Listening to Your Inner Voice

I decided to venture out this week out of my comfort zone. I tend to be a home body, I work from home, do my art at home etc. Since I needed to go down to the City hall building to obtain a building permit for our patio cover I noticed a new Art gallery had opened up in the same building. If you are familiar with the downtown Puyallup area, it has been greatly improved with the new City Hall building, pavilion, and library over the past few years.

As I walked by the Gallery just somehow called to me. I'm glad I decided not to pass it up and went in. Lovely works of art from sculptures, jewelry, drawings, and paintings all done by local artists. GalleryThree is a co-op gallery where an artist has an opportunity to display works of art on a contract and rate. I talked with Connie who was so charismatic and helpful. She told me of classes in town that I could take. Open studio times to work on art and mingle with other artists. Something that I need to feed my soul! I think this is why the Gallery called me into visit. I always try to listen to my inner voice, it has led me to amazing opportunities and opened doors that I may not have had the chance to explore.

I attended my first art class last night with a nude model. I was so nervous to go and almost chickened out but, with my husbands support he pushed me out the door and said "have fun!" And, you know what? I did! The teacher of the studio was super friendly and had a great sense of humor. The atmosphere was laid back and relaxing. Coffee, tea and music, how wonderful, something my soul needed, connection with others who share the same passion as I!
I truly enjoyed myself.

So, what I'm trying to say is try listening to your inner voice and step out of your comfort zone. You may be pleasantly surprised where it takes you!

Art With Soul

Liisa Elder (c) 2011

Another of my many faces I'm continuing to work on, now using warm and cool colors, lots of layering with crosshatching method and building up the shading. The photo doesn't show the many colors I have used. Pinks, lavenders, greens, cream, Sienna brown, white and Tuscan red with graphite. This particular work is more dreamy and Goddess like. I am really enjoying this style of art, that really shows the soul and not necessary perfection. I will post my progress as I continue to work on these intriguing Goddess portraits.

Adding Color to Graphite Sketches

Here's looking to a very creative and productive year with my art.
As I continue to practice my shading and getting the hang of drawing pretty faces, this is just a few of the many I have been doing in my art journal. I am on my 2nd class "The Goddess & Poet", this step is not finished yet. Layering over graphite sketch with colored wax pencils in many, many layers...I will post the next step and you can see how the faces change layer after layer. We will be adding paint, more pencil, etc. Bringing the eyes and features out even more. This all takes time and is worth the end result. I am excited to see what lays in store!

I love Suzi Blu's Art Classes!

Suzi Blu's Les Petit Academy

I can't tell you how much Suzi my art teacher has inspired me. With her cool way of teaching and breaking down basics and having fun with color. My first class I took was the petit dolls class and learned so much more on what being an artist meant to me.
Art doesn't have to be perfect, or realistic! It just has to be from you! For Christmas my husband signed me up for The Goddess & Poet and class and I am loving it. I love to learn new techniques and improve my art skills. I now make time to draw every day. I just want to say thank you to my muse..."Suzi" Rocks!

The Pink Mermaid

This is my "pink Mermaid" I'm working on at the moment!
Pinks, blues, lavenders, greens and golds....yummy! The background currently had four layers to it and counting! I learned these techniques from Suzi Blu's les petit academy, art classes! Have an artist inside? Let it out and take a class! I just finished Petite Dolls and thinking of taking another class! The Goddes & Poet!

I am having so much fun!

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