Free Spirit - Painterly Play

Those of you who’ve been on my classes will have heard me talk about the arguments that happen between two parts of me: one part is ‘the illustrator’, the other is ‘the painter’.

The illustrator in me loves clean lines, tight artwork, meticulous attention to detail. On the other hand: The painter in me loves loose brush strokes, expressive paint lines and messy edges!

You can see how these two parts of me may have been at odds with each other, for a long time, I struggled, was I an illustrator or a painter? What is a painter anyway? How do you define an illustrator? Can I bring these two paradoxical sides of me together?

The answer is yes! I now call myself an ‘illustrator-painter’ hybrid! Whenever I create, both are present, both get to express, but usually one drives the car and the other sits in the backseat!

Lately, the painter part of me, has been wanting to drive more and more often! I’m in love with making ‘painterly portraits’ lately!!

Those of you who follow me on instagram and/or FB will have seen me dabble! (ha ha!) I always dance back and forth between the two, and it’s now a much more harmonious chat in my head, but lately, painter lady has been speaking more! :)

So, I went ahead and filmed one of the painterly portraits! I hope you love it, you can watch it here, for free:

I’d love to know your thoughts on this style, I’m currently prepping an in depth course, which will likely go live later this year. Keep an eye out if you’re interested in this type of technique & style!

Here are some close ups of the final journal spread: