LifeBook Week21: Embrace Yourself

This page was inspired by Renata Loree's LifeBook lesson for this week. It's not nearly as loose as I wanted it to be - I still have to work on that - though I quite like how the background turned out. We actually got two versions of this lesson - a more difficult one with an upturned face and this one with a front facing figure. I might tackle the more difficult assignment at a later date.

Renata challenged us to draw hands, which I find quite difficult to get right, especially when you're drawing them so small. She puts a lot of emphasis on hands in her artwork, and I'd like to learn to paint like she does. She actually started out as a LifeBook student just a few years ago, which I find incredible! I signed up for her class Expressions, to learn more about her process. I must be mad and I'm not sure when I will have time to complete her course, but I couldn't resist it.

For now, here's my initial efforts. I can't help thinking that at this point in my art journey, I should be making more progress. Sometimes I feel I have hit a plateau and perhaps I have reached my full potential and that's it. That's how far my talents will ever take me as an aspiring artist and no amount of practice will make any difference. I hope that's not true. It could be just that I have reached the "consciously incompetent" stage in my journey, as I can clearly tell what I should be doing differently, I just can't do it. This would naturally be followed by the "unconsciously competent" stage. Established artists and teachers fall into the "consciously competent" category. You can read about the four stages of competence here. I just hope I'm moving in the right direction and I will get there one day!