The Lifebook  course is fantastic.  This week was definitely something new for me as faces are not my strength, but I am getting more comfortable with them.

My muse finally chose to reveal a name to me!  Aegeria.  An ancient goddess of healing, springs, sacred knowledge, and inspiration.  I had already had a water theme with the background color & seashell stamps.  I love that Aegeria had lots to do with Rome – one of my favorite cities. The best part, Aegeria was a wonderful character on Stargate.  My sci fi nerdiness comes out…

As I went through this process I was surprised how she looked abused, beaten, and battered during certain stages.  The layers did soften as more layers were added. The process made sense logically, but I was skeptical until I tried it myself.

Splattered and stamped background.

Hair colored and words redrawn in black ink.

Glittered the words in the hair.

Added the die cut label and used India ink to write her name.

The name label is on the back  so that it rests upon her head when closed. This side isn’t finished, but it’s as finished as it will be for now.

The past week has been full of a personal challenge.  I began to wonder if I’d be able to handle it.  Thank heavens for art journaling!  Instead of staying in my head & letting that inner critic loose I chose to process it through art.  That’s why my character has no head – since that is where my inner critic resides.  I am standing on my resolve while the wings represent my personal power and strength.  That strength protects me from the rain, rain that comes from the challenges of life.

The base of this page was leftovers.  Papers I die cut were glued down.  When I was painting anohter die cut I used this page to catch the excess paint.  At this point no idea what it will be.  It just gets color and texture on the page.

A layer of gesso to unify the background & bring out the textures.

Using a dry-ish brush, added colors.

Added the diamond stencil & the wings.  The wing stencil was made using a Tim Holtz die cut.

Added the die cut of a dress form & raindrops using a stencil from Balzer Designs.  The yellow I used did not show up the way I wanted so I outlined some with orange paint.

Used Portfolio Crayons to write the word resolve.  I wrote it then used my finger to smudge it.  Those crayons smudge spectacularly!

Added the words to the wings with white paint.