Concentration: The Star

For my concentration, I decided to do the people in my life as tarot cards.  And the first card I chose was The Star, or number seventeen.  The Star means inspiration and guidance, and someone who provides both of those things in my life is one of my best friends, Allie.  At the time when I was supposed to be starting this project, I only had one picture of her and no way to get more pictures by the deadline, so I referred to a picture of her that was a year old?  It's been her contact picture since last spring.
     Anyways, I decided to do this picture in pen and watercolor, because I had a lot of fun doing that with the interior spaces.  I used watercolor pencils where I could, though, because I really enjoyed doing the mixed-media map/nature vs. mechanical fruits with those.
     Another reason that I chose watercolors is that I feel the gentler colors of the medium are more in sync with Allie's personality.  I almost wish that I'd made the background darker to make her stand out more.  Also, I added a crown of stars to her head, to emphasize the point of the painting.  Originally, I was going to make the crown of stars by using a wax stop in the shape of the stars, in the same position that they're at right now, but since I put the wax on first it got really dirty.  Because it wasn't standing out as well as I had wanted it to, I scraped it off with my fingernail and painted the glitter on with modge-podge.

Reference picture

First full-sized sketch 

Adding color!

More color . . . 

Beginning the background

More of the background

A close up of her face. 

Almost done!

The final!

A final close up of her face with the crown of stars

I think that my pencil drawing in the beginning was much better than what I was left with, but I believe that the final product has its own sort of charm to it? It was really difficult to make skin color, and I messed up on her right arm. I know you can't tell, but the paper is all peeling off.  It pretty much blends into the rest of the picture, but.
     I was asked to write more about why I created this piece as I did, and all I can honestly say to that is that it felt right.  The colors of all Star cards that I've previously seen are softer, and the medium of water color also felt appropriate.  I feel like it added a texture to the painting that otherwise would have just been a girl standing in her kitchen.  I don't have a better answer to why than these.  I wanted to paint Allie in a way that was eye catching, as a star is, but not harsh or shocking to look at, because stars are quietly beautiful and don't draw attention to themselves. Hopefully, I communicated all of that in this piece.

    I know the background is a bit rough. I didn't get the perspective right initially, and I kept making snap decisions with the guache, which I used for the background.  The crown of stars around her head represent the ideas of the card itself, though I plan on making the distinction more clear in further pieces.  

      Overall, I like the piece a lot.  I know it has its faults, but I also feel that some of the faults fall into the acceptable category for watercolor and my style.