I’ve been wanting to do a dragonfly piece for a while and as soon as I read this quote, I knew it was meant to be.
“The fall isn’t final unless you stay on the ground” – Marie Forleo
She writes – “failures (ie: challenges, lessons, mistakes, gifts) are guaranteed. What matters most, however, isn’t the fact you stumbled. What matters most is what you do immediately after.
Don’t give the fear of failure or making a mistake a chance to harden in your bones. Get back up while the fear is fresh.”
The word fly came to mind and I knew that I could use this quote to inspire this piece.
Lots of layers of collage and things that signify the journey of life and art. With bold colors because it’s a bold accomplishment to keep going when we feel things didn’t go as planned.
This applies to art too, not just life.
Too often as a beginning artist, we can create something and it doesn’t go as planned (that still happens every day) and we question our ability.
What we do after a blunder is so very important….. the key is to keep going, while the fear and frustration is still fresh…. dive back in and don’t give doubt a chance to sway us from doing it again.
I’ll share more about it in the video.
Supplies used:
- 11×14 MDF board
- Liquitex fluid matte medium
- Utrecht gesso
- Liquitex carbon black spray paint
- Lukas cryl acrylic (cobalt teal, olive green, fern, caramel, prussian blue)
- Lukas acrylic ultramarine blue
- Golden soflat acrylic cadmium orange
- Liquitex soft body (quinacridone magenta, napthol pink)
- Amsterdam carbon black
- a variety of soft pastels (teal, black & white)
- Stabilo woody teal and white
- Stabilo all pencil
- Generals charcoal pencil
- Black china marker
Stencils used: THESE WILL BE ON SALE THIS WEEK
- Wildflower Sketches 2 (printed and instant download)
- Persians Patterns 1 (printed and instant download)
- Vintage Wallpaper 6 (printed and instant download) THESE WILL BE ON SALE THIS WEEK
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Thank you for the message today. Many pieces of “ugly art” in my studio, toss them aside or try to re-work them, but will just keep going.
Is there a way to do mixed media on watercolor paper and then mount it on canvas ready to hang? The process of framing is quite expensive. I don’t always want to paint on wood substrates because the larger sizes become quite heavy. Thanks.
It would be really hard to get your paper to lay flat on a canvas. You would get some wrinkles or bubbles if you used gel medium. You could try yes paste whick is a book binding glue. but I don’t know how you would get the edges down because the canvas has give and will bow. Not really too many options.
I love the peace and the message. We always learn from you, thank you so much Shawn. Have a great and a nice week.
Thanks Shawn, I really love this one you created here! It’s really wonderful! I love watching you create. I can feel the fun on this one. The message is excellent as well. Remember you are always loved also.
Denise thanks so much!! Thanks for being here and sharing the journey with me!!