My process in steps......... 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
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My Journey.........1. I was born in Bulgaria in 1981.
2. When I was young (5 and younger) I refused to paint and draw. It got to the point that teachers would call my parents and inquire why I refused to do any art. Eventually and with lots of persuasion from my parents, I started doing art and it has been my passion ever since. 3.When I was 5 years old my family and I started our journey out of Bulgaria. My country was communist at the time and quite oppressive with little freedom. We obtained a government pass to go on vacation to Yugoslavia, however the pass was only good for three people and my younger sister was left behind with my grandparents. A few days after we arrived to Yugoslavia we illegally crossed to Austria via the Yugoslavian/Austrian border. My father carrying me on his shoulders and my mom struggled through the woods for hours attempting to cross. At one point of our journey, Yugoslavian enforcement noticed us and began to shoot. Fortunately we somehow arrived to Austria and became refugees. The first night in Austria we slept on benches outside a police station in Zalsburg. In the morning we were processed in as refugees and remained under lock down for a month. During this month we slept in a room filled with other refugees also searching for freedom and a better life. 4. I lived in Austria for 2 1/2 years before coming to America. I started 1st grade in Austria and had to learn German. In fact German was the first language that I learned to read and write in. During these years, we moved around quite a bit and I repeated the 1st grade twice.It was a difficult time as I was teased in school quite a bit for not being Austrian. 5. My sister finally joined us at the end of our stay in Austria. My paternal-grandmother was allowed to bring my sister to Austria so that we may process to America together. 6. On May 10, 1990, We finally made it to America. We arrived via NY and came to stay in Fords, NJ with my mother's uncles. 7. The arrival was bitter sweet. Shortly after our arrival my mother discovered that she had cervical cancer. She was with a tumor for 7 years but due to not having proper check ups she did not know about her condition until arriving to America. 8. My mother was in and out of the hospital for about a year to a year and a half. It was difficult. I was between the ages of 8 1/2 and 10 during this time and I helped take care of my younger sister while my dad worked and traveled to the hospital. 9. On September 9, 1992, my mother at the age of 27 went back home. She transitioned to the afterlife and this has impacted me and my sister's life in a big way. It was difficult at first but through time we began to heal. I am more spiritual now and my mother's death led me to search for a deeper meaning in life. Yes at 10 years old, I began my search. Through research and personal experience I am a deeply spiritual being and believe that we are all spiritual beings having a human experience. We will all go home one day and be reunited with our loved ones. The earth is but a school that we attend in order to grow, evolve and learn. Our true home is somewhere else..... Somewhere beautiful where beautiful healing light wraps us up in a blanket of love. Drawing a flower mural Well as usual I have gone far too long between blog posts. I really do try to blog more but it seems like there is so much do to and my blog posts just end up being neglected. I will try harder for the new year!!!
Anyway, I have been creating lots of new artwork and although I am unable to post all of them ( there is just too much), I will share a project that is dear to me. I really want to get into drawing and painting murals for people. I have been flirting with this idea for a while now and am super excited.about this new side of my business. I really wanted to draw a floral mural on one of my walls in the house, but the housing office stated that I was not allowed to do this. So I decided to draw my mural on large brown paper. I bought the brown paper at the grocery store for a few dollars and am so glad I decided to use it.The fact that it was cheap allowed for more experimental freedom to draw, doodle and just have fun. I taped the paper to the wall and just started to draw. I used some acrylic paint, collage, color pencils and some markers and sharpies. I love working with markers,but really couldn't use much because they did not show up well on the brown paper. The entire drawing is about 4 feet tall and about 2.5 feet wide. I think this is the largest drawing/painting I have done and I really did enjoy it. I am looking forward to doing murals, preferably smaller ones until I get used to drawing/painting big. Below are some more images of the drawing. |
Let's TalkWelcome to the Let's Talk section of my website. This will be the section where interviews, discussions, and sharing will take place. We can think of this place as a private cafe on the moon. Archives
July 2020
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