Whenever I start a new painting, I have to cover up the white space.

This helps me loosen up before I begin my character.

My characters begin with the eyes, but they’re always the hardest part to paint. It takes a lot of mistakes and layers before they even begin to resonate with my heart.

I start with a few fingerprint dots, then add more detail and color with each layer.

Maybe they’re big eyes or simple eyes looking off to one side like in this new portrait (she’s called “A Story To Tell”).

I have to fall in love with the eyes before I can even begin to move on to the rest of the painting.

The eyes reflect a bit of me and the stories I see and hear every day. From there, the rest of the painting comes into focus.

I wish I could share all of the false starts and mistakes with you. So often my paintings sit for weeks without eyes or faces… just scraped over, grayed out pencil and paint messes until I come back to them and try again (and again).

It’s so often on a whim of not caring that I uncover a new favorite technique that I then repeat in my next painting. Little by little, layer by layer, every painting comes to life.

I’m finishing up a few more paintings that are smaller studies for larger projects… I can’t wait to share them all with you soon!

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.

This video is one I come back to whenever I need to get past the ugly stage and paint a character with more softness.

This is one of the paintings we create in my Enchanted Soulful Eyes and Faces class. Click Here For More Details On Enchanted Class.

Happy Painting!

xo Juliette Crane

P.S. If you’d like to paint more together but don’t have a lot of time, I’ve also put together my Happy Painting Mini Course, which has five-instant-access projects to get you started. Click here to Watch a Video Sneak Peek at the Happy Painting Mini Course.