Almost Self-Portrait

Art Completed Projects
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There are so many free lessons online that it sometimes becomes a bit overwhelming.
Don’t know about you, but I want to do them all!! However, I have narrowed things down to certain people, style, or project that I can have fun and maybe learn a thing or two as well.

This is a lesson that was offered free from artist Christa Forrest in the 9 day free event called Taster : A Year of Magic & Fairy Tales. This event ends October 14. I plan on doing at least two more by then.

I found an image that sort of looked like me and used it in this project.

It is mixed media: watercolor, acrylic ink, neocolor crayons, pencil and markers.

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What I love about mixed media is that surprises happen. Some things like watercolor or acrylic inks just do their own thing. Almost anything you don’t like can be fixed. I did the background three times. You can see some pencil lines and overspray in the close-up. It is also a loose style so it is beginner friendly!

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It was a lot of fun and very relaxing. Thanks for looking!

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Beautiful work, I love your color choices.

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Thank you! The lesson was to use unconventional colors for skin tone. I used 12 different colors of neocolor crayons, 4 acrylic inks, and 5 watercolors.

I am going to do greens on the next one. Maybe some metallics…

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This looks amazing! You did such a beautiful job. I visited that taster event last week when you posted it and was frantically watching as many videos as I could!

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It’s a lot of videos and information. I generally just do the ones I connect with. I am not really into fantasy art so I tend to only find two or three to do.

I watched the teacup fairy one because I think it would be cute for the littlest niece (2 years old).

I think for freebies, if you learn at least one thing or are inspired by a particular artist, they usually have videos on their own that you can watch later.

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Of the ones I watched, I learned some new techniques from “Recall the Magic Within” with Marie-Laure Delage-Carlson, “Cat and Owl” with Eulalia Mejia, Tamara Laporte’s dragon class, and I always love Shawn Petite’s classes (she’s such a master at layering).

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Your portrait is amazing!
I love it.

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Oh I love this Linda! It absolutely looks like you…it’s stunning!! :star_struck:

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This is stunning. The colors, the angle of your face and just how it fills the space, the way the background seems to reflect onto the skin.

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This is so beautiful and peaceful. Seriously the colors and textures are eye candy.

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The entire piece flows together so well and I love the freedom of it.

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This is beautiful!

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That is so gorgeous @AIMR!! The layering and textures and play of colors. I keep looking and finding new small moments of inspiration. Beautiful job!

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Thanks, everyone! I do enjoy a change from my usual sewing and knitting.

lol @sheepBlue yeah, most were not intentional but that is part of the fun. I like the surprises.

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This is really beautiful, it looks both peaceful and vibrant at the same time. I love the colours you’ve used.

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Thank you! I am trying to reach a goal of being peaceful and less stressed IRL by doing simple art pieces. Collage helps me, too, because it seems to quiet my brain by “organizing” the chaos!

All the colors on paper are calming to me because they are no longer in my head, if that makes sense.

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