I love to paint in the mornings. And, lately, I’ve been painting a lot of owls.
It all started when I decided to create a new original owl painting for the cover of my new book :: Inspired By The Little Things. (You can purchase a signed copy for a limited time here).
Of course it felt like way too much pressure to work on only one owl painting for the cover, so I had to start all sorts of new pieces, not knowing which one would turn out.
This owl painting, Finding the Light was one of those paintings.
And, while I’m not using it as the cover image (I’ll share that new painting with you soon), I just adore this piece and it was SO fun to create!
I started covering two canvas panels with blocks of color. I imagined them as abstract landscapes.
From there, I added layers of lokta papers, tissue papers, inks, pencil and pen.
When I felt like my painting was getting a bit too busy, that’s when I started to add my character.
I love working on many paintings on once because it takes away the precious-ness I feel in one piece and keeps me experimenting and covering up what I don’t like.
I’d just completely covered up the background of another piece, losing so much of my initial burst of energy along with all of that original depth, pattern and color, so I was determined to learn from that in this piece.
As a result, I left most of the background… and that’s what I love most about this piece.
Have you been experimenting with any new art supplies or techniques lately? I’d be delighted to know. Feel free to leave a comment.
And if you enjoyed this post and think it might inspire someone else, I’d love for you to share it.
Happy painting!
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Ps. If you’d like to paint together, I share lots and lots of my favorite art supplies and techniques along with ways I overcome creative blocks in my online classes.
Click here to watch a video preview.
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Pps. I’m delighted to be sharing a few painting projects in Life Book 2015.
4 comments
steph
I love hearing about your process, Juliette. Lately I’ve been experimenting with the caran d’ache crayons. They’re like solid water colors that dry like acrylics, I love the variation they bring! One thing I’m curious about–what do you use to set your paintings?
Juliette CraneAuthor
i’ve been loving those caran d’ache crayons too! i purchased just a few in favorite colors. for top coats, i have a three step process: 1. spray varnish 2. warm hued mod podge (which i make myself by adding a golden color to plaid’s mod podge) and 3. dorland’s wax medium (which gives an encaustic effect).
Danielle
Hello! I have seen your work before and I found your blog through the Life Book 2015 line up. I miss painting in the mornings! Right now I have gone back to basic sketching to brush up on my skills. I love your whimsical art work! Glad I came over to visit.
Juliette CraneAuthor
thank you so much, danielle! hope to see you in life book… happy painting!