In a recent post titled
Redefining beauty I shared a first draft of my #sketchbookproject piece with Drew Barrymore's quote "Happy People Are Beautiful." I wanted to take this piece further though, since it's initial incarnation felt too shallow, creatively speaking. Put simply, I wanted to take it further and go deeper into the exploration of my own feelings about beauty in our society. So I just wanted to share some of the process with you here..
First, I decided to add a bit more writing to the piece. I went on a bit of a rant about how beauty, and the pursuit thereof, is used in our economy to keep us ever ready to buy, buy, and buy some more. Here's how that came out.
Although I liked what the piece said, I still didn't love it visually. The purple sharpie marker just felt too strong for the overall design.. and something about all that writing took away the simple beauty of the original. So, I kept on going... that's my mantra these days...
"Just keep going."
I find that continuing on is the only way through being stuck, or not liking what you've created. So I kept on exploring. I decided to gesso over the parts I didn't like and just add more color. I was recently inspired by a book called "
Brave Intuitive Painting-Let Go, Be Bold, Unfold!"
By Flora S. Bowley and decided to bring in some acrylic action to cover up some of the unsightly areas. I didn't want to cover them up all together though, since I still wanted some of my message to peek through. But I think as I processed that message a bit more, a more important one came up: the simple reminder that YOU ARE PERFECT. It's true. You are. Just as you are at this moment. If you are the type of person that has a hard time believing that on a regular basis, then me saying this is probably still not sinking in. But that's ok.. let it serve as a gentle reminder.. and perhaps a little nudge for your subconscious to take you in that direction.
So here is the final piece:
