Hello, Friends!

Someone asked the other day how I came up with the hair for my portraits of women. And, while it started with a few circles in the first layers of my paintings, this hairstyle is actually a dramatization of how I sometimes wear my own hair.

Whenever I paint, I like to wrap my hair around chopsticks to keep it up – I used to have these wonderful wooden chopsticks with carved giraffes on the ends so you could see the little ears peeking up (I wish I still had those).

You never know where your inspirations might lead. Sometimes they even become part of your signature style…

Every painting I create begins with a colorful background. I love to switch up my colors, techniques, and supplies in these first layers because they go on to inspire the rest of the painting.

When I started adding this wild hair to my paintings, it came out of a new technique I developed for my first layers – painting circles with inks and acrylic paints.

I wanted to emulate the flocked wallpaper my grandparents had in their living room and bathrooms.

As a child, I loved running my fingers over that velvety wallpaper. The design was elegant, the paper pearlescent, and the flocking jewel toned in saphire blue, ruby red, and emerald green (each room a different color theme). I felt like a princess in those rooms.

Since I’m not into drawing details in my paintings (except when it comes to painting eyes and faces), I abstracted the flocked wallpaper patterns, beginning with a pattern of circles, then outlining each circle.

I love using acrylic inks and acrylic paint to create these circles. I mix the colors together in the first layers to get unusual combinations that I then repeat throughout the painting.

It all becomes a meditative process.

Then, when I sketched in my character’s face, the wild hair fell right into place. I like to imagine they are queens and princesses inhabiting their own fairytale lands.

After a few collections with these circles, my backgrounds evolved to include different abstract shapes. Soon those shapes became this new style of hair with even more color and layers.

Now I add even more drips, fingerprints, and dots. I’ve become known for this loose style, but it’s something that evolved with every painting and new collection.

If you’re looking to paint more freely and make your paintings look more organic, don’t cover everything up in your painting.Instead, when you don’t like something, add a thin layer of acrylic ink on top of a busy background to redefine your painting, but keep the underneath layers showing through. This will add lots of depth and visual interest while making the painting flow together.

If you want help developing your own unique style, you might enjoy Serendipity 1 – Develop Your Style, my self-paced online course which is available to start today. You can get Serendipity for 30% off with code DREAMING – just register here, get out your favorite supplies, and let’s paint.

I’m so excited to see what you create and can’t wait to meet you in our community! I hope to see you in class…

Happy Painting!
xo Juliette

PS These paintings have all sold, but prints are available in my shop (framed and unframed in various sizes).