Whenever I try to be loose with my faces, it never works.
If I’m trying, then I try too hard, which completely stops me from letting go.
Sometimes it seems like it’s only the happy accidents and mistakes that lead to freedom in my paintings.
This happened when I was in the middle of this painting (she’s called ‘Sacred Alone… the original is sold, but prints are available in my shop).
If you look closely, you’ll see her eyes are two different colors.
Now that’s something I do with a lot of my female portraits because I have two different colored eyes (one blue, one green).
But here it was a total mistake.
I’d been using my water-soluble pencil to add a bit of softness to her eyes.
Then I went back with a thin brush and water to smudge out the lashes. But what I thought was a tiny bit of water turned into a HUGE drop that made the entire eye go dark.
I wanted to cover up her entire face.
Instead, I took a step away to let her dry.
When I came back, I fell in love with her imperfections and quirky spirit. She reminded me of all of the imperfections I used to try and hide and cover up.
Oftentimes I just need to get out of my own way so I can stop thinking so much and really get into a flow. I hope she inspires you too!
I’ve been getting so many questions about how to fix mistakes when painting eyes and faces, so I’ve put together my Faces Mixed Media Portraits class.
FACES class is perfect if you’re looking to loosen up and let go, especially when painting eyes and faces.
Click Here To learn more about Faces Mixed Media Portraits.
In this video from Faces Mixed Media Portraits class you’ll see how I begin to create a more primitive portrait, using some of my favorite mixed media supplies like tissue papers, acrylics, inks, oil paintsticks, pen and pencil.
If you’re wanting to paint women’s faces and really learn all of my secrets for overcoming creative blocks, especially with eyes and faces Enchanted Soulful Eyes and Faces is the perfect class.
Click Here For More Details On Enchanted Eyes and Faces Class.
This video is one I come back to whenever I need to get past the ugly stage and paint a character with more softness.
It wasn’t until I snapped in-progress photos of my paintings that I realized every painting has an ugly stage (especially the eyes and faces).
And at that stage, I’d always get frustrated and feel like I couldn’t finish another painting.
That negative self talk completely took the fun out of painting. But once I realized it happened to me every time, I learned to turn off my inner critic.
If I can’t get started with a painting. I’ll look back at a past painting to get started. Or I’ll check out my photos of paintings in-progress for a little inspiration. But I’ve learned to allow the weird and wonky bits of me, the imperfections, mistakes and color experiments to stand out. I’ve learned to be okay with being unique so I can let go.
Then I can remember to be kinder to myself and have more fun with my art.
I’m sharing more about my process and journey to becoming a full-time artist in this blog post… I hope it all keeps you inspired!
Happy painting!
xo Juliette
P.S. I’ve also put together a Free Painting Class… you can get instant-access and sign up by clicking HERE and learn more of my favorite supplies and techniques.
P.P.S. If you want to paint more together, but feel like you don’t have a lot of time, I’ve also put together my Happy Painting Mini Course, which has five instant-access projects.Click here to learn more about my Happy Painting Mini Course.