ICAD 2023

An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a smiling Asian child in a green shirt and pigtails.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a smiling man with a white goatee, in a blue shirt and black hat.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a dark-skinned androgynous-looking person with short black hair.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of light-skinned woman with red hair and blue eyes.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a woman with dark hair wearing a blue hijab.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a smiling man with medium skin tone and dark hair.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a serious-looking young woman with medium skin tone and dark hair pulled back tightly.
An acrylic portrait — atop a collaged background — of a woman with light skin tone and dark hair looking over her bare shoulder.

This year for the Index Card a Day (ICAD) challenge, hosted by Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow, I decided to step way outside my comfort zone and tackle something I’ve always been interested in exploring: portraits.

The only index cards I had on hand were just 2×3″ (5×7.6 cm). I added collage, chose an reference image from Google, and tried my best to capture the light and shadow in a loose way while generally capturing the spirit of the model.

After nine portraits, I’m moving on to creative processes I enjoy more — but to be clear, I’m not leaving this project with shame or guilt for having not finished or wishing that I’d pursued something different. In fact, I feel proud that I not only tried something new, but I gave myself permission to walk away when it became something I had to do, not something I wanted to do. Year of ease, remember?

Here’s what I learned during this experience:

  • When starting out, make it simple. These cards were way too small, and I didn’t have the right brushes to paint something with such tiny detailed elements. If I make more portraits in the future, I’ll give myself more room to work with and make sure that I have brushes that will allow me to capture the level of precision that I need.
  • Even a short repeated attempt at something new will build new skills. I learned a lot during this process: open-mouthed smiles are hard to capture, layering diluted paint adds depth and detail, and I really love painting kids and dynamic shadows.
  • Prepare to make mistakes! I have a pile of portraits I started then abandoned, either because they were overworked or I wanted to start on them afresh.
  • Stepping outside your comfort zone to try One New Thing in one way gives you permission to not only make what you’ve committed to, but to expand in other ways as well. I’m curious about making tiny abstract works on the rest of these index cards and look forward to experimenting with new compositions and processes.

Read more about ICAD here. See previous years’ work here: 2022, 2021, 2019. (I skipped 2020.)

By Ingrid Murray

Ingrid is an American self-taught mixed media artist and art journaler living and working in Germany. This website is human-generated.