So my BIG, Fearless painting class with Connie over at Dirty Footprints Studio is officially over even though my final project remains half finished on my easel.  It will get done but right now dealing with the passing of my father-in-law has taken priority for a couple weeks. 

What can I say about BIG.  I can say it is hard, really hard but like anything new in our lives it is so, so, so worth the effort.  I learned that there are so many ways that my mind disquises fear and how to recognize them and push on despite them.  I learned that if my intuition says start painting a mermaid don't fight it for a week just paint the darn thing because that is what you are going to paint in the end anyway.  I learned to reach for the bright colors I normally would ignore.  I learned that the cat will indeed walk across the wet paint on my artwork creating his own work of art across the hardwood floor. 

What I just can't really express is how BIG changed me inside.  I can feel the change, I know it has happen but it is so hard to express exactly what changed.  It feels like all of me is bigger.  Even outside my painting practice I have been playing big.  I jumped backwards off the zipline platform over 100 feet in the air, I applied for the promotion I don't think I have any chance of getting because my intuition told me I would regret not applying and I told a friend who had really hurt me months ago that I was angry with them because I no longer wanted to hold it inside.  These are just a few of the life changes I experienced.

The artwork I created during this course is certainly not remarkable, except perhaps for the size of some it  but then again BIG isn't about the artwork, it is about the process and that is one thing Connie told us right from the start.  So if anyone out there is looking to expand their horzions, learn to listen to their intuition and trust their creative source I would highly recommend you go visit Connie over here. 

Below is my last fully finished project from BIG, the final one is still in the works, this is the mermaid that had to fight me for a week in order to get painted.  In case it isn't obvious from the picture this is over six feet tall.

I have been taking the courses over at Doll Dreams for a couple months now and I can't recommend them enough.  They are so much fun and Adriana breaks it all down so I really think anyone can do these.  They aren't meant to be realistic but they sure are pretty and fun to draw.  Here are a few of the pieces I have done from these classes.

I would highly recommend the classes on this site to anyone looking to create pretty, little ladies. 

I am now officially one full week behind in my BIG painting class over at the Dirty Footprints Studio.  I am not too worried about it, I have plans to make it happen it is just life threw too many things at me over the weekend.  All good, fun things mind you so I can complain.  But I thought I would post a couple of my paintings from last week. 

Our assignment was to do a contour painting, for this you sit in front of a mirror and try to paint yourself. This was fairly easy although I don't think the finished product actually looks like me I do like the painting.

The second assignment was to do a blind contour painting.  To do this you still look at yourself in the mirror but you do not look at the paper.  Of course what you end up with is rather comical and looks a little like a Picasso.  It was still a great exercise to do although it is really hard not to look at the paper.  Here is my end result.


It's quite comical isn't is???

As part of our exercises for week 4 of painting Big with Connie over at the Dirty Footprints Studio, one of our tasks was to do a 20 to 30 minute art journal page each morning.  These didn't have to be big, it was more about the practice of just letting things flow and getting all the junk out.  I have to admit a trip out of town to my parents did interfere with this a bit on my end.  I only got pages done on five out of the seven days but it was fun and a great discipline.  Below are the four pages I actually did.  Mostly they are done with oil pastels except for the mandala which is done with copic markers.