The last of the Faces

I can’t believe that a whole month has gone by since I last posted anything here. I’ve made plenty of art – just haven’t got round to sharing it. So here goes. I’m a bit late uploading them, but here are the last of my faces for 29 Faces 2016. Yeah – I made it!!

They’re created with a mixture of watercolour, oil pastels and pencil. I really enjoyed the challenge of drawing so many faces.

I’ve also been playing along with the Journal 52 prompts. This is my response to Sarah Trumpp‘s prompt for week seven using a mixture of tombow brush pens and posca paint pens – called “Nerdy Love”…

…and for week eight using a mixture of fluid acrylics, distress ink, collage, tombow brush pens, posca paint pens, stabilo all pencil and calligraphy pens – called “Listen to Crow”.

This next spread was created in response to the prompts for week eight of Effy Wild’s Book of Days. I created it over the course of a week using tombow brush pens and computer generated text, and was amazed by how it all came together over the course of the week.

I was continuing to think about spring and all the new growth starting to appear while playing with acrylic paint which led me to create this spread. I just love the vibrant colours on this page.

I love the word emergence, and had great fun creating this spread in response to Effy Wild’s prompt for week ten of Book of Days. I used acrylic paint, fluid acrylics and a collage of computer generated text to create these pages.

I have lots more work to share so keep watching … here’s just a sneak peak of something a bit different that I’ll show you more of in the next post.

Blogalong with Effy!

I’ve not been blogging very regularly of late, so when I got effy’s newsletter today and saw that she was hosting a blogalong during August, I thought it would be a good idea to sign up in an attempt to complete thirty posts in thirty days!

Meanwhile, I’ve been back to playing catch up with the Life Book 2013 lessons. I started with Danita’s great class entitled Key to Freedom. The class started with a link to this cool podcast from Tarah Brach

The theme of the lesson corresponded exactly with the July Rumi Project quote over at the Glitterhood, so I had to incorporate it!

“Why do you stay in prison,when the door is so wide open?”

I started out by drawing the girl and the cage in pencil, then painted them using masking fluid before journalling on the background using a white gellyroll pen. I then painted over everything using Twinkling H2O’s. When everything was dry, I peeled off the masking fluid, coloured the girl using neocolour crayons and painted the cage with Twinkling H2O’s. Lastly I wrote the Rumi quote using a white Uni Paint Marker.

This week’s class was from Dina Wakley.

I started the page with a coat of white gesso then added some collaged book pages and old scanned artwork. Next I dripped some ink down the centre of the page and journalled across it, then placed a silhouette mask I created over the top and used acrylic paint to cover most of the page around the mask. I used stencils to add some interest to the background, and lastly, added some detail to the silhouette using a Stabilo All pencil and white acrylic paint. I found creating this page very therapeutic – thank you Dina.

More Quirky Birds!

Carrying on with this week’s Life Book 2013 lesson from Tamara, I got a bit carried away with drawing quirky birds. I drew four instead of two! – oops!!!

These are painted on the back of the other four and the whole image folds up like a concertina. Like the others, I created the background using spray inks and stencils, followed by neocolour crayons and acrylic paint and stencils. When it was all dry I covered it in clear gesso then drew the birds using pencil and coloured them using a mixture of acrylic paint, neocolour crayons, Edding 780 paint marker and unipin fine line pens.

I completely missed out the journalling part of the lesson!! I may add it later, or I may just skip it, I haven’t decided yet. I’ll let you know when I decide… keep watching this space!

Quirky Birds!

In this week’s Life Book 2013 lesson from Tamara she taught us how to draw these quirky birds. They were so much fun!

I created the background using spray inks and stencils, followed by neocolour crayons and acrylic paint and stencils. When it was all dry I covered it in clear gesso. I drew the birds using pencil, then coloured them using a mixture of acrylic paint, neocolour crayons, Edding 780 paint marker and unipin fine line pens.

I haven’t finished the lesson yet, so I’ll post some more pictures when I’m done.

Blending and Faces!

I’ve been playing blending again! I made a stained glass window image inspired by Jodi Ohl’s Just do it – Free Art Friday post.

But unlike Jodi, I didn’t doodle on my painting, I scanned it and played digital blending with it!

Then I thought it might be a good idea to finish face #16 which has been lurking accusingly for a while now!

I’m glad I did – I’m quite pleased with how she turned out – she’s definitely one of my better faces! I drew her in pencil and coloured her using acrylic paint and watercolour pencils. Now what shall I do next?

29 Faces – # 14

I’m still behind with my faces, but here is number 14.

Once again she’s drawn in pencil and coloured with acrylic paint and watercolour pencils. I really must try drawing with paint one of these days – I’m sure I would learn a lot from it – it just a case of plucking up the courage!

Faces and Letters!

Today I have been getting really messy! In addition to creating my face for 29 faces, I’ve been playing with letter stencils.

I created today’s face using pencil, watercolour pencils and acrylic paint. She still doesn’t look entirely like the one I was copying, but I’m getting better!

I signed up for this free workshop, Use Your Words, from Carolyn Dube the other day and have been having fun playing with letter stencils for the first lesson.

I started off with a collage of torn newspaper which I covered with a few layers of acrylic paint. Then I started playing with stencils! As I didn’t have the letter stencils Carolyn recommended, I made my own by removing a set of chipboard letters from their holding sheet, then using the sheet as a stencil. I used the whole alphabet and numbers to create the first layer, then made the word ‘creative’ over the top in a darker colour. I finished off using an Artist Cellar stencil to create a bit of interest at the bottom of the page.

I quite like how it looks right now, but I have a feeling I may be adding some more to it later!

29 Faces – # 11

Today was the first time in ages that I had a page with no gesso to work on. It was great not to have the smudging problem!

I drew her in pencil, then coloured her using a mixture of acrylic paint and watercolour pencils. Unfortunately when I came to paint the background, the paint leached straight through the page and left its mark on the next several pages in the book! So I’ll be back to a gesso page tomorrow!

29 Faces – # 10

Today I decided to have another try at an older face.

She still doesn’t look much like her original, but I’m beginning to be able to recognise the things that are wrong. I’m seeing more clearly! I definitely enjoy using a mixture of acrylic paint and water colour pencils for the colouring.

Blending and Faces!

Today I played digital blending as well as faces.

This started as an abstract created using Twinkling H2O’s. Then I scanned it and played digital blending with a photo of sand patterns. This is the result.

Todays face got the works!

I was so determined she wouldn’t have any strange paint marks today that I gessoed the page before I started! Then I had to draw her face on the gesso. I hate pencil drawing on gesso! – it smudges everywhere!Luckily the putty rubber does a good job of cleaning up! To stop further smudging I started off with an acrylic wash base, then coloured her face and hair using watercolour pencils. I added some background colour using Twinkling H2O’s. I must admit – I’m quite pleased with the final result. What do you think?