What Lies Within Us

What lies behind us 
and what lies before us 
are small matters 
compared to what lies within us.  
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.aliciaartshop.com

Inspiration Tuesday!

Each week I will pick one of my original pieces and discuss the inspiration behind it!  
So check back each week and don't forget to sign up for my newsletter. 

This week I am discussing the inspiration behind my original, "What Lies Within". 
I LOVE this piece and I am so happy that the  new owner loves it too.  ♥

I began to sketch What Lies Within while sitting outside on my driveway on a beautiful sunny day.  It was Fall so the cement of the driveway was a bit chilly but the sun was warm on my legs.  I call these perfect days for sweatshirts and shorts!  I wanted to try a different type of face, and was just working on lips and eyes.  I loved this girls eyes so I decided to paint her.  I worked with my prismacolor pencils on the paper and got her face shaded and the eye and lip color based in.

www.aliciaartshop.com

Next, the messy and really fun part!  The background :)  I seriously LOVE working on backgrounds.  Sometimes, I just work on backgrounds to try out new colors and then just have them partially ready for a new upcoming piece.

I like to work on wood because it is strong and allows for A LOT of layers.  I love mixed media because if I make a mistake, instead of scraping it off, often times I just layer over it and let some of my "mistake" show through.  I call these happy accidents.  

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It was Autumn and I already like to work with warm colors, so I picked about 3-4 base colors to start with:  an antique gold, wine, burnt umber, hippo gray.  Worked the background with paints, inks, tissues, vintage papers, etc. etc.  I kind of feel like a mad scientist sometimes when working on my background... little snippets of paper and tissue is flying about and splatters of paint are getting all over my table.  So much FUN!

Here's a sample of my "Little Red Riding Hood" background in the works.....

After adding my "What Lies Within" girl to the background,
I was missing something special...

WHAT was she trying to say?  

I brought my unfinished piece upstairs and just left her somewhere 
that I would walk by and see her often.  
Then I searched Emerson quotes online and found this amazing one and it just felt right.  
I wrote it on a piece of vintage paper from a story book and attached it using matte medium.  FINISHED!

www.aliciaartshop.com

Thanks for stopping over and I would love to read your comments!   
~Alicia♥