Art Journal Page 8/25/15 - India Revisited

For the first painting in my (ongoing) Pop Art People series I did a painting of a woman wearing a sari--in my own funky, SO NOT realistic way. Recently my daughter watched the Bollywood movie "Bride and Prejudice" and now she keeps talking about going to India. So this painting from nearly 11 years ago (!) kept coming to my mind.

I decided to do a drawing in my Art Journal inspired by her today.

I had no end point in mind when I started this drawing. I wasn't sure if I'd leave it black and white, add paint, or something else. It's very freeing and relaxing for me to work this way--just sort of free flowing, see where the drawing takes me.

I'm nearing the end of this Art Journal. Just the page facing this newest drawing and one more full page spread left. I have enjoyed every minute spent working in this book. There is something about doing art for your own sake. This book is just for me and I have no rules or expectations. I just play. I have my next Art Journal ready to go as soon as this one is complete.

Even just seeing the side of this book makes me happy. All those bumpy pages represent time spent being creative and experimenting and having fun!

Here's the process I took today:

 I started with a light pencil sketch. 

 I did the outline with a Sharpie.

 I like to go back in and thicken up lines here and there and make the joints where lines meet more organic and soft. I also added a lot more strands of hair.

Here's where I may have gone a bit too far with the Sharpie. I sort of wish I would have left the negative space around her hair white so I could have added a background color. Oh well, what are you going to do?

 And then came the color. Prisma Colored Pencils are very soft and waxy making them great for blending and getting deep, rich color!