Two Goddesses of the Moon and Spring

Hello friends!

I'm excited to start out by telling you that everything in this blog is my own original artwork and not done or guided by any online lessons.

I promised one of my friends that I would share my process with photos. So here is the latest piece as yet untitled. I had my 4th Covid booster inoculation on Thursday and due to a serious underlying medical condition, I was advised to rest for Friday on Saturday even if I didn't feel poorly or have a reaction, which thankfully I haven't. So, I had to find something to do and decided that Friday I would paint another fantasy portrait.  I will be resting again today as it is Saturday and I'm still following doctor's orders. So quite possibly I will do another painting.  Or maybe bake a cake. That's not exactly strenuous, is it? Mind, I do need bread. Oh dear, this could get complicated.

As yet she's untitled, she is painted on and A4 journal 90lbs paper {which really should have been a lot heavier, see below***} and is in mixed media using Neocolours II, Sakura koi watercolours, gouache, shimmer paints, and Derwent waterproof pencils.

First I made an edge to the paper using low tack sellotape. You can see this more clearly on the second photo, where it is resisting the dark blue paint. Then I set in my image and used a compass to draw the circle which would later become the moon. Because I try and work intuitively at this point I hadn't finalised the design in my mind and was uncertain whether this was going to be the moon or a halo.

When I was in school, I was taught to paint the background layers first and work forward so that the top layer of paint is what is closest to you in your subject.  so I started with the background which I knew I wanted to be a night sky and I painted this in Neocolour II water soluble crayons.

Next I painted the eyes and lips using gouache. Normally I don't do the features until later but I'm finding that I'm losing the definition by leaving them until later, so this was an experiment painting them in early to see if I could help maintain definition.  We'll know soon if it worked or not.

She certainly looks fierce now, doesn't she?  I begin to question whether or not this this was the right thing to do. Have I ruined the painting at this very early stage? Only one way to find out. Onwards and upwards!

Next I started adding flesh tone in gouache.  Suddenly, her eyes seem a little less fierce.

I always build the colours up in thin layers so a couple more layers of flesh coloured paints and some more colour added to the eyes and lips and she's starting to look much better. That fierce look has now been muted and knocked back.

Sadly, I do feel I have lost some of the. Definition around the eyes, nose, and lips. They are not my strong point, and I must practise more.

 At this point I have to decide is that circle behind her going to be a silver moon or a golden halo.  So, working intuitively I roughly block in the colours for her hair and her dress.  I can tell immediately that gold is not going to work so silver it is and we have a moon in silver shimmer paint.

The final outcome, with which I am happy.  However, I may add some spatters of white paint on the dark areas of the sky.  Hopefully they will add a an extra. air of magic to the painting.

Here is another one I did last week, it's in the same journal {as the one above, and is also mixed media. I wanted to have a little play with my gouache and inktense paints just see how they interact and basically just to get a better feel for how to use them, so that is the mixed media for this one.  she started out life as a doodle I'm just kind of grew from there, organically and intuitively.  I didn't want to draw hands. It's not something I've done yet, and I didn't want to ruin the piece with ugly, badly drawn hands as it was developing well. Consequently, she's holding a bouquet of flowers!

Is something extremely wistful and maybe melancholy in her expression. I feel she has a story to tell, don't you?

A couple of people have asked me what is mixed media. Basically, it's anything where you use more than one type of medium. So for example if I paint a picture using my koi Sakura watercolours that is a single medium work. However if I introduced even just one more elements of medium, for example watercolour pencils, then it becomes mixed media because I have used more than one medium. Some mixed media projects are quite elaborate because people use all sorts of things in their work, not just flat work which is what I tend to do.  I hope the people who asked are reading this and I hope I've made sense.

*** I know I should be using better quality paper than 90lbs, mainly because of the amount of water that is used and the absorbency of the paper, but after all I am just learning and starting out on this painting journey and it's easier on the wallet to make mistakes on cheaper paper than it is on the 140lbs, or 300gsm weight paper that I should be using.

Until next time
Stay safe stay well
Debbie xoxo