Sharing here another mixed media painting featuring the unknown. Once again, I was following Month 3 Lesson 2 of Juliette Crane’s Serendipity I classes called “Letting Go and Having Fun” and that’s exactly what I did! What was originally going to be a lion resulted in otherwise, and rather than fret, I simply turned her into a pretty flower! And thus a little fantasy character combining both: so why not make it a Lion Flower?
Starting with a Collage
As usual, we began with some collage work. Random bits of paper were glued onto a page from my Strathmore’s Bristol Paper sketchbook, including paper napkins, newspaper, wrapping tissue and even some torn palette paper on which I mixed my paints! As you can see here, collage papers were in long strips which is quite a change from the big blobs. Let’s see what we can develop further!
Developing the Background
I then painted colour blocks of Cobalt Teal, Yellow and Antelope Brown in acrylic inks. Once dry, another layer of collages was applied. One of the interesting ones is the idea of Juliette where we use the texts of our own handwriting. A letter or a memo for instance would be a good one. As I didn’t have any handy, I just simply started jotting down my thoughts on a piece of paper then cut them up in pieces, using some of them as collages. More paint was added on as as well including gold, white and fluorescent red.
Creating my Character
Once I was ready. I went about painting my character. A round circle was cut out from a newspaper for the face and painted over with some Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold mixed with some white. And then I made a lion’s face by drawing some shapes around the face with a black marking pencil. However, it turned out looking more like a flower instead and hence I changed my course of action and continued on. I then thought for fun I’d draw this flower a body instead of a stem with leaves. Then the eyes and little nose were added. Now that’s a cute Lion Flower, and no panic! Some Nickel Azo Yellow was then applied with my fingers along the edge of the dress to define it more.
Making it All Pretty
With my Lion Flower well defined, I decided to work on the background more so she does not look too alone. A cloud and flowers were doodled in with my black marking pencil. This was followed by the rain and more flowers in white Molotow marker along with some dots. To emphasize the sun a bit more, I drew in a spiral with my 3D Liner in fluorescent yellow. I could have covered the handwritten collage in the background but I do like it there as it adds some character to the painting. And now I think I’m done now!
Always fun to paint with Juliette Crane! Her classes do inspire me a lot and gives me a chance to do something different. Though the process could be intense at times, I do enjoy developing my thoughts and discovering the unknown as seen in this painting: Turning an intended character into something else, for one. If only I had more time and chance to follow this course consistently! Perhaps it would be an idea to do try committing to one lesson every week to keep me going. I could then create more interesting characters like my cute little Lion Flower!
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My Kawaii Quarter 