Class 24 PYH&S 2018-Wild in Heart-Olga Furman

This is another draft post from 2018 with an unfinished class from the "Paint Your Heart and Soul 2018 course with Olga Furman (see link on sidebar). The classes don't have to be done in order, although I had been doing them as they came until this one, and I skipped several classes to do this one. It's from her Raw series and is called Wild in Heart, using loose fluid paint. She also had a reference picture that could be used, but I chose this old picture of my mama, as a teenager in the forties, because I love it, and when I started working on this I had just lost her the year before.

Again, I didn't always do what the teacher did. I used what I had handy, but I still tried to follow the technique, because I loved the way her painting looked, and I am trying to loosen up with all of my creative pursuits, especially my painting.

My beautiful teenage mama, who was married at sixteen and had me when she was seventeen. We made it together for over sixty-seven years though! Miss her and daddy so much!

Olga worked on cardboard, as a substrate, but I'm doing it in my mixed media sketchbook, about 9" x 12". I used a piece of vintage designer wrapping paper (I think his last name was Morris?) that I had gotten in a book of his paper, years ago and still have. It was glued to my page with
gel medium and let dry. Because the surface was glossy and shiny, I brushed a layer of clear gesso over it to dull the shine and give it a little texture.

Where Olga actually sketched the portrait off, I printed a copy of the photo off on my printer, then covered the back with charcoal, then lay it on the page charcoal side down, and traced over the head with an old pen to transfer it. Some of it had to be gone over with charcoal, because it transferred off light, or not at all in some places. Then I had to spray the image with fixative to keep the charcoal from smearing everywhere. I should have used a carbon pencil, or sketched it freehand, like the teacher did. Oh, well! I learned some stuff!

I scumbled over the background with ultramarine blue acrylics left over from working on a previous class, and laid in the darkest areas with paynes grey and burnt umber. NOT pretty! The background pattern is supposed to show through, but it's very hard to let it when the colors are so light. Another lesson learned!

As you can see, after a couple more layers of acrylic paint, I have completely lost the background pattern and everything is off. This is where the painting has waited for over a year now, as is. I will have to go back over the instructions again before finishing her, and I do plan on finishing her at some point.

Finishing the post drafts for these works in progress has reminded me of how much I was enjoying the classes before life intervened and I got sidetracked. I want so badly to get my work space/dining room back in order, so that I can resume work and get these classes finished, as well as, many others. Maybe the time and energy will present itself to me for Christmas this year and I will get it done!

I wish I enjoyed finishing projects as much as I enjoy starting them! 😐