As I look back over the pieces I've done for the 29 Faces challenge, even though we're only halfway through the month, I am continuously impressed and happy with my progress.
Lately I have come to the realization that pushing myself into new directions is a key way of achieving this progress, so I have attempted to make strides in new and interesting directions. Today's face (a painted one for the first time in two days!) serves to do just that.
This piece was done on a 4"x4" canvas panel, so not only is it a size I'm unused to for paintings, I've also never done a face on a canvas panel at all. That wasn't the only way that I challenged myself, with this piece, but it was certainly part of it. A side note, the canvas panels are a bit of a sneak peek at a future project I will be taking on after September is over, so get hyped.
In taking a closer look at the piece, you can hopefully see that though the surface I was working on was small, I attempted to add layers of interest anyways. I couldn't help myself.
- In the photo on the left, you can the the tiniest hint of a collage piece that I started this square off with. If you watched the video I posted the other day, you may have seen me messing around with a photocopy of a piece of bubble wrap I thought the colors had blended beautifully on. I have several copies of it, actually, but I've been wanting to actually use it. This small surface gave me the change to do just that, and it adds a fun pop of pink.
- The butterfly is a stamped image on newspaper that has been cut out and collaged on top of the hair - fun fact, I originally attempted to stamp directly onto the canvas, but it didn't work out - so I just used my test stamp, since the light blue paint in the background worked perfectly.
- In the right hand photograph, you can see some of the finer details and textures of this girl's face. It was definitely a challenge to work in a small size like this, especially since I was just starting to get used to using certain brushes for painting portraits. However, it worked out in the long run.
- This is potentially the most simple part of this mixed media piece, but also potentially my favorite part. Not only did I use yellow ochre, my current favorite color, but I love the way it looks against the gray watercolor.
- Another favorite part of this little portion is the way the hair seems to blend or merge outside of the lines and into the background, as well as the tiny little bit of text stamp that is visible at the very top of the photograph.
In the end, I think this face turned out extremely well - the bright blue, yellow and pink stand out against the gray, white and black in a way that I personally like a lot. I'll have to play with the yellow ochre and gray color combination again in the near future!
In addition to finishing the above tiny painting, I also received a Gelli plate in the mail today (I had ordered it a few days back, along with the canvas panels), and I got to play around with it and the paint I had leftover on my palette.
Let me tell you, this was a lot of fun. I think my favorites have to be the pink and brown numbers, and the yellow ochre (surprise) circles in the lower right hand corner. I really love the way those prints in particular turned out, but I'm definitely going to have to put all of these to good use in the near future!
After an extremely stressful past couple of days, it was nice to be able to just sit down with some paint and just play. The more I make art on a regular basis, the more I start to realize just how important it is to me as an individual, both to my mood and the number of creative ideas I have.
Thank you all for visiting, I appreciate each and every one of you! I hope you all have a nice day, and I'll see you next time.
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