They call her a dreamer.
A couple of years ago I did a mixed media painting course run by Portland-based artist Kelly Rae Roberts. It was my first foray into that world and I just loved it. During the course we created six “angels”. What I most enjoy about this sort of art is the complete freedom to just do what feels right. And that there are no “mistakes”…. only “happy accidents”.
Not long after that, I also signed up for Sebastian Michaels’ Photoshop Artistry course. If you really want to master Photoshop and develop your creative vision then I can’t recommend his classes highly enough. Although I knew how to use Photoshop before I started, the course took me to a completely new level. I’m also constantly inspired by my fellow students – the group is very active on Facebook.
Artistically, I was heavily influenced by both these courses. My work today combines elements of mixed media which I create, scan and then bring into digital compositions.
In this piece I wanted to take the concepts that I learned in the KRR workshop and rather than painting the subject, start with a photograph. I had a very specific idea of the kind of model I wanted and after several hours searching through Adobe Stock (@svetlanamik) I found this image which was perfect. I then incorporated various other images and scans of vintage paper before finishing the whole piece off with textured overlays.
I’ve been told often enough in life to stop daydreaming. But since deciding to focus on my art the daydreaming has become exponentially worse. And I think that’s a good thing! I wanted to create a piece that spoke to the pleasures of dreaming and indulging your imagination. Preferably as often as possible!