FFII : Week 7

This is my take on the seventh face from Effy's 8-week online class Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear. Effy made this particular lesson FREE - GO HERE and have a go. There is something very delicious and subversive for me about creating faces that don’t conform with societal expectations around beauty. I like fierce faces, sad faces, angry faces, and most especially WONKY faces. This method of creating a face allows me to do all of this with total ease.This is Effy's art : 

I decided to start with this photo of me - happy and exactly where I want to be. "I am who I am"

Now to convey that strength that comes from knowing exactly who I am and what I stand for. I began with black paint and loose strokes

Note it's an "expressive self-portrait" - conveying inner self rather than looking exactly like me! Her hair was painted with Goldens Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, and the background with Permanent Violet Dark fluid acrylic with a layer on top of the darker Dioxazine Purple. 

Her face was also shaded with the Dioxazine Purple and I added the Violet back in with some gold to lighten her lips. Click on any photo to see it larger for the details.

I decided that gold stars were most appropriate for my background - because of my SHINE focus, and also because of the poem I used. 

My words are from this wonderful poem by Victoria Erickson - I adore her work and this poem fits well with my word of the year SHINE.

I began to put the words on and thought I could have a few more divisions in some of the wider areas so added some curls - one of my signatures. 

I ended up having enough room to repeat the poem several times.  

I love how she turned out - you can see that she's come from Effy's lesson but she's all mine ♥ Our focus in Book of Days this month is Fierce Tenderness, and I also see that reflected here.

See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. You can still buy the Facing Forward II Class. I highly recommend it.