Flowers in her hair: A mixed media portrait
Hi friends! How are you all doing? I hope you are enjoying summer or winter depending on your location. ;) The sun is on full-time duty here in Oregon and we are loving it! It's been crazy busy but I try to squeeze in a little art time for myself and although this piece took a couple of months to complete, I'm very happy with the result. I snapped pictures with my phone to show my progress so I thought I would share those with you... Using a piece of 9" x 12" illustration board I prepped the background with a collage of vintage papers and scrapbook paper. I try not to over think the placement but strive for a balance of color and texture. I use Golden Matt Medium as my glue.
Ah! I found my muse! I use some cream acrylic paint to block out some of the text so I have a nice background for my sketch. Sketching her face was a challenge for me at first. I'm rusty since my days in art school, so I really had to push past my own doubts.
I start filling in color with acrylic paint. She's starting to come to life! :)
I can hear my art teachers telling me not to focus on detail yet...but I couldn't help it, I love painting eyes - so I dive in and start to render her gray-blue eyes with washes of paint.
Instead of painting flowers, I wanted to incorporate more collage, so I found these flowers online at the Graphic Fairy, printed them out and added them to her hair. Remember to coat any ink-jet images with a couple of layers of Krylon Crystal clear so the ink doesn't bleed when you use your glue.
The next couple images were taken with my Canon camera, just so you know. The color is more accurate in these.
Here she is - all finished! You can see I added some washi and masking tape to create some movement and direction. I loved using a white gel pen to accentuate some areas too.
The quote reads " Let us dance in the sun wearing wild flowers in our hair." 
You can't really tell from the pictures but I put metallic streaks of gold in hair so it shimmers in the light.
Okay, sorry for the long post but it's fun (and scary) to share my art and process. I hope one day to be brave enough to teach an online class! I have learned so much by the classes I have taken.
My favorites are with Jeanne Oliver. She really inspires you to get out all those art supplies and just go for it!
Have a beautiful Tuesday!
xo,
Ivy