Face Sketch Practice

Still playing with quick sketches inspired by Katie Kendrick painting. Of course, mine look nothing like hers, but if I practice I might develop my own version! They're addictive!

Digital Face Sketch

Another sketch playing with a Kindle art app! I shouldn't have drawn all the way to the edges! But that's ok! I tried!

Sketches in Altered Book

When life gets in the way of my painting at all, or on days I don't have time, I try to sketch in/on something with various tools anyway, just to stay in practice with drawing and fearlessness. I love to look back through old journals/sketchbooks and if a page tells me it needs something more and what it is, I'll add it.

It's strange that I call this my Feather Journal, because, so far, the only feather in it is on the cover. It is an old book, titled, "Never Good Enough", that I read a long time ago. I needed a book (I think it was supposed to be really old, for effect) for an altered book project, and this one got elected.

So far, it has all practice faces and figures in it in various pencils, pens, charcoal, etc., but I've glued some pages together for strength, in case I want to go back and paint, collage, or do mixed-media on the faces/figures. I could cover up all the text except the message I want to convey, or just let some peek through the paint in various places. I still have a lot of pages to fill, but it will be fun to see where the journey winds up.

I haven't worked in this book in a long time, because I always have a bunch of works-in-progress and class work going on, but I had a few minutes before going somewhere, so I quickly sketched these characters off. Two are with a Posca Black Marker and one is charcoal, which is a little messy for my taste, but fun to play with once in a while. 👵

Anyway, it was fun to play, even for a few minutes! Keep doing what feeds your soul! 😇

Digital Practice

Playing with a drawing app on my Kindle. I know it looks like a child did it,  but I like it.🐰

Sacred Landscape-Project 2-Group

Hello! I've just finished project two, group painting, in Ivy Newports's Sacred Landscape class (see link in sidebar). It's on an 8" x 8" wooden cradled panel in mixed media, and it involves photo transfer (I borrowed an image from Pinterest for the photo), and painting over it.

I LOVE the work coming out of this class!

Photo transferred to gessoed panel and the first layers of paint applied. Complementary colors of yellow and magenta, with burnt umber and white gesso for toning, open acrylics, and a Stablio pencil was used. I forgot and laid in the colors like I wanted them at the end.

So I used a palette knife to put thick gel medium over the clothes for texture, let it dry, then painted over the first layer, added faces, and a building in the background...

Layers of paint added, and I decided to paint the faces out to give it more of an abstract look and dry brushed white gesso over the dried gel medium...

Added some drips and runs and more texture, and wrote "That's what friends are for" in the sky and signed it done! There are things I might do differently if I did it again, but I'm pretty happy with with how it turned out.

I decided the writing was standing out too much, so I went over it with a white stablio pencil, sprayed it with fixative and brushed on another coat of gel medium. I think the writing looks more a part of the background instead of sitting on top of it.

I don't necessarily follow the teacher's steps. I watch the video and take notes, then do what I do. They never turn out like I envision them, but that's part of the fun. When the painting starts talking back to you and takes you on a whole different journey than you started out on, it's exciting, no matter the outcome.

I can't wait to start the Project 3 adventure! Happy creating! 💖

Face Sketches

These sketches were inspired by a Katie Kendrick painting shared on Facebook. I loved the faces/figures and was inspired to try some in my sketchbook. I tried holding my pencil differently and sketching loosely.

Stabilo pencil...

Group sketched in stabilo pencil- I start with one and just kept addding them. Love the one in the upper right corner!

These were so much fun I tried one in a black gel pen. Love her!

I want to keep experimenting with these and some paint. Will share when I do!

Sacred Landscapes: Project 1

This is project 1 from the Sacred Landscape class with Ivy Newport (see sidebar for link), and is supposed to be an abstraction of a figure in a landscape, using a magazine image for the figure. It is mixed media using various materials and techniques to create the painting, which is on an 8" x 8" wooden cradled panel, with primary colors. I used Paynes Grey, Raw Umber, and Burnt Sienna, plus white gesso, which may, or may not, have been a good idea. It did make the background kind of dark and mysterious looking though, I think.

Beginning layers on gessoed panel...

More layers, and I wrote LOVE in the sky for some reason...

Then I decided to "lay it on thick" with a palette knife for the next layers...

I decided the background looked too choppy, so I added more layers to even it out.The final layer is a thick coat of gel medium, which I got a little too thick in places, but I think it gives it kind of a waxy dreamy look. I have a tendency to get everything too close in value on every painting. Maybe that's how I see the world? A couple of things I'm still not happy about, but I can live with them. On the whole, I am pretty pleased with how the painting turned out, the process, and what I learned with her.

The writing says, "She couldn't decide whether to stay or leave everything behind."

Close up of her face. She looks a little Vampirish to me in the earthy colors, but that's ok!

Project two is a grouping of people, which I already have in progress. It's proving to be as much fun as project one was.

Do something every day that makes your soul sing! :)