How I drew Grandpa's spirit portrait!

Spirit portrait of the recipient's grandfather and his photograph. 

Last Saturday, Spiritualist medium Sharon De Bartolo Carmack and I hosted an intimate Spirit Art gallery reading online and we had a blast! During the 75-minute webinar demonstration, we brought through six spirit communicators and I did one psychic art link.

Sharon gave verbal evidence such as personality, characteristics, memories, relationships, and more. She sat facing away from her screen, whilst my screen was shared to the audience so they could see my drawings in progress (I use the Surface Pro 4 Sketchpad application and stylus).

Thank goodness for recordings! I was able to watch the video recently to study how we worked together. If you’re a medium, you’ll appreciate that the thinking mind is best not involved in the process, so little of what I do or say when I work as a medium is ever easily recalled.

Sharon and I started our links at the same time. The first bit of information I instantly receive as an artist is the gender of the communicator. This is usually revealed to me as I draw their face shape, and especially by the time I draw their chins, eyes, and eyebrows. Men typically have broader foreheads than women, so I’ll usually know once I get into the forehead area that this is a chick or a dude.

Working quickly, I move to the hairline, where I get an idea of the time period the person lived in. As my hand is guided around their head, I draw the hairstyle (or lack of hair) as I am impressed to do so. As I work, I may erase things as I’m guided to, as well.

The illustration at the top of this post is a spirit portrait and comparison photo of a participant’s grandfather at a younger age. To complete the likeness of this particular spirit, I had to erase my first attempts a couple of times as they weren’t precise enough. I felt this fellow was the type of guy who appreciated precision, and by golly, his chin was going to be perfect.

The first attempt was wonky. Trying to fix it, his neck was too long.

It took a couple of attempts, but while I was getting his face shape right, Sharon was having erasures of her own in finding the correct recipient. Finally, when his granddaughter spoke up, the drawing and Sharon’s evidence flowed a lot easier.

This felt better, but that bulge on his right had to go. 

After the demonstration, we asked recipients of spirit portraits to send us comparison photos and permission to share with people outside the demonstration. This gent’s granddaughter was very enthusiastic in her response:

“My mom was really blown away with the image of her dad, it was super accurate ️️️ she said even the piece of hair on his forehead was spot on as he always had that !!! She just was speechless.”

I asked Sharon for how she felt about the demonstration. She said, “I think if someone is going to team up with another medium, they have to be in sync with their styles of mediumship, as well as being able to work well together.”

I agree! For me, it helps that Sharon’s strengths are bringing through all other evidence besides physical descriptions, so that doesn’t appear to influence me as I’m drawing. I simply block out my thinking mind and access my clairsentience, or clear knowing, to get the best blend with the creative energy of Spirit.

We very much enjoyed working together with our spirit communicators and their recipients. Sharon and I may run another such demonstration in 2019. Keep tuned to my blog or Facebook page for updates.