A Journey Through Art Journal Fear

If you follow my Twitter feed or Instagram account then you might have spotted the sneaky peek at an art journal page I started last weekend. This wasn't meant to be anything other than a quick play with some new materials in my art journal but it turned into so much more. This page represents a little journey of overcoming fear for me and I hope it will inspire you to push through what you fear.

So starting at the beginning and the new materials I wanted to test out. I got my inky, painty hands on some lovely bits and pieces from PaperArtsy and just had to have a play. I used the JOFY Collection 32 and the Lin Brown Limited Edition paint set.

I used a double page in a new A5 repurposed flier that I'm using as my current art journal. I started with a semi-transparent layer of Gesso and the PaperArtsy Caribbean Sea paint, stamped the images over the top and painted them with the PaperArtsy paint then went over the outlines with a black Derwent Graphik Line Painter pen.

Finished!

But as I looked at it I thought perhaps it needed something else. This is where the fear factor kicks in. I want to be better at drawing and I do practise when I have a moment. But faces, human form and the such are super difficult for me. So I decided to be brave and do something that I have never done before. Paint a face.

I know the trend is very much towards whimsical, stylised faces but I really wanted to see if I could draw something closer to a real face. I didn't work from a photo or use a mirror so it is an imaginary face but I wanted it to be as real as I could make it. I seriously have no idea how to paint a face so I was learning as I went along.

I sketched the proportions of the face in pencil and then set about putting a thin layer of paint on the underdrawing. I used Liquitex Basics as I have the colours I needed to make skin tones in this range.

At this stage, pictured above, I was tempted to leave it as it was turning out far better than I expected it to and I was afraid to mess it up! But I gritted my teeth and pushed through...

and I'm glad that I did. She isn't perfect but seeing as she is the first human face that I have ever painted I'm really pleased with the result.

Things I have learnt and wanted to share with you guys:

• Try something that you haven't done before - you might surprise yourself.
• Push through the fear - if it turns out rubbish you still will have learnt a whole lot from the process.
• Working in arts and crafts is full of transferable skills - you will be surprised how much you improve a certain skill set even when you are doing something else that isn't directly related to that specific skill set.
• Don't paint your first face over a fold in your art journal!

Now I need to overcome a new fear - trying to paint another face, this one might have been a fluke!

What lessons have you learnt recently from your art and craft work? I look forward to hearing all about them in the comments below.

Catch you later artinators!

Kim