Easter

I've been doing lots of thinking about my ranting about acrylics. This has suddenly become so clear to me. My dad used to say we should find one thing we were good at and enjoyed doing and then we should make it our focus in life. Well, all my life I've loved doing portraits, and I've loved using colored pencils for the past few years. So why do I want to change my direction? ( I'm asking myself that question, not you. Geeez, I don't expect you to have answers for me!) So why am I beating myself up? I started to look at old portraits ( done within the last 18 months) and I like where I was going.
So, this is where I am now, in my head....Deb, keep doing the portraits, keep using the pencils, but put some time aside each week to devote to acrylics. And don't expect raves about what happens. Because I realized that where I'm going with acrylics is a place I've never dared go before. I've always been able to draw what I could see, but I've never used materials for their own sake. In other words, I use colored pencils for portraits because they are the most comfortable material for me to use to produce a portrait. You see? I'm starting out with the intention of producing a portrait, but when I sit and look at my acrylics, there is no product I plan, no outcome I can visualize. I just love the paints for themselves, for the multitude of outcomes which are possible. I want to explore what acrylics and mediums can do together, and then see the end when I get there. What I'm looking for is the light which can be refracted in the mediums, and the colors that can be glazed and mixed. It's exciting! So it's really counterproductive to use acrylics for portraits right now. Maybe later. But right now I'm going to let the acrylics lead me on a journey.