9″x12″ acrylic, 2012. This portrait shall forever be known to me as the one that taught me a valuable lesson about social media! It was commissioned by Michele, who had learned about my business on Dooce last year but was actually local and had gone to high school with my husband. Small world! The painting would be a gift for her sister, Morgan, who was expecting twin boys, for her upcoming baby shower. Well, after she dropped off Morgan’s beloved childhood stuffed bunny, I was quite excited both about having a “live” model to paint and also about the challenge of making a printed-fabric toy appear three dimensional on canvas. So I took a snapshot of my floppy guest and posted it to my Your Toy Portrait Facebook page. Several hours later, I got an email from Michele telling me that a her cousin had somehow seen the photo on Facebook and, thinking, “Hey, that looks like Morgan’s Bun Bun!” he posted to Morgan’s page! Morgan evidently burst out laughing, looked around and found that Bun Bun was missing, and called Michele saying “What have you done?” Michele assured me (I was HORRIFIED) that Morgan had no idea what was happening specifically, so it would still be a suprise. Since this incident, of course, if there is any chance of the recipient finding out about it, I never discuss an in-progress portrait online! Lesson learned. In other news, this very soft, sweet-faced bunny is one of the few toys that have come into my studio that was absolutely adored by my daughter! We were both sorry to see Bun Bun go.