July 13, 2009
Soul Journal – Day 22 – Self portrait
Today’s assignment was to write a “today I feel” prompt, then go to work with finger painting! (latex glove recommended!)
I used gray gesso to start on top of my writing and it really blocked things out too much, even when I mixed it with some white to lighten it. The pictures aren’t worth posting here. Then I put on the background, using 3 colors – green, blue, and pink. I just squirted the colors right onto the page and then smeared around with my fingers. I was hoping they would not blend so easily so I could have some pretty solid bands of straight color, but it did not work out that way.
Then it was time for my “self portrait”. I cannot draw or do anything like that, so I went with the basic stick figure. In the end, I decided that was fine because stick figure is equally childlike as finger painting, so I decided it was a good match. The stick figure has a balloon in her hand although it looks like something otherwise unidentifiable. I also filled her out a little bit, giving some substance to her body, to help show that she was a grown woman, and not a child. Because it was finger painting and kids often include their pets, I added a cat on the bottom left, but he looks kinda funny. (love the fluffy tail, though!)
Then Sarah told us to add personal symbols or things that were important to us. I definitely wanted to add a cardinal, and I think he didn’t turn out too bad, considering he was finger painted. I also added a book (ha ha – the black thing that looks like a sad butterfly). At this point, I still had some black paint to use up, so I did “fingertip dots” around the edges of the pages – and I like the way that part turned out.
I’m not much for self-portraits, because I can’t draw other people, let alone myself, but I did like the finger painting aspect of this, and I esp. like my cardinal. I think this would make a great photocopy page, to reuse in the future.
I believe we’re almost coming to the end of the Soul Journal Journey, at least, the initial one with Sarah. I had no idea it would take me this long, but I have really enjoyed the trip and the things I have learned about myself, and about art and art making, along the way. I really liked following along in Sarah’s blog, Caspiana.
© amateur-in-art, 2009
