Into 2014 And The Making Of My Latest Painting

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone’s Christmas was amazing and you’re all rearing to go to make 2014 the best year yet! There seems to be such a feeling of incredible potential and excitement about the year 2014, I can feel it already!

What can we create together?

Our Christmas was very different this year with just our little family and without extended family!

 

 

It almost seemed a little too quiet at first, but we soon got into the more relaxed and self-contained pace of it! Even though the kids got us up just after 5 AM ...

I was also able to do quite a bit of painting over the holidays.

A little Christmas Angel and my Winter Solstice Lady. Both of them seem to already be representing some of my word ( s) for 2014, which are somewhere between “Receive” and “Allow”.
I think I have mostly decided on “Receive” since it is, in many ways, the more active of the two, but elements of both keep on coming up for me!

In order to truly receive, you need to be very much in allowance and vice versa. Both of them need for the Ego to take a real back seat and there needs to be a true openness as well as a vulnerability! All the above are not easy for me at all, but I am ready!

So, for my Christmas painting, this vulnerable and almost fragile little angel emerged

 

And for my winter solstice painting there was so much feeling of incoming energy, of color and possibility - and receiving it from all sides!

 

I remembered taking photos and scans along the way for the Solstice lady, so I can show you my progress a little more!

 

Sketched the girl with graphite. I still tend to make the initial sketch on cheapo printer paper and then when I have a better idea of what she is going to look like, I sketch on the water color paper. It makes for less trial and error and rubbing out and all that!

 

 

Then I color in the face with Caran D’Ache watercolor crayons, white acrylic, graphite (black and colored) and watercolor pencils. It usually ends up a bit of everything!

 

 

Then I used a stencil and some acrylic inks and acrylic paints for the background. I used more or less the same colors I was later using for her hair. The hair was again done with Caran D’Ache watercolor crayons, white acrylic, graphite (black and colored) and watercolor pencils.

I forgot to take pictures of the next step, but basically, I used some white acrylic paint to brayer over the background randomly. I did go into the hair too, even though I was selective as to how far in I went. Then I added a variety of other acrylic paint colors and brayered those all over.

I used a script writing stamp and stamped that all over the background with a muted grey ink.

And the I started spraying a lot of different shades of glimmer mists on the top of the page (in stages, as it’s easier to control 2 or 3 drips, rather than 10 all at once!)
The shimmer mist drips don’t show up very well in the scan of the final painting, but here are some photos capturing them a tad better!

 

 

 

After that it was just a matter of finishing touches.

I stamped the large flower with one of my hand carved stamps, then cut out some more flowers from book pages and painted them with white acrylic paint and outlined with some graphite pencils. I mod podged those in position and then applied some more water colors around the page to darken certain areas and highlight others. As a finishing touch I ran some stamp pads around the edges.

And there you have it!

 

 

 

I can’t believe that faces are no longer this thing of frustration and avoidance in my art, but a source of expression and beauty! Sure, some days are better than others and if I allowed myself, I could find plenty wrong with them, but I no longer go there!

They look like faces - that’s what matters most to me and with practice I find that they are more and more looking on paper as they do in my head!
I think I’ve mentioned before that this sudden turn around on my face painting and drawing ability came about due to two courses I took recently, and I would highly recommend them, especially the “Fabulous Faces” class by Tamara Laporte! She is such an amazing teacher!

Speaking of courses and Tam! Starting January 1st, I will be partaking in a year of self-care, self-creativity, self-exploration and self-love! I joined Lifebook 2014 this year and I can't wait to get started!
I think something like 1500 people have gathered so far to do this course, from all walks of life, all ages, all countries and all ability levels! From total beginners to professional artists! How cool is that?

Anyway, I am really looking forward to the start of Lifebook 2014 in just 3 days (yes, I’ve been counting the days!) and more learning, painting and general artsy exploration!

If you want to join in or want to know more, you can find out here:

 

 

Maybe I’ll see you in Lifebook class in the New Year!

 

But for now, I want to express my deep gratitude for all you readers of my blog. For all of you who follow my little old blog, who are interested enough in my various ventures to come back again and again to read and comment. YOU are very much appreciated! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

And I also want to wish you and your families a most amazing New Year! May it truly be the year of gratitude, possibilities expanded , dreams manifested and abundance realized!