Mixed media muddle

I haven't been doing many of the Let's Face It 2024 assignments; I have to pace myself with the painting these days, and if I have an idea of mine that I want to carry out, I do that instead of someone else's. But I love Maria Pace-Wynters's work, and wanted to try her crazy mixed media portrait for myself, so even though I'm a couple of weeks late, I sat down today and applied myself.

It was difficult for me on several levels. First of all, I've never been a person to use things like collage or pens or pastels creatively and, as I have mentioned before, I draw for the sake of starting a painting, not because I love it. Maria loves to draw, and you can see it in all the tiny details she incorporates into her pieces. She also loves to layer and layer and layer, with paint, ink, pastels, pens, you name it, and I didn't have more than half of the things she was using, so I had to compensate with other stuff. 

I ended up with something that I didn't hate, but I don't love it either. Some parts stand out too much and others not enough, and my collage choices are clumsy and don't necessarily work (either materials or colors). And not having the right media meant that I ended up with a muddier result. It was fun (and challenging and frustrating) to try something different, and if I did this about 10 more times I might make something I really liked! But...I doubt that I will. Still, I'm glad I did this one.

She's called Hannah, because I used the face (though nothing else) from a woman named Hannah in my "Dull Women" Facebook group.

"Hannah"—acrylic inks, watercolors, acrylic paints, Uniball pen, Posca pen, gold metallic medium, Signo gel pen, colored pencils, and paper collage pieces, on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress paper, 9x12 inches.