Shoes, Clothes and Handbags

Still busy with organizing and reorganizing the new house. Over a week ago, the rebuilding of the dressing room was completed. Very happy with it! Now the biggest challenge was being able to fit in all my shoes, clothes and handbags in the available spaces. Clothes were less of a problem as many I had donated and besides, they don’t take up much space. I’m more a handbag person rather than into shoes so the pain was more with them and where to fit them, the worst being the larger ones. Now I’m finally able to find room for them, well just about! Much of last week was then stressing and being overwhelmed about where to put what, and to keep my sanity I had to sit down one evening and draw about how I was really feeling. And out with my iPad again.

The Start

The background begins with green, incorporating some Rainforest effects. I thought this would be appropriate as it represents abundance and a feeling of confusion. Then as first layer of the background I did a little test and drew a tiny dress, handbag and pair of shoes which later on as we see I expanded. In between the layers, I painted my Little One with Medium Airbrush, sub layering where appropriate. You will see the eyes and mouth being perfectly oval as I used the auto shape by pressing the stylus in for a few seconds. It’s great that I’m getting more accustomed to Procreate. The overwhelmed expression of Little One absolutely shows!

Accessorizing with Layers

A great tip here is to draw the dress, handbag and pair of shoes in individual layers instead of one whole layer incorporating all three. Firstly, this helps to expanded them each to proportional sizes. Another advantage is that you can duplicate them, flip over vertically and autofill with different colors as you see fit. By shifting the layers around, the object can further overlap another however you like, ie the yellow shoes in front of the red dress. So much fun playing around!

Finishing Touches

Once I was happy with the composition of the painting so far, the next was to add some finishing touches! Another layer was created for some eyelashes using Script calligraphy. Once again, the curves were more “perfect” by pressing the pencil firmly. I considered using the hair touch up on the lashes but they turned out too bushy so I abandoned the idea. Instead, I brushed in the touch up on the hair which required another layer. And whilst at it, why not add some glitter to the pink dress she’s wearing? Clipped Mask followed by some white Glimmer put the icing on the cake. And here we are!

So that’s how I’ve been feeling the past week! Although much of my dressing room is better organized I still have a bit more to go. Perhaps it’s a good time to declutter again and pare down. Let’s see. We’re in the middle of making more storage space here and there around the house and hopefully we could get the house better organized. Meanwhile, I would like to spend more time painting again! It certainly relaxes me and gives me an outlet when I’m feeling “up to here” with stuff. This painting is one example!