​If you have been following me long enough you heard me talk about how I love storytelling in art other artist and mine, how it's  almost always the first thing that hooks me on a new artist and how I've been working for years to incorporate that element in my own art. Well if you did not know, now you do :)

It's something that I have been focusing a lot in the last year, working mainly with the theme of strong women I search for a way to tell their story by doing more than a simple portrait. 

Sometimes it's the choice of a color palette that will completely change the mood of similar paintings. 

​Another way I love to explore in my storytelling is creating what I call totem portrait, sometimes the animal is a companion sometimes it becomes part of the portrait like an anamorphosis. And that's what I want to explore with you in my class for Paint your Heart and Soul 2018. To give you an idea here's a few examples of some I did in the past. 
For my second lesson, I want to share with you my technique to create colorful and realistic skin tone and how black and white photo reference can be one of your best friends to achieve that.

November is here, we changed time in the wee hour of the morning, seriously why are we still doing this? Besides messing up with your sleep pattern it will be darkness all around a week or two, this girl needs some light! It's been almost 2 months since I published the last lessons of A Canvas Journey now and after a year of working almost every weekend let me tell you a break was needed. 

Although I truly enjoyed the last year and feel like I found a vocation in teaching and sharing my love for art; working a full-time job on top of running a business can at times be draining.
The first week I was oof I felt like I did not know what to do with all this free time so I did what I always do when that happened I cleaned and reorganize my space I also cooked a lot, all the little mundane routine always seems to ground me as I can let my mind wander and figure out the next step.

Not that I did not know what to do it was more a matter of where to start. My life has been plan around the class for a year and it was now time to explore, evolve, change and that's why I spent the last the month in Rainbow Land… (last Miley Cirus and its country folks vibe has been playing on a regular basis and I just adore this song she wrote and sang with Dolly Parton) 

I'm really proud of what I accomplished with A Canvas Journey but I also know that the next class will not be a yearly one. It's just too much while I'm still working full time. I figured out that I need to get myself some breathing periods in which I can be free of experimenting and getting back to you with new ideas and ways to create.
​So what I have been up to? A lot of creations it turns out!
Once the initial paralysis was over it all flew out of me in no time. 
I completed a canvas journal on the 12 astrology signs in a bit less than 2 weeks, sometimes creating two page a day, renewing with watercolor, I loved every minute of it and I'm planning to offer them as prints, just haven't decided yet if they will be as limited edition or open one on society6. A blanket with your astrology sign seems like a fun idea to me.

I noticed that my faces are becoming more realistic and moving away from my more whimsical proportions. It will be interesting to see where this is going. It was also a challenge to paint on wood after a year of painting on canvas. I used to be all about wood but my canvas journal may have changed that.