Reflections On The 29 Faces Challenge

Here are the last few faces from the 29 Faces in September challenge. This is the second time I have done this challenge.  I have learned different things each time. The first time I used different art supplies each day. This time I decided to work on different facial views, some profiles and 3/4 and I tried drawing braids.  I did more sketching and less painting this time. Its always a journey I feel that my faces always look better at the end of the month. Practice does make perfect.  It takes challenges like these to make me do all the practice. I am grateful to take part. Here are the rest of the faces I drew this month.

Face 23

Face 24

Face 25 and yes this is a self portrait.

face 27

Face 28

 


















Face 29

So where is face 26 you might ask?  I am counting my Oracle painting and #26.

Do you like to do challenges? Do you think they help or do they take up too much of your time?

More Faces

Its Sunday night as I sit here writing this. I got a big disappointment yesterday. I had sent my journal full of the drawings with writing incorporated into them to Art Journaling Magazine. They accepted it and I was told I'd be in the gallery section of the October issue. Well the issue is out and I discovered that what they put in the gallery section was not any of my drawings but the cover of the journal. Very disappointed at what they did. Its hard not to take it personally.  So some retail therapy was in order.

So I took myself down to Michaels and got some of new graphite pencils and these metallic Faber-Castell pitt pens. They are pretty nice.  There is nothing like a new art supply to help soothe a soul.

This is face 20. I painted her on watercolor paper with acrylics, her dress was made with gelatos and a wet brush. I cut her out and then added her to a background made from a gelli print. I like the way the braid came out but I think she came out a little stern.  It seems to be hard for me to get a smile with a profile. Just need to keep trying till I get it right.

This one is just graphite in my sketchbook.  It is getting difficult to come up with something new to say about all these sketches. I'll be happy to finish up this challenge.

A Crow Landed on My Desk Today

We had our first frost warning last night.  I know I wanted fall but not this cold.  We didn't garden this year but we did grow basil.  I brought the plant in last night.  Its now hanging drying out.  I should get quite a bit of dried basil out of these plants.

Now on to some art and more faces. This one is number 18 and was made with charcoal pencil over a gelli print background.

This one was drawn with one of those woodless pencils.

A crow landed on my desk today. He was drawn with charcoal pencil.  I am really enjoying playing with charcoal this week.  You can really get a piece dark quickly.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday today. Check out all the wonderful art here.

Lady in Lavender - 29 faces

Its time to catch up on all the faces I did for the 29 faces challenge this past week.
My lady in lavender was done with PanPastels on watercolor paper. She seems to be an elegant lady from another time.

This one is in graphite.  I did this while watching my team the Packers play football.

Then I did this one since I was a day behind.  My quest continues on learning to draw braids. I will get it one of these days.

This was my attempt to draw an older woman.  I was using an ebony pencil and it worked very different from my usual graphite pencils.  I found it to be very challenging.

Next I pulled out my artist oil pastels.  It was hard doing the eyes because they no longer have a point on them. This one went through a lot of layers to get her to look right.I am finding this second half of the challenge to be, well challenging.  Its at the boredom stage when I think oh I have to do a face again.  That when I try a different medium or mix it up a little to make it exciting. Often when we push through the boredom we grow or gain some insight. I think I learn something from each portrait.

Time Spent in the Art Journal

I finished up some journal pages in the last couple days.

This was a greeting card from my cousin. I keep most things like that and eventually they end up in my journals.

I started with leftover paint on a page and kept building old papers and images.

Here I took one of my faces and added a spray ink background page.  I use her dress to journal on.  She was drawn on a page from an old book,

This page I've done over a few time.  I had the background done but I didn't like it so I added gelatos to the page.  Then I took a stencil I cut years ago and used a foam makeup sponge and black stamping ink to get the color down.

In this face I combined to images to make a third.  This is the first time I tried that and I liked the process.  The drawing really does become unique that way.

September Calender

Here is my September calendar. I took one of my gelli printed papers and cut it in two and used as a background.  The squares were cut out of a bronze colored metallic paper to symbolize leaves.  I stamped acorns, leaves and pinecones on random days. I stamped leaves and sunflowers into the background.

Here are a couple more faces for the 29 Faces challenge.

I used sennelier oil pastels to make this face. The background is acrylic.

This one is made with watercolor. The background was painted tissue paper. After doing these I decided to come up with a plan for the challenge. To try and paint faces that have different view. The first of them was in yesterday's post. I think for a challenge to be worthwhile to me I need to stretch. I need to try something new. So hopefully by the end of the month I will feel real progress.

How do you make progress in your art?  How do you push yourself?  I'd love to know, tell me your stories in the comments.

Sunday Sketches

For today's sketch I found this portrait on Pinterest. Its by artist William Oxer.

Here is my version. I wasn't really trying to duplicate the look but more the feel of the pose.  She is similar but different at the same time. She seems so elegant to me. I want to practice different poses for the 29 faces challenge I am doing.

To see what other sketchers are doing today go to Blue Chair Diary.

Mono Prints into Journal Pages & 29 Faces

I have been toying with the idea of doing 29 faces again.  There is a possible trip in September which would make it hard to do but I think I will still give it a whirl. I probably won't get 29 done but I will get a lot more practice in than if I didn't do this.  If you want to participate you can find information on the 29faces blog. So here is my first face.

 

I had those wonderful mono prints I made with my gelli plate on Friday and created some journal pages with them.  This first one had all the same color families.  I put strips of several pages together.  SInce its so subtle it didn't photograph well. I painted the the face on and old book page and then used gelatos for the hair and dress.

On this one I pulled strips from two different color ways. I added some of Tim Holts tissue paper at the bottom right and then colored in with gelatos.  The image is one from the King Tut collection that has always been a favorite of mine.

All About Pencils

I found this fabulous history of pencils on Facebook from my friend Palma. Getting to know your pencils

Face 28 was created with gouache watercolors on watercolor paper. After this I tried a face in wax but it was a disaster. So I moved on to something else.

With this last face I made a tag out of watercolor paper. I took my Dr.PH Martin liquid watercolors and attempted  to mix a skin color.  My friend Jolene had told me which colors she uses and I gave it a try.  It came out way too pink so I tried toning it down with colored pencil. I didn't like her lips, she looks a little pouty to me.  I made it, I made 29 faces in September. I am looking forward to doing something else now.

Our remodel is still going on.  I feel like we are in an episode of This Old House, you know where the host comes to the owner and says "We have a Problem". First when we started to pull up the subfloor we had a big area that was not level. It took Dave all last week to fix it.  Now we have discovered the people who built the house in the 60's never put any support under the fireplace. So now Dave has to go into the crawlspace and create some support and add floor jacks. He has to work lying down amongst the dirt. Not a fun job. I hope this is the last of the problems. He still has half the subfloor to replace.  I sure hope that side of the room is level.

My spinning friends from Salt Lake are coming down for the weekend, so the construction will stop for a few days at least. I am looking forward to a fun relaxing weekend with good friends.

More Faces to Share

This is face number 26 so far this month.  I created her in my mixed media paper journal using Shiva Paintsticks.  These are oil paint in a stick.I use my finger to blend them and a q-tip when I needed smaller details. This did not turn out anything like I had planned.

This one was a quick sketch with soft pastels, those cheap kids ones. They smear so easily whether you want them to or not.  I did find I could pull off unwanted smears with a rag. I only have 2 more faces to make to my goal which is great. Its been fun but I am ready to focus on something else for awhile. You are probably tired of seeing them too.

Sunday Sketches

Doing double duty today.  This is sketch no 25 for the 29 Faces September challenge and my sketch for Sunday Sketches.  I went back to my favorite graphite woodless pencils to create this woman. You can see all my faces for the month on my flickr page.

Also check out Sophia's blog to see what other sketchers are up to.

A More Interesting Face

Face 23 was created with Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I had major problems with this, I may have to try the image again on different paper. I had too much water on the page and almost got a hole in it. Very frustrating.

Next I wanted to do a more interesting face.  I got out the Sennelier oil pastels, oh I love these tools. I first heard about them from Mystele and she told me how she loved their creaminess. She is so right they are wonderful and blend so well.  I am slowly building up a collection of colors.  I really wanted paynes grey today but didn't have it so that goes on the list.

I think of her as a wise peasant woman, I would like to do more faces with character. All the magazine images I use for inspiration show young women.  I think its time I started to portray another kind. I can see a new Pinterest board in the making.

Faces 21 and Writing Too

I just realized that I never let my readers of this blog know what I am doing elsewhere on the internet. Time to remedy that. Over on Facebook and Twitter I have been listing an Art Journal Prompt every day,  and for Writers I have a daily writing practice suggestion.  Now I know that some of you are not on Facebook or Twitter so I created another option to see these prompts. At the end of the month I post the entire list on my website. I have the prompts already up for this month.  You can see them by clicking on this link for art prompts and this link for writing prompts.  Ok now back to 29 faces.

29 Faces

I have a couple more faces to share today. I continue to try all the media that I can think of to create these faces. I have seven more to go so I may have to mix it up to keep them original.

This face was made with Pan Pastel. I use pastel paper that had a blue tint to it. I have those tools with the little sponge covers that they sell with the sets so I used them.  They do work pretty great. I wasn't sure if I had the colors to do a skin tone or not.  I used white, burnt sienna and pink. This went pretty quick and was fun I used some pastel pencil for the small details. They key was to stop smering it all with my hand while I was working on it. At one point I got a sheet of paper out to cover up areas and that worked great.

This face was created using Derwent's InkTense Blocks. It was a lot like using the pencils but you really can lay down color quicker. I used gelatos oil pastels for the background.  This was done on mixed media paper which ended up buckling a lot due to the water I added. Adding absorbent ground to the paper really helps with water media.  I really like the Canson Mixed Media books for journals. I wish they made watercolor ones in the same sizes and spiral bound. I may have to try the Strathmore ones again. I bought the larger size watercolor one before but the paper wasn't all that exiting.  Perhaps I will have to start making my own again.

I am taking a break from art to process some peaches today, maybe I should paint them first.  The colors are so pretty.

WRITING WISDOM

I kind of spaced my writing post this week so I will add it here. I gave the writing talk at my writers group so I was spending most of my week on that. I did find some great resources on the web from fellow writer Daniel. There is a series on structure that is so good. Its a series of videos by Dan Wells. After that I found a series of lectures by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson that is good too. I don't know why I never thought of You Tube as a source for writing wisdom. I think I will be watching a few videos for awhile.  Wisdom is power. If you're a writer check these out they are great.

Trying More Supplies

Doing this challenge is really making me use supplies in new ways. I highly recommend it. So far I have used watercolor markers, charcoal pencil, acrylics, graphite pencil, woodless pencils, india ink, inktense pencils,watercolor, vine charcoal, gelatos aka water soluble oil pastels. I have painted as small as a tag and as big as 18 x 24.  I have 9 more faces.  What else should I use? I m thinking I may use  regular oil pastell, wc crayons, soft pastels and maybe even wax.

For this face I went down to the size of my art journal, which is 7 x 10. I pulled out the Aqua Markers and gave them a try. There is a learning curve with these puppies. I did discover that when I picked the black marker by mistake, that I could add lots of water and blot out the color.  You can't even tell that the black mark was on her face. I like that fixability factor. A paper towel was my partner in this painting.

Face no. 20 is drawn with vine charcoal, I love how immediate charcoal is and forgiving when you have a kneaded eraser on hand. After I did the dress I thought it looks like fringe and makes her look like a white woman in a native costume which was not the intention at all.  I love drawing with charcoal. I want to use it more in the future. I don't think I have ever used it an art journal page.  I think that should change soon.

More Faces for 29 Faces September Challenge

We have been challenged by the organizer  of this challenge to mix it up, go small or big, use new materials, jump out of the box.  I had already done some of that but decided to go small with face no. 15. I created the tag background with gelatos and drew the face with Pitt brush markers. She was fun but simple.

Then I decided to take the tag and make it into a journal page. I used some of Tim Holts tissue paper tape. I love how you can paint right over it and still see the words. Its fun stuff.

I had painted a number of tags, this one is face 16. I used Tim Holtz distress stain on the background and sketched her with charcoal pencil. She was fun and there were more tags already decorated so I kept going.

That was way too much orange, for one blog post so here is another tag with a face. The background is made with Distress Stain, she was drawn with india ink and then painted with golden fluids, I also used pitt brush pens for eyes and lips. It was interesting painting with ink, I had bever done that before. I will be trying that again soon.

For this last face of this post I went big. She is painted on 18 x 24 Mixed Media paper using Liquitex Basics Acrylics and stamping and Oil pastels. I  think I liked the portrait before I added all the stamping, oh well that is the way it is sometimes.  I am really enjoying this challenge.

Days 13 & 14

Face 13 was created in my moleskine watercolor journal.  I used a set of watercolors from Michaels that has a lot of fun shades.  I thought it would be fun to add some purple hair.

Here is face 14, its hard to believe we are almost half the way through the month already. She is supposed to have a scarf on her head but it looks a lot like a swim cap. I drew her in the doctors office while I waited for a friend.

Experimenting with Wax

This is my second encaustic piece.  I wanted to incorporate  a letter to my Grandmother and her picture. There is a lot of different techniques here. I used a stencil at the top left. The letter and picture were printed on tissue paper. The bottom section is a paper doily. The section to the right of the picture originally had pansies under the wax but they looked awful so I took them out and added lace and ribbon.

This piece has an image on tissue paper. I tried the carbon paper technique to write 'The Solace of Nature' but it did not come out that well..Grass in the front was made with a tool and then by adding green oil paint in the grooves. The sky was redone abut ten times. First it was light and then dark and then I added the sun and then took it out and on an on. Wax is so much fun, if you don't like something just scrape it off and start again.

29 Faces Continues

Here is face number 12, she is supposed to be angry, not sure I captured that but she does look somewhat stern.