Jen Dixon

Creating Small: Mini Masterpieces with Big Impact

Awesome!! It's the Girl with the Pearl Earring, reloaded!

I love your tiny portraits too! These are simply adorable and so well painted. Thank you for sharing with us! :)

Ohh thank you so much Jen! I completely missed your lovely comment all those years ago. I have this tendency to go and hide underneath my rock every now and then when I get overwhelmed. ;)

I totally understand! I have really struggled with leaving my cave (sounds like a similar place to under your rock) for anything online or offline for soooo long. Here's hoping stuff gets more gentle for us all. &lt;3

&lt;3 Yes it looks like we might be neighbours haha! Thank you for making me fel less alone, I've been feeling so bad for completely abandoning my instagram for way too long. The more followers I get, the harder it is to keep up and everyone is so sweet and fabulous that it's hard for me to not reply to everyone. I was gonna ask how you deal with that as a top teacher but I guess the same way I do. :D

Oh boy, I wish I had answers to give, but I have learned that if I have to step back and re-centre myself, then I have to trust that others will understand that it's not because I don't love what I do (and the people I do it for) but that my silence is not my first choice; I would prefer to engage, but it is not consistently possible. We all have fluctuating capacity for internal and external demands, and the cost for keeping the engine running means "maintenance mode" for ourselves at times. I am emerging from one of these modes at the moment, and the guilt I have for going off the radar almost entirely is HUGE, but I'm working through those feelings as best as I can. I also have quietly spent the last year re-investing in my "systems" (equipment for production, better workflows, etc.) to make the workload more me-friendly. I continue to be a work-in-progress, but aiming for 1% progress everyday has been a mindset shift that I started a year or two ago and it helps me to be kinder to myself as I recover. I was calling it "burnout" but I've discovered that was only one facet of a much larger shift that needed attention. This year marks 10 years for me as a top teacher on Skillshare and I really could not have reached this mark without the HQ support and understanding, as well as the awesome students here. I always try to be transparent with my struggles, but also honest in my deep love for what I do (both as a teacher and as an artist). I am so grateful for this journey- I know that the dark yields to light eventually, and I do my best to strengthen the things I can control to make those dark parts a little shorter next time.  And wow- that was a long reply for me starting with "wish I had answers to give"! :) &lt;3

Thank you so much for your thoughtful answer, Jen. You're so sweet! Ten years is a long time to keep rocking it like you do, I'm always impressed by how prolific you are with your classes. Yes, you're right, we're only human with busy lives and challenges along the way. It's crazy how we all keep putting such high demands on ourselves, huh? I'm glad you have found ways to manage it step by step. Hopefully in time the feelings of guilt will also reside. Reframing it from having to do it all to improving 1% each day is so helpful. I'm doing my best to make that happen. I have been experimenting the past two months on how to get more engagement here on Skillshare and I'm so happy that my hard work paid off pretty quickly and this Sunday I had almost as much watch minutes as the whole month of October. Stuff like that is really motivating to hang in there and I am really loving the interaction while still keeping an eye on my energy levels. Next step will be finishing my new website and returning to instagram with rosey cheeks haha Thanks again for your gentle encouragement and helpful tips. :)

Thank you &lt;3  I have had a little (big) win today: I have two lesson chapter videos uploaded for my next class. It's a big deal because I'm loving it (the class) but have had such an uphill struggle being in front of screens while I recover from an eye issue that has been giving me massive grief for several months. One of those videos is probably the most complicated video edits I've ever done but it makes me so happy! Wooooohooo!  Congratulations on the minutes milestone! It's no easy feat to get seen online but if we stick to our 1% daily target, and make the classes we would want to take ourselves, then we're gonna do alright. :) We got this! &lt;3

Ohhh congratulations!! I know how incredibly hard that is to complete, I have chronic migraine (mostly the neurological issues that come with the aura) and I have blurry and double vision all the time. Screens are hell haha! So I'm gonna drink one to you! (it's water because of my Invisalign but I put it in a champagne glass 😁). I hope that your eye will make a full recovery, health issues slow us down so much. But you made it! I'll try to keep an eye (🤓) on your class, but I'm terrible at keeping up with my notifications. 1% indeed though, I've been doing my best with them for two months now! And thank you so much. ❤️ Yes it's hard, but I am happy that my efforts do seem to pay off. I wish all days would be like that one haha! But I'm really happy. :) I hope the rest of your class will be easier for you to complete! Have a beautiful day (I hope it's gonna be sunny, like here). :)

Thanks for an excellent class, Jen. I love to paint my tiny girls but it has been a while ago due to a busy schedule. Thank you for inspiring me to paint another one of these in a different palette. :)
<img srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/ff6990867b6603894997b5cad969dae9/9fef1322 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/ff6990867b6603894997b5cad969dae9/9fef1322 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" src="https://static.skillshare.com/uploads/project/ff6990867b6603894997b5cad969dae9/9fef1322" loading="lazy" alt="I love tiny portraits! - image 1 - student project">

I love tiny portraits!

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