We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Julieta Hughes a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Julieta thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I’ve known I was an artist since the age of three, when I stayed home becuase I got chickenpox, started drawing, and knew I found my calling in life. I also learned that many aspiring artists give up on their dream too soon because of a plethora of reasons, from thinking they don’t have natural talent, they fall in the comparison trap (rampant in this digital era), not getting support from their family, etc. That’s why, when the idea of the Facemapper tool first came up, I knew its mission would go beyond being a helpful tool. It could be an aid to aspiring artists to continue their journey and encourage them.

I truly believe art is not just a creative outlet, but a means to improve one’s life, even save it in many occasions. That is where my “why” lies in my mission. To help individuals find, through art, and through the tool I developed, a journey to maximize their creativity and quality of life.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into my industry, fine art, more specifically portraits, because it’s what I have done since I was three. I always felt an inclination towards the fascinating world of portraiture and its intricacies.
For a very long time I didn’t take it as anything other than a hobby, because of the “starving artist” cultural cliche. It took me decades, but I finally took a leap of faith and decided to turn my “hobby” into a career, and I am so happy I did.

Today I do custom portrait commissions for clients, I have created two art courses, one called Complete Portraiture Course for Beginners, and the other one Five Proven Methods to Monetize Your Art. I have them in three platforms and so far, both combined have had over 600 students and I’m currently refining the portraiture course with a new technique for better and quicker results for beginner students.

I have also created and developed the art tool called Facemapper, patented and with its trademark, which goal is to make portrait drawing easier, especially for beginners, but for any portrait artist, really. The main challenge for any portrait artists that wants their portraits to look realistic are facial proportions.

This tool has embedded in it the facial proportions’ main axes (top of the head, hairline, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth and tip of the chin) in the form of arms that are distanced perfectly according to general guidelines of an average face. They vary slightly since every face is different, but the main motto of this tool is, “portrait drawing used to be a road with no lanes. With Facemapper, now you have the lanes that will allow you to save hours of work, eliminate guesswork and enjoy the process”.

I’m currenltly pitching the Facemapper to companies to launch it to the market as soon as possible. I know countless aspiring, as well as experienced, artists will benefit from it immensely.

My mission is to make portrait drawing much more accessible, reachable and doable through this tool, instead of distant, difficult and plagued with insecurity and comparison, as we unfortunately see quite often nowadays.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I have so many. But I’ll start by saying that I’m an immigrant in this country, I came here with zero contacts, and the only person I knew was my husband. I knew that I was onto something after I had my vision for the Facemapper.

So I decided that being resilient wasn’t an option. It was an essential requisite. And what fuels that resilience is a mission and passion for your goal. I spent thousands of dollars on attorney fees, went through missunderstandings and ended a business relationship with a coach, started receiving rejection after rejection, just to name a few.

These are things that would probably convince most people that they’re wasting their time, burning their hard earned money, for something that has no guarantees.

But I’m convinced this is all part of the process. And the lessons learned are invaluable.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn very quickly that there are no quick fixes for what’s worth achieving in life.

That what’s worth achieving will take perseverance, passion, resilience, consistency, and what sustains them all is unshakable faith. A faith that transcends me as an individual. It’s a faith that takes a life of its own, becuase I know that my tool isn’t just another gadget for an artist to add to their arsenal of art tools.

It can mark the difference between an artist giving up or suddenly getting a spark of hope. It can encourage a person to believe this isn’t so confusing and complex after all, that it’s not reserved to a few “gifted” artists that post their flawless portraits on Instagram, but it’s not availalbe to anyone else.

I have unlearned that hard work is the key, every single time, and that every bump on the road is an essential, necessary part of the journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.julietakhughesart.com
• Instagram: @julikhart
• Facebook: Julieta K Hughes Art
• Linkedin: Julieta K Hughes
• Youtube: Julieta K Hughes

Image Credits

Credit: Julieta Hughes