The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. -Pablo Picasso

I wanted to share with you the September Projects for my latest online class Serendipity 2 – A New Year In Mixed Media.

The main project is already up in the classroom and it has been so amazing to see the artwork that students are already creating in class.

This antler girl is called You Belong.

Both of these paintings were created with acrylic and india inks, watercolors, acrylic paints, stencils and spray inks, water-soluble oil pastels, oil paint sticks, paint pens, washi tape and pencil on my favorite sketchbook paper (93lb paper by Aquabee).

The antler girl began on a background I’d created on paper, then cut into smaller pieces. I love cutting up my backgrounds and using them in different ways. It always inspires me to see something new and to create characters that I would never “think” of since it pushes me to work with ink splotches and lines in odd places.

For this piece I never would have intentionally had the color at the center of my painting because that’s where I almost always add my character and I really find it difficult to work with weird patterns on my faces. Especially when they might obstruct the clarity of my character’s eyes.

But that’s what helped define this antler girl and pushed my artwork in a new direction.

In case you missed it, here’s a little sneak peek video of my cat painting Be Free.

This cat also started out on one of my cut out backgrounds. And of course he didn’t start out as a cat, but my original intention was to draw one of my long-necked girls. And that’s what eventually gave my cat a long neck and made him even more my own.

Have a phenomenal weekend!

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Ps. If you’ve been struggling with developing your own voice and finding your style, read more about Serendipity 2 here and see if it’s for you.