Daily Inspiration: Meet Libby Rule

Today we’d like to introduce you to Libby Rule

Libby, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I have always been a creative! Ever since I was little, I was often drawing faces in my sketchbooks. I’d just sit there with a magazine trying to replicate what I saw. There’s some really scary stuff if you look back through them now, but that practice was how I got to be the artist I am today. Right out of college in 2019 I had a year-long internship with Cartoon Network (I always thought I would work in the animation field), but when COVID hit Cartoon Network shut its doors and I was left with a lot of time on my hands to do the thing I loved to do… paint! I’ve always loved portraiture and I was painting my friends on these really large scales for fun. When the world started to open back up a dear friend sent a video of a live painter and I was so intrigued. I wondered if I could I do that, especially with my love of painting people. I did it for a friend for free, and another for a friend of a friend, and that was enough to get the word out. Then it kind of snowballed from there and just keeps snowballing!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I started live painting there was only one (as far as I know) person doing it in Missouri and I didn’t even know about her yet! I had not developed a community of wedding vendors or the live painters I now know through social media. I really was making it up as I went. I had worked as a graphic designer so I ran my business like that, but I had to learn the nuances of wedding vendorship really fast. Like in the beginning I mistakenly thought there would be ambient light to work in the whole time (there was not, I have to bring my own light). I had to figure out how to license my business and conduct invoicing (my least favorite thing, really). I needed to learn the best process to get information from the client and get information back to them so that everyone feels really secure that they know what’s going on come wedding day. The art side of things, I had a great hold of. But the business side of things had a real curve!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am known for not only live wedding paintings, but paintings with accurate portraiture. There are so many different wonderfully talented artists in the US, but only a handful that work pretty close to realism, and I’m one of them! It’s incredibly important to me that the people in the painting look like the people I’m painting. I typically dedicate 25-40 hours of work in total to each of my paintings and I don’t like to release any paintings unless I’m sure that it’s the best that it can be. Paintings are heirloom pieces, and I know the pieces I’m painting now are going to stay in households long past the day that they’re painted. Someone’s family might be looking at this piece one day far in the future, and it’s my personal goal to provide the clearest emotional picture into the past that I can.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the community that Kansas City has. I’m orginally from a smaller town way up north, and they’re very similar in the way that even though KC is a huge city, you’re still likely to run into someone you know. And if you don’t, you’re likely to run into a friendly stranger. Especially in the art and wedding world, folks are so kind and eager to get to know you, it’s easy to feel a sense of community here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.libbyrulepaints.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/libbyrulepaints/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/libbyrulepaints/