Hello, it's Kate Yetter here with you today. Do you play when you create? Most people would say yes, and I used to be one of them, but recently I have found that creating doesn't always equal play. There are certain processes that make me happy when I do them, and others that are so boring that I usually abandon them midway through and move onto the next project. I struggle with playing because I always feel the need to have a finished product that looks perfect.
After so much frustration in my creative work, I am slowly learning to have fun, play around and to not expect everything to turn out like a masterpiece. This is easier said than done of course but I am finding when I do let myself play, I am more likely to experiment and at the end, I feel inspired to come back and try it again.
Today's project is one of those play sessions. I love working with wet media, but I am trying to expand my toolbox and skills to include more dry mediums. I have a lot of colored pencils that are rarely used so I thought I would challenge myself and give them a whirl. And add in a little play while I am at it!
Here is a quick sketch I did in the planning phase.
To begin, I traced my stencil onto a piece of smooth kraft paper.
A base layer of yellow was added to the entire face and hair. I lightly built up the layers of colored pencils. I watched several tutorials online while preparing for this project and using a lot of colors seemed to be key.
I thought these dogwood blossoms would be a cute addition to her hair. I really love how her white collar "popped" on the kraft paper background.
When planning this project, I knew that I wanted to include a quote somewhere on the piece. I decided to put it in her collar. It reads, "Explore daily the will of God." I wanted to use stenciled letters but using this method required hand-lettering since they all turned out to be different sizes.
Blending the layers is something I would assume comes with practice. I wasn't sure what the professionals use but I read I could use rubbing alcohol, so I used a combination of a paper blending stump with the alcohol. You can still see strokes from the pencil that I was unable to smooth out.
This last piece I consider a failure, but I am sharing it anyway because I am trying to break the perfectionistic mode. The blending in the face is a bit streaky but I like the various colors in her hair. Next time, I probably just need to be more patient in building up my layers.
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Thank you for joining me today. Go play!
Until Next Time.
Kate
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