Mr. Crow, Abstract, Banana Peel, and Character Faces

I saw this crow on Pinterest, and was drawn to his expression (I love it!), so I sketched him with a pencil, then attempted to paint him in watercolor. Black is very hard to paint for me. I added a red orange background, which, of course, changed the look of the crow colors and it totally distracted from the crow, so I added more layers of watercolor, then acrylics with my fingers until I got it to where I can live with it. I also wound up using a Micron ink pen and colored pencils to adjust colors on the black crow, so it slowly became a mixed media piece. By the time I quit on him, because, according to his expression, he was getting annoyed with me for nitpicking so much, his body and legs had shifted, and he was standing more upright than in the photo. He was a lot of work over several days, but also a lot of fun, and I love him!

The abstract below started off as a page to clean excess paint off my palette and brush on, but then I kept adding marks with other colors and media, randomly over a few days, until it got to this point! I like it!

This day I couldn't decide what I wanted to sketch, so I sketched the empty banana peeling laying on the arm of my chair in different positions. At one point, hubby came by and picked it up to trash, and I had to tell him, "Hey, I was sketching that!" Anyway, it was good practice with a Micron pen!

I was looking on Pinterest for interesting character faces to practice sketching on, and I found several. A woman wearing a moth/butterfly mask caught my attention, so I sketched her in pencil. I am debating on going over her in ink and watercolor, but I kind of like her as she came out. 

I say this, because I can't copy anything exactly, even if I wanted to, which I don't. They may turn out close to the photo, but not exactly. They are only idea reminders in my sketchbook for my own original work.

Another Pinterest photo that intrigued me was this girl with a parrot. I got her eyes a little too close together, but she reminds me of Vera Farmiga, the actress, a bit. The photo doesn't! Micron pen

Another Pinterest find! I love sketching these characters, and this woman wearing an owl mask while holding an owl, all white, was also challenging and fun to try!

I seem to have a tendency for long, kind of narrow faces, with eyes too close, long noses, and big mouths, regardless of the face in the photo. Maybe that's my style? Maybe I need to sketch more from life...