Mixed Media Canvas Portrait (9.4.2016)

I honestly don't think I could be happier with the way today's 29 Faces piece came out.

I worked on this for a few solid hours before I was finally happy, but it was the complete opposite of yesterday's feeling rushed. It was nice to just work while listening to music, not worrying about much else. I did this piece on a canvas, so that's still a new sort of learning experience, but I'm much happier with this piece than the other canvases that I did.

• Right off the bat, the first thing that draws attention is the hair. This was a shimmer paint that I got from Target last night, and I'm extraordinarily happy with the results of using it for her hair. I had tried to give her a braid, but the more I worked at it, the more I realized she was probably better suited for long, wavy hair.
• The inspiration for this piece, the thing that made me want to make it in the first place, was the idea of incorporating the butterflies into this girl's hair. If you've been following my 29 Faces journey, you'll have seen that the other day I drew a girl with a fairly elaborate mask. She's probably my second favorite face that I've done for this challenge thus far, and her mask was somewhat inspired by the elaborate details often associated with butterflies. From there, this idea was formed.
• On the right, you can see some of the details of this girl's eyes. I actually painted them first, and then painted her hair over top of the face, in order to better get a feel of the flow of the hair and the way it would fall more accurately. 

•  On the left, you can see one of my favorite bits of this entire painting. This little cluster of butterflies, plus the stark contrast of stamping and the gray painted circles pretty much define everything that I love about this piece.
• You can also see some of the texture in this girl's hair in these photos. I think what happened there was that underneath the painting I did a good bit of collage (most of which was covered by the face - you can see some bits of newspaper text at the very top of the piece though) using Mod Podge. Then I dried her hair with a heat gun. It was a sort of happy accident, and I'm super excited that it happened like that.
• The right hand photo is my second favorite part of the painting. It's soft and feminine, and the sharp black stamping adds just the right stylistic contrast for my liking - if you know me, that's basically my fashion style. I like to mix leather jackets and boots with lace and florals. I think that's part of why I love this canvas so much. 

I hope you all enjoyed viewing this painting as much as I enjoyed creating it and love the finished result. It's been great to hear from all of you in the comments, it really makes my day! Until next time, I hope you all have a good time with your art!

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!