Daily Creativity: Semicolon for Mental Health

This semicolon mixed media painting is a continuation of the piece I drew earlier for #projectsemicolon. I said I wanted to continue on with this theme, and I’m sure I will do more in the future. I wanted to finish lent off with a piece that was meaningful to me, and this concept is one of the most powerful that I worked on this year. I made it through lent without missing a single day, and I wrote more about each piece and reflected on my work. I really enjoyed this process and it did for me what I set out for it to do. I hope you enjoyed the journey with me. Stay tuned for more Daily Creativity throughout the year.

This time I drew the tattooed wrist with a semicolon to represent mental health. I painted inside the heart with the colors for mental health awareness in watercolor. To me watercolor is a very controlled medium so I wanted to use that for the inside. I used soft pastels on outside of the heart in other colors. For me pastels are wild and uncontrollable, like the outside world and outside forces. The pastels got a bit darker than I had planned, but I think it worked out, the tattoo in the heart looks like a beacon of hope I think.

I first painted the watercolor section and then I masked that section with frisket and then did the pastels, so the pastels wouldn’t take over the painted section. I then used fixative to settle the pastels, and then removed the frisket. Note to self, and other artists, really make sure the watercolor is dry before applying frisket, even if you think it’s dry, wait longer, it will stick when wet. I had to match two spots because it wasn’t fully dry.

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