This week’s Life Book lesson was taken by Renata Loree. I loved that it was a lesson about layering with watercolour because watercolour and ink are my artistic comfort zones but layering with several layers is not. I, therefore, felt like this was a good opportunity for making some progress with that aspect of my art work.
The concept behind the lesson, as I understood it, was to depict a figure with an integrated mandala representing energy and light radiating outwards. I did not even attempt a mandala because, as I have proved, they are not really within my wheelhouse. I, therefore, drew concentric rings so that visually I could aim for a similar concept of radiating or spiralling outwards. It is not clear in the photo but there is silver paint in the centre of the circle and its very perimeter. I really enjoyed the layering process and it was all going well right up until the point where I added neutral colours for the skin and hair tones. That was when it all went a bit muddy and murky. I should have stuck with it all being in cool colours. The additional challenge of the lesson was to draw a face tilting upwards. I ended up with a face that just looked squished and weird. Fail. Bizarrely, I thought the hand was going to give me the most trouble but it ended up being my favourite part of the piece. Lessons learned aplenty.
A Pict in PA 