5/15/11

Can't Resist Being Awesome

The Sketchbook Challenge May theme is about resisting.
My daughter is always trying to resist becoming who she is. She is so filled with passion and power that it scares her. She’d like to be less instead of more. She’d like to be a tidy rose instead of a brilliant sunflower. I’m hoping she can learn to cherish the fire inside and stop resisting.


I was overcome with emotion as I worked on this portrait of her in all of her fiery glory. According to many, however, I cheated. I skipped the agony of trying to recreate the exact shape of her face and moved on to expression. But if I had begun this portrait from scratch, I would have been mired at some earlier point in the process.
Rather than get hung up on details, I traced her sweet face directly over the photo, using layers in paint.net. Then I removed the photo and went directly to CREATING. The joy for me is in adding color, line and fun elements to tease out how the subject makes me feel. With the hard part “in the bag,” I was able to spend a lot of time shading and adding features with a digital pen and paintbrush.
I can’t resist cheating by purposely eluding the rules. Welcome to the new easy. It’s your art adventure: choose your own path. Kelli

4 comments:

  1. This is really wonderful!! you have definitely captured her!

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  2. she is absolutely beautiful and you have captured not only her beauty but also her essence.

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  3. Perhaps you were just "resisting" the rules...

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  4. I think it looks stunning no matter how you got to that point:) I have always been a rule follower until my daughters were born, they are still young enough that for their own safety they have to follow my rules. However, I hope when they get older, I have the courage to let them break the rules so they can soar.

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