Monday, August 15, 2016

Take Chances With Your Art (8.15.2016)


If you follow me on instagram, you may have already seen a bit of a sneak peek of this page. However, if you don't, I've been working on this spread over the course of several days and am glad I finally get to share it with you.

There are several things that I like about these pages, and things that I wish were different (it's a bit dark, and the font I used for the title is mediocre). In the long run though, what matters is that I took a risk.


When I chose the title "Be Brave" for this spread, I wasn't sure why it felt so right. It was inspired by the sticker on the chest of the figure, which I just knew was perfect when I saw it.
  • As you can see in the photos above, I tried to incorporate my character's hair into the background a little bit. I used many layers of stamping, collage, stenciling and paint in an attempt to try to get it to feel right. In the end, it's rather blocky in nature, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
  • The title was created using a stencil, which I have used before when I finished Heart Split in Two. The difference is that in that piece I used the lowercase letters, and in this piece I used the uppercase. I've decided I'm not such a big fan.
  • In the right hand photo, you can see the traces of a flower stencil I used in an attempt to give her a flower in her hair. As subtle as it ended up being, due to the many layers I worked over top of it, I'm a big fan of this portion of the spread.



  • In the first photo, you can see a close up of this girl's face (also a little bit of a better view of the sticker on her chest). This was my first time doing a portrait almost exclusively with oil pastels - typically I'm partial to acrylic paints myself. However, I decided to push outside my comfort zone, and I'm very pleased with the way she turned out. I say almost exclusively because I did use a good bit of graphite pencil, as well as a few traces of acrylic paint (the whites of her eyes and the turquoise in her hair).
  • The right hand photo shows another part of the spread that I love the layering on. You can see some bits of a small dot paper showing through the paint - if you've been paying attention, I've been using scraps of this piece quite a bit lately. It was a 12x12 sheet that I absolutely love, and I'm trying to get the most out of it.
At the end of the day, the title fits.

I took risks with this spread. I created a portrait using oil pastels instead of paints, I used a stencil I had never experimented with before. There was a lot of love that went into this page, and I'm happy with it, even if there are things I would rather change.

At the end of the day, I feel like I was brave.

Thank you all for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you next time!

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