I take a lot of fresh-out-of-the-chair photos for clients to send to their group chats. But the photos I'd rather hang my name on are the ones taken three months later, in daylight, with no edits.
Three of them this season:
The wildflower sleeve on K. We did this across two sittings in February. Twelve weeks in, the line work has held exactly where I put it. The orange of the moth has softened a little, which I expected — color always loses a bit of saturation as the skin heals, and it's why I chose a slightly more vivid orange to start with.
The butterfly-and-cactus on M. Fine line, all black, photographed against her garden. This is what fine line should look like at three months — clean, slightly softer at the edges than it was fresh, no spreading.
The shoulder florals on D. Closer-up shot than the other two. The smallest details, the ones I was nervous about, held up. The lesson for me here was about which line weight is actually safe to commit to at that size.
If you're thinking about a fine-line piece and you want to see how it holds, ask me at the consult — I'll show you healed photos of similar work. They're the only honest reference.
