Layers Of YOU

 

 

Do you know how many layers of YOU there have been?  What Core Values do you inhabit?  What core values inhabit you?

Being ENOUGH is such a precarious place to stand and wonder.  Either we feel we are on the edge of a cliff and you are about to fall, or you are climbing up to the highest peak of Enough.  Vulnerability to our own critical self is tougher than life itself.

At birth, we had one need…mother, who would nurture, change, keep warm, keep safe.  Some of us lost that within days or months.  The kinds of things impacted; body, mind, heart and soul!  And, when we are aware of the outside world away from curve of mother’s embrace, we begin to know what we value.  How much, of value had been lost so early?  A whole world. 

I am one of those.  And, as I stopped to consider it all, I realized that my siblings watched our mother give away one after another after another; to friends, or strangers, or the system.  What impacts did that have on them?  How vulnerable did they feel?  I watch my siblings and see the impacts.  My heart aches for them, as well.

It affects us all and each of us will have similar needs, and values, and core beliefs due to this.  Some are bitter, most struggled, some still struggle, some find ways to be what they, themselves, needed.  This becomes our core values.

How many layers of need moved us to value what we do?  I decided this would be a multi-layered art piece to express this.

 

Warm the page by painting it in gray acrylic and doing a bit of texturizing.  I, thenb, drew the head shape.

Glazing:

To make your own glaze, you can use Mod Podge or any gel medium you have.  Mix 1 part color to 10 parts medium.  Mix well.  Use a very soft brush over an area you want with your color mixture.  Apply gently and wipe off any excess glaze you are using on a paper towel before applying.  Work quickly and do not keep working at it when it gets tacky.

 

I used white acrylic toi fill in the shape.

I found the placement for the features.  Eyes 1/2 between crown and chin;  nose, halfway between eyes and chin;  mouth, halfway between tip of nose and chin. 

 

I blocked in the hair, I thought I wanted., used the same color for her eyes, and did some shading above the eyes, below nose, angel's shush line ( that dip between nose and mouth), and did a bit of watered down acrylic for shading of face.

 Began to contour and I changed the hair.  I added the light of life in her eyes.  (The light reflection in the pupils.)

Added some dark purple to my brown and did some more shading. 
 

I begin refining some more.  I start lightening up the cheeks, the chin, the nose, and center of the forehead.  

I blocked in the lips with a brick red and added that same color to the hair.

 Layer by layer ofdefinition as I show her shoulder by using the highlight color of her cheek bones.  There is pink added to her cheeks, at top of neck and added that same color a bit above her eyes.  I added some light on the brow.  

Some defining with charcoal pencil and I feel her done.

We are layer upon layer, ourselves.  We are not static beings.  We have layers of years upon us, above us, within us, below us.  Get to remember them.