Hello everyone! We are now at Day 69, so close to Day 100! Today’s artwork addition to #The100DayProject is a new painting in which I stepped out of my comfort zone completely! Listed below are the remaining artwork pieces that are available from our previous days of #The100DayProject including unlimited prints available for some of our digital pieces created.

• Keisha (SOLD)
• Trippy Grandma (Paypal Only)
• Jodeci Music Block
• Lily (Paypal Only)
• Hands Up, Don’t Shoot (Prints Only)
• SC Flood (Prints Only)
• The People Say Guilty (Prints Only)
• Erykah Badu Music Block
• Future Music Block
• Teyana Taylor Music Block
• Real Love vs Artificial Lust (Paypal Only)
• A Woman’s World (Paypal Only)
• Tupac Music Block
• Imprisonment (The Sand Gallery)
• AmeriKKKa (The Sand Gallery)
• If I Can’t Have You (not for sale)
• New Balance (Paypal Only)
• DE + Vida
• Brown Tex (Paypal Only)
• Lil Wayne Music Block
• Nas Music Block
• DNA
• First Lady Wall Clock
• If I Can’t Have You: Deante (not for sale)
• Lady Locs Collection
• Baduizm Collection
• Summer Storm (Paypal Only)
• Future Collection
• Summer & Island Pendants

Day 69: Smile

Today’s artwork is a watercolor painting titled, Smile. If you have been following DE since the beginning or even recently as of this year alone, you know or have noticed that my first choice of paint is always acrylic. I have always loved extremely bright colored artwork that is very vibrant, but lately I have been wanting to step outside my little comfortable box. After seeing so many amazing art pieces in watercolor, including many from a good friend of mine Trenita Finney, I was inspired to try my hand at watercolor. Don’t get me wrong, I have worked with this particular paint before, dating all the back to elementary school and some while in college, but for some reason I never really got attached to it like I have with acrylics.

The paint that I used for Smile is Reeves Gouache collection, in which gouache is a type of watercolor paint. I really love it. It has been a water color paint choice of mine since college and it is at an affordable price which is always a great thing for us artists on a budget. It was created on an 11×14 inch canvas panel, which are great for custom framing. For Smile, I wanted to practice facial expressions, while also creating shadows and depth by layering the paint. I ended up challenging myself while practicing by only using four (4) different colors to create the entire piece. For the darker parts, I painted multiple layers on top of each other. For the lighter parts, I diluted the paint with more water.

The concept of the painting is one of more personal reasons. Lately, I have just been getting back to myself, meaning I was not happy for an extended amount of time in my life before, and I’m just now fully regaining that happiness. The woman pictured, however, is not me. She is just a figure that came to my mind as I worked and painted. Her skin tone was purposely created to seem kind of dull and life less, which represents how I was feeling for some time in my life. But her hair and smile was created to be full of life, a symbol of her slowly regaining her happy life back starting with those two things first. Her hair is a representation of my love for the natural hair movement and lifestyle I am pursuing right now as well (side note: follow my natural hair journey @delux_hair), and also of my true personality which has always been figuratively big and fluffy. Her smile is a representation of my deep down joyfulness even through bad times, symbolizing how my smile can still light up a room.

I really had fun with this piece and I intend to create more watercolor based artwork soon. I am a member of the Doodlewash Watercolor Community, so all future watercolor paintings, including this one, will be upload on page which you can check out at this link.

For more information on purchasing the artwork above, email deluxds@yahoo.com. This piece is going for $150 (USD) at the moment. All transactions are done via Paypal. Thank you to everyone for your support on our art journey! To follow our progress until July 12, 2017, follow us on Instagram [@deluxds]!