It is VERY cold here in my part of the world. Was the shortest day and longest night last Thursday, and after that is when we really feel Winter's bite.....the hardest thing about doing online courses is that at this time of year many of the offerings are about Summer, and I'm so not feeling that! So I decided to go back to a FREE workshop offered by Effy in her Winter (December 2017) called "To See Us Through" - you can still get access HERE. It was aimed at giving comfort and support over the long winter months, so a good time for me to revisit this. This "So Proud" lesson was about celebrating how far you've come during the year. I've just celebrated my 51st birthday so thought I'd celebrate June-June. Begin an expressive self-portrait using graphite transfer paper or charcoal. Although I initially tried tracing as demonstrated in the lesson, the pages in my altered art journal were too large for my initial face size so I rubbed it out and drew with charcoal free-hand
I circled good words in the background that I didn't want covered up then sprayed the charcoal with workable fixative before I started adding paint. You can click on any photo to see it larger.
She sat like this for a couple of days while I waited for the right words to come. Once they did, I typed a copy to keep in my Inner Work journal :
You should try this exercise - it's really healthy to remind yourself of all the things you can be proud of about yourself. It got distilled down to this
She speaks my truth ♥
There's another lesson in the FREE workshop which can easily be applied to Summer like I did HERE.
You can sign up for other classes with Effy Wild HERE. See my Flickr album of all art work inspired by Effy's classes HERE.
Wishing you warmth and happiness wherever you are as we head into July.
A very expressive page - love the swirly journalling! I never considered that in our upside down world, where the seasons are the other way around some lessons might be out of sync with your feelings and sentiments. If it's any consolation with every passing day, we are now going closer to winter and you're coming out of it! It's very hot here - too much sun and no rain. I have to water every day to save our plants! Sometimes I wish we could mix summer and winter for a steady, cool-but-not- cold / warm-but-not-hot temperatures all year around - but then we wouldn't have seasons.
ReplyDeleteThanks Zsuzsa - it was a really good page to help improve my mood from too many days of rain and bleak. I have definitely been remembering that now Solstice is done we are on the climb to Spring ♥ And we have had glorious sunshine yesterday and today so trying to dwell on that and not my cold toes!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully done! I love to try drawing faces- I say try because I have a long ways to go. Yours is very expressive and it's fun to see your process.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy - this one seemed to come easily - not always the case!
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