i've been playing a lot with the techniques i learned in jesse reno's painting workshop. and while this girl is definitely still in-progress (i'm still staring at her in the corner of my studio until i see what to do next), i've been delighted and super inspired by the entire process!
first off, it's been so new painting on paper! i'm really loving the larger sheets of bristol paper...
the paper takes so well to acrylics!
and it's awfully fun to find shapes within all of that color! like this dancing bear! i fell in love with his orange cheeks and then realized...
he's playing the trumpet! but by the time i finished painting in that trumpet, i saw these jellyfish swimming all around him. inspired by jesse reno, i started writing down the evolution on the back of the painting...and it kind of plays out like a surreal animation.
and the next thing i knew, the jellyfish turned into a dinosaur (that's his monster-like head there at the bottom of the page)...
but the paint was too wet to continue. so i stepped away and started a new painting. then when i came back, i turned the dinosaur monster on its head and saw the outline of this girl...
i really identified with her (so much more than all of those other characters i saw in the painting before her). but i've always felt that you have to get through the layers and let everything out into your artwork (no matter how crazy it seems) before you get to the thing that really resonates. and it's kind of awesome to have all of that incredible stuff covered up underneath.
i feel like even when it's covered up (whether it's a journal page i paint over or an image) that thing is still there and always felt by whoever sees the painting. that's why it's so important to include whatever you feel or whatever your instincts tell you to do! it's all part of the process!
after i looked at that last photo, i thought, " she's wearing a belt! and it's the perfect spot for a few words!" i don't often use text in my paintings, so what happened next is pretty fun. i went right for my pile of vintage sheet music. and the first page i picked up...you know what the title was?
LITTLE OWL. so of course that had to be the words on her belt. and i know it has to be the title of this painting too! (it's those magic moments that make me especially love the process of painting so, so much!!!)
and soon this girl got a blue, blue face. and things started growing all around her!
i added a bit of origami paper into the leaves and flowers growing. and thought she needed an origami star to match...
a star to guide her and bring light, which turned into loads and loads of white!
and looking back, i really loved that blue face. there was something in there...maybe it will come back...
as i kept moving forward, the ground kept on getting darker and raising up around her! i was thrilled to see the tunnels on either side of her, so to make them stand out more, i covered up the third...
and this is how she's been sitting this weekend. sort of uncertain... but i love her story! and as i work on a few other paintings, i'm pretty sure this girl still has some evolving to do!
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thank you to everyone who has already registered for my HOW TO PAINT AN OWL E-Course! I've been busy recording lots and lots of videos for you!
and if you're in madsion, wisconsin, there are still a few spots left for my in-person HOW TO PAINT AN OWL Workshop on March 19th! my summer is already booked, so this will be my last painting workshop in madison!
and a huge thank you to the lovely stella for her super sweet blog post about my owls!
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