lines. i love those smile lines. and she got his mouth and sideways grin just perfect. the shading around his nose and chin kill me. she totally nailed his chin.

but the eyes. oh my goodness - the eyes.

i hope that you all enjoy lotta joy's portrait of my beautiful man. there are some really talented people in the world and lotta joy is one of them. she's also really, really funny! please be sure to check out her blog here.

thank you so much, lotta joy, for creating what will become my most-treasured possession.