MAKOTA - Acrylic/mixed media painting

 Hello Friends,

One thing I love about acrylic is, if you don't like it, you can always paint over it. In the case of this portrait, I started with a less than satisfactory watercolour painting. (below)

I cut it out, pasted it on a canvas panel, added a tunic with texture paste, and made a positively ghastly face in acrylic on top of the watercolour. I'm serious. It would scare you. I took no pictures of it, out of respect for my camera. Every time I caught sight of it, I cringed. It was either toss it out, or try to salvage it. I had nothing to lose.

I didn't know who the fictional person was going to be, but I knew I wanted it to be one of the supporting characters from the novel I am currently working on - Son of Abeilhe. It's Book Two in my Tales of Ellmoria fantasy series. Book One - Bee Singer Queen - is available from our web site or you can purchase it on Amazon. Just type in my name - Teresa M. Arsenault - or use one of the links in the sidebar.

In Son of Abeilhe, Auberon leaves his mysterious island home to search for his mauch-tuach (his life mate) and to find his purpose. Young Makota is the first person he encounters in the strange land of Ellmoria.

Makota belongs to a people known to most as The Tree People, but they call themselves The Hidden Ones. They have skin that mimics bark when they stand in front of a tree. They also dress in such a way to blend in with their surroundings.

Makota has a lopsided grin that reminds Auberon of his best friend in Abeilhe. He also has a cheerful disposition and loves Auberon's companion, White Dog.

 I love texture, which is one reason I didn't want to throw the creepy painting away. I really was fond of the tunic done in texture paste. The painting seemed a little unbalanced though, so I slapped on thick globs of acrylic paint with a palette knife for Makota's hair.

I might try doing portraits for some of my other story characters. It was really challenging doing that lopsided grin. It's not perfect, but this is a journey and I'll get better as I go along.

Thanks for dropping by. I appreciate your nice comments very much and look forward to reading them.

Hugs & smiles,

Teresa