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I am finally back at painting outside of my journal. Which I love, don’t get me wrong. But it feels good to be really working again.

Despite the few fears and Gremlins that tried to attack me, my Creative Juice was flowing back pretty fast, I was surprised to be honest…

So here is what I have done today for day 6 of  “Get Your Art ON“:

I started by pulling three colors from my paint box: primary yellow, a light but bright blue, hot pink, and I added white just because it is good to blend everything together and soften these bright colors a bit. I painted the all background with my fingers and even the palm of my hand. Bliiiiiiiiss. Back in my element again (note: I do this with non-toxic paints).
Then, a hat appeared clearly and I started sketching the face… I have a question for you: what do you use to sketch on canvas ? Because I tried several graphites and all are VERY hard to erase, they either are invisible if used on paint, or they let a greasy trace when erased. I am pulling my hair looking the right pencil to use. I painted her skin kind of «as usual». Here eyes are not done yet, usually I paint them last.
The picture above shows where I left her before dinner, at the end of my work day 😉
I started hearing her message, which makes me feel good.

Saying that, I have an repeating issue: one eye is always more distorted and/or smaller than the other. I seem not to be able to get both eyes right. I have no idea why, as it happens even when I draw guiding lines. You should know that when I put eyeliner, I usually mess up one of my eye LOL

I have another question for you: Do I add her some hair or leave her like she currently is ? What do you think ?

Here is what I’ve done for the week-end of “Get Your Art ON“, day 3 and 4:

Still in my Art Journal, I badly needed to go through very negative feelings so it was the safest place to do so (this is when it becomes more of Creative Journal than an Art Journal.

On the morning, I was feeling well, I sprayed blue and green spray inks through a swirly stencil, over a previously gesso-ed page.
Then I got wonky inside and broke up so I took my journal and just wrote it all…. Writing itself helped a lot, but paired with drawing etc it is just total therapy !!!

After I wrote, I put another thin coat of gesso, to cover it up. Burying it. Here is how it looked like then, on Saturday (the sticker is just one my daughter wanted me to use):

Tonight, I simply sketched a girl over it… (I will retouching the picture tomorrow as I am writing it on my IPhone, in my bed. Sorry for the poor quality for now. EDIT: retouched a bit so it is clearer but still sorry for the poor quality.):

We’ll see how it will turn out tomorrow 😉

Good night !

“Get Your Art ON”, initiated by Traci Bunkers, is back !

This will force me a little to share, as I basically do create everyday or almost… But I feel like I don’t share it enough. Speak of perfectionism…

Here is what I created on September 1st, day 1.

It was just sketching in my art journal while watching tv.

As I was writing yesterday in my Gratitude Friday blogpost, creating is currently more than ever my safety valve, my way of screaming my pain, of doing like nothing was going on, my way of trying to balance the physical pain. Wether it is in my art journal or on canvas. I am not expecting anything  anymore from my artwork, I don’t expect it to look good for example. I just let it flow and usually, it is quite surprisingly amazing to me. It seems like I am less attached to it (at least, I try to convince myself with that) so I can go on and create again and again. And again.

I am what I would call a skinned alive person, even if I am so aware that some had/have a way sorst life than mine, it does not dimish it. And I notice it shows in my artwork, despite the bright colors and fluffy bunny style my pieces can seem to be. Maybe I am good at camouflage ?

This portrait is the closer one to be a self-portrait. Kind of. Not a 100% one, obviously. Can you believe this is absolutely not what I thought this artwork will end as ?

When I was a kid, and struggling with who i am and being brown in a white family (where I was born, not adopted), I was dreaming of being blue eyed. Maybe because at least, this will be something people were expecting regarding my first name («Nolwenn» is a name from Britanny, the celtic part of France where people are blonde and pale and blue eyed).

This mixed media portrait is full of texture, the hair are really pretty (in my opinion) as you can touch the three dimensions, the face is not flat at all and the lotus transfer on her shirt pulled some part of the plaster away (makes me think of peeled paint on walls).

I feel naked. But creating this artwork taught me a lot about me: I finally am more in peace with my origins, and what I am (half and half, not really black not totally white); I have to accept that sometimes the outside does not meet the inside but I can work on it; going forward, as simply as that.
Creatively speaking, she taught me that errors happen and can be fixed. Her skin tone was horrible, now she is not realistic but kind of reminds me of the first characters I created a few years ago, with their greyish skin.

I feel like this painting is filled with character, this je ne sais quoi that makes me smile. A happy content smile.