I never win nuthin', not hardly ever.
Until recently, when I won a lil' giveaway over at the Voodoo Cafe and Ricë sent me "Journal Spilling" by Diana Trout. There's a chapter specifically about identifying and taming your inner critic, a fact that I practically sprained an eyeball to re-read. I. Must. Have it! I'm hoping the exercises will help me crack the whip over that currently-nameless !@#$%^ I call my inner critic.
I started with "spilling" text on notebook paper about what my inner critic's like, moving on to "spilling" color in my notebook. Then I sketched the beginnings of a self-portrait over the text, in Caran d'Ache water-soluble crayons.
Yeah, the proportions are all wrong -- see, inner critic! -- but at least it looks something like me. Do you have any idea how hard it is to draw a nose that doesn't have an obvious bridge? Try it sometime.
Next, more inner critic text, then I scratched a few bits into the thinned-out gesso. I blended with a moist brush (whee! It's coloring and painting!) added shadowing (I. Love. Paynes Grey), then scribbled in my twist-out hairstyle. I liked the background as it was, but the book prompted me to "add some shapes." So I tried out some infinity doodles in colors I don't use often, and whaddya know.
Then it was time to pick a word, any word, to add somewhere to the portrait. So I looked in here...
... and found "enthusiastic."
Which I think describes both me and my inner critic, somewhat unfortunately.
Like I said, features waaaay out of proportion. But still, kinda cool. Thanks, Ricë and Diana.
I started with "spilling" text on notebook paper about what my inner critic's like, moving on to "spilling" color in my notebook. Then I sketched the beginnings of a self-portrait over the text, in Caran d'Ache water-soluble crayons.