This turned out to be a true test of faith. Faith in myself. And patience. And I guess resourcefulness.

I wanted to do an alcohol ink art piece where the face is peeking out of the flower petals. First step, draw the face and then apply masking fluid. Then wait a few days for the fluid to dry. Then cover the whole page with a mix of alcohol inks. Blue, purple and pink. So far so good.

Then comes the first disaster. For some reason, condensation keeps happening on the page. It creates these jagged lines that I hate!!! And I could not get rid of 😭 I sent sos through some Facebook alcohol ink art groups. Figured probably due to condensation bec it was unseasonably warm that day 60F and I was sitting outside…

This was the first point when I felt like giving up. Hated the look of the petals, but I could not get rid of them… I could not let it go. Kept trying different ways and finally figured that changing from cool to heat setting on my hair dryer actually helped. Importantly, I walked away and came back to it, in the middle of the night nonetheless 😂 sat outside on my screened deck, with my light on and soldiered on..

I managed to create petals on the whole page. Not great but I wasn’t going to give up.

Then comes the next point when I wanted to give up again. I had to peel the masking fluid off. And to be honest, my fluid is really old and not optimal but I figured I could make it work. Wrong!!!! It was so hard to peel it off!!!😭😭😭

At this point I am thinking f*** this!!!!! I am walking away. But I couldn’t. And wouldn’t accept defeat. I pressed on. Rubbing and peeling. I finally did it!!! .. But my finger was definitely sore. I probably peeled off some of my skin as well 😂😂😂

Then I decided I would use a brush to smooth the lines so they appear less jagged. And I painted the face in.. she looked scary at first but I pressed on and actually enjoyed this process of smoothing the lines, smoothing her face, adding details, adding bubbles… this is the painter in me having fun. Love the control and the details…

I am happy how she turned out. Added Keep The Faith on this piece, as a reminder to myself. To have faith in myself. Don’t give up if it’s important to you. You will find a way. And I did. Well done Teresa.