I hope you had a wonderful time during the holidays. Did you guys also eat a lot? 

The night before New Years I slept really bad so I had a hard time staying awake until midnight, hence the photo of me with the NYE party hats and espresso on Instagram. I was trying to depict a NYE Espresso demon. 

A couple days before we made the switch to 2019, Jen Majura, guitarist from Evanescence, came to visit me at my studio for a portrait photoshoot. 

We officially met in the summer of 2017 in Greece. We played together on a festival. We stayed in touch ever since. Last year we met again when she played in Stuttgart. She said she is from around the area, so I thought we could hook up for a coffee some day. 

That coffee turned out to become a make up session and photoshoot. To warm up we had a drawing session with Vincent. He really liked Jen and I must say she is great with kids! 

After we were done drawing crabs and unicorns, it was time to shock Jen with my make up collection. We found out that we both have the Urban Decay Moondust eyeshadow palette. A favourite from both of us. 

For the start of the shoot I wanted to do a soft smokey eye with a neutral lip. This photo is black and white, the make up is not that visible. If we would have extra time, we would switch it up a bit. In the end we ran out of time, mainly because we had such a good time just chatting about our lives as traveling musicians. 

Her idea was to look different than what people normally expect from her. A little bit more toned down in every aspect. Her choker should be in focus. On this photo it is not haha, but on the others it is. 

Whenever I do portraits, I like the clothing to not be too distracting. Less is more and neutral colours without prints work best in my opinion. 

Jen filmed our session which you can find here: JenJen and Simone

Thanks Jen for being my model, spending time with us, drawing unicorns and sipping coffee!

X O

Simone

Ps. What do you think Jen was thinking about during this shot. I think it was Thai Food ;)

Let me know in the comment section below.