The Journey of Self

Today's art post is very different from my usual art style. It is good to push out of your comfort zone now and then. This was definitely a piece that did that. When I found this photograph, I knew it was something I wanted to make use of in an art piece, but I had no clear vision of exactly what that would be. So this process surprised even me with the result.

The Inspiration

The photograph I found that inspired this was of Jessamyn Stanley. While I found it on Pinterest, I followed the link and found quite an inspiring story. Jessamyn Stanley Is Changing The Yoga World, One Pose At A Time. It is very obvious from the photograph that Jessamyn is not what we have come to expect someone who practices yoga to look like. The media has trained us to expect lithe, subtly muscular bodies, holding flexible poses with ease. So when I came across this photograph, it immediately stood out to me. Not only because of her body shape, but she also looked like she was glowing. And how on earth was she holding that pose?! I can't do that!

Jessamyn Stanley's story is inspiring. She used yoga as a path to accepting herself. And now she is helping others do the same by boldly stepping in front of a camera and showing herself to the world just as she is. I wanted to do homage to that in some way.

The Process

This process is completely different to my usual process. I had no idea what end result I was aiming to achieve. I just knew I wanted to complete a piece of art. So I began with a sketch of the photograph.

I then began blocking in the base colours. But this is where things took a different turn. Somehow I was simply not happy with the direction. I wanted to do something different, something unusual. I didn't want this to be like my normal art style, in just the same way that Jessamyn Stanley was not your normal yoga practitioner.

So I switched things up completely and decided to focus first on the background. I would somehow use 'negative space' as the way to represent Jessamyn, as she took negative views on herself and turned them into something positive for herself in the long run.

The idea of including space and stars came to me, and I added a nebula in the background as a starting point. Then I decided to include her glow that had first struck me in the photograph as what would really accentuate her. I used the overlay of the sketch as a guide, turning down the opacity a little.

I used the colour pink, as a celebration of the feminine.

The outline was done using the lightpen brush. This proved a challenge to me as I had to be more confident with my brush strokes or the light would end up being very uneven.

I complimented the pink with the colour orange. And continued to do the outline of work. I added a soft texture to indicate the clothing she is wearing.

I then switched back to working on the background. I wanted to give the nebula more depth and interest by adding stars. Some I added using a brush, and some I added by hand.

Then I began adding some colour gradients to the background to give it a little bit more depth and interest. While I was working on this, I remembered a quote. This inspired me to add one last thing to the background to round the picture out. I used a brush for this.

"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." - Les Brown

And so I present to you the final result. The Journey of Self. May we all find a way to love ourselves and improve our world on this journey we call life.

Thanks

Thanks for stopping by and having a gander at my art! Thank you as well if you took the time to read all of my ramblings in between. What do you think of this piece? It is so different to my usual work. Should I do more like it?

Special thanks to Jessamyn Stanley for being her awesome self and providing inspiration for this.

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@clairemobey @zakludick @jasperdick