A Mixed Media Journal Page

My process in steps.........

Final mixed media art

The above painting is an original mixed media piece I did the other day. It started out in my art journal ( on watercolor paper) and slowly evolved to a finished piece. In fact I really liked this piece so much that I decided to offer it on sale on etsy.

Below are the steps and images of my progress:

1.

I started out with a simple drawing on watercolor paper in my watercolor journal (9x 12 inch). I first drew a girl using a pencil. Although, I like having a reference of a face when I draw my girls. I did not have one during this painting session and just drew intuitively. I will be honest, I did not really like the beginning of this painting and almost gave up entirely.
Anyway, I than proceeded to add some flowery shape doodles over her head in order to give he drawing some whimsy. Again, this process was not planned at all. I just kind of drew and made marks as I went along.

2.

Added some yellow in the leaf and I was not happy. It just didn't look right. But I continued with no pressure. After all practice is valuable and the process is meditative and fun.

3.

At this point, I was just really playing around with doodling in markers and pens. I added some paper collage pieces under the leaf. I also painted the face with watercolor. I will be honest, I was talking to my sister on the phone and was trying to paint the face. I am a really bad multitasker and the face was starting to look really bad. I messed up on my colors and some areas were too dark. I had to let my sister go and proceeded to fix the face somehow (and fixing watercolors is no easy task!!!). I added some pink colors on the right side of the face and added big round cheeks. Yes, adding those huge cheeks was part of covering up some of the problem areas( well problem areas in my opinion anyway). I than added some blue marker to the eyelids and a little under the chin in order to add coolness to the face.

Overall it came out pretty nice and really colorful. The truth is that art is a process. Nothing is ever perfect but you gotta keep going and enjoy the artistic process.
Truth is I don't believe in perfection. As a matter of fact I am turned off if something is too perfect. I think that there is true beauty in the imperfection and that is how I like my art.    
             
                                                     Final Mixed Media Image