Suddenly busy again.

The last couple of days have been sort of busy. I got the idea of making my own "canvases" from old book covers. They are approximately 14 by20 cms with a bit of variation. The covers are sturdy and have a good surface to work on. That again led me to an idea of what to create onto some of them. I haven't start that job yet, but I think I will today.

I did paint on one of the covers though and was smart enough to take some photos during the  process. I'm always so surprised of how it becomes in the end.  This girl was very close to another layer of gesso and the first photo shows you why. I couldn't see anything to do to fix her, lost all my joy of doing her and considered her as a failure. I don't know what I was thinking about when I gave her all that black hair.

But I really don't like to give up and I believe those situations are the ones that teach me the most. I did put her away and was looking for something else to do when I found some map scraps. I thought she was already ruined so I could try making hair of the map.
Some magic happened, I got hooked again, continued playing with colours and pens. The photo below was shot in bright daylight.

I added some more lines to her hair and inked the edges and voila............... she is done.  She is not the worlds best, but for me it's amazing what she had within her. She was a brushstroke away from excisting at all. It's also a great way of noticing my own feelings while doing her. I lost every bit of interest when I first saw the result, but then I got hooked again as said.
This photo was shot on my desk with a lightbulb (warm light) to lighten her up. In person the truth is somewhere between the two last photos.

I hope you all have fun days too!