Fun with Watercolors

Jane Davenport has a whole new mixed media series.  Specifically I really wanted her "Mermaid" markers, but they are nowhere to be found.  Not on her website though they are really expensive on her website - $89 and on Michaels - $39 Her product line is in Michaels but they don't have a lot of the line in stock either in the stores or online.  Guess I have to wait.

Meantime, I'm playing with DerWent pencils and my little Windsor and Newton portable watercolor pan.

Unfortunately these subtle pale washes don't show up so well online.

I call these next two my flower girls.  Since I seem to have a challenge getting both eyes to look as I want, I sometimes cover one with something.  In this instance I cut flowers out of magazines.

 

FaceTime

This is my latest #36.
I'm using "100 Faces on Cheap Paper" as a reference for many of my faces.  This one is from that book.

~ Create ~

Faces, Faces, Faces

It's a beautiful day in sunny Southern California 75 degrees and lots of sunshine.  Would love these temps all summer.  
Dina Wakley says to get better at faces draw 100 of them.  I haven't been consistent but below are some of my attempts.  Almost all of them are drawn with Stabillo All.  I like this pencil because it interacts with water.  I usually start with gesso (that way I can use a baby wipe to "erase" if I don't like a line).  However, I try to be spontaneous and not worry about the lines being perfect.

I wipe my brushes (from painting) on these pages that have been gessoed, coming back later to draw on  them.  Some are easier to see than others.  

I like the Stabile pencils because they react with water, so I can darken my lines after the drawing.  I can also paint the faces in if I wish.

The ones I like best are the gestural sketches

I've done about 30 of them and still trying to find a style unique to me.  I seem to be all over the place but I guess that's what Dina means.  Maybe after 100 I'll have nailed down a style.  And then who knows?  It will probably change.

~

~ Create ~

Do You Have My Muse?

I've lost my muse.  I'm really not motivated to do any photography at the moment except with the iPhone.

I'm not inspired to paint either although I sat myself down and did this little lady.  I already had the background.  I drew the face with Stabilo All black pencil and then went back and painted in her face.

I think she's a fashion model.  She has that gaunt look.   Only 82 faces left to draw.  I think I'm supposed to do one every day though.....not once a month!  LOL

I could blame it on the weather....it's been so hot and humid, and with no A/C I just wilt.  I find myself wanting to go vegetate in the library just to get cool.

Did you have a marvelous week?  I hope so.  Maybe I'll get inspired soon. 

~ Give ~

As Promised

Before I get to my promised face and story, I want to share with you my entry for Texture Tuesday.  I did two different images from this shoot, and two different edits.  The first one I edited as Kim did in Week 7 of our Be Still class.

After some minor adjustments in Lightroom and using her "Breeze" preset I added quote and her "Simple" texture in Photoshop.  

The second image is a bit more dramatic.  I used Kim's "Darkmood" preset in Lightroom.

and now for that face and story…..

Face #16

I told you I would have a story related to my word for the year…. "Give".

Last week I stopped at Mother's Market for some produce.  In  the parking lot I saw a  young man in a wheelchair.  
One of his legs had been 

amputated at the knee.  I figured he might be a veteran, maybe even without a home.  He asked me if I had a dollar I could spare.

I opened my wallet and discovered I had no singles.  I thought to myself, "Don't be cheap", and then pulled out a $10 bill.

He was most thankful and did an immediate U-turn right there in front of me, and as fast as his wheels would take him, sped to the liquor store at the back of the parking lot! 

I started to laugh, but thinking of what Wayne Dyer said when he was laughed at for giving money to a panhandler on the street corner….."It's not between me and him, it's between me and God", I realized that it is truly between myself and God.
Have a great week!

~ Give ~

Long Way to Go

Finally here is face #15

You may recall some time ago I started my "100 Faces" project.  I certainly got sidetracked.  Nothing new about that.  Happens all the time.  This is only #15!  I wasn't going to post her because…..guess why?  She's not good enough?  How am I ever going to be good if I don't practice?  So, I'm forcing myself to post the not so good with what I consider good.  Her eyes are a bit wonky, but my eyes are a bit wonky too!  In fact I bet everyone's eyes are a little wonky.  Don't we all have one foot that's just a tad larger than the other?  The great thing about the way Dina Wakley does her faces….she always uses Gesso on her pages….for more than one reason.  It's a great foundation for acrylic paint.  But it also is great for drawing with the Stabilo All #8046 pencil.   I usually just scribble over lines if they're not in the right place, 

but I can use a baby wipe to remove the pencil.  No gesso, no 

"erase".  I promise to try another face today or tomorrow.  And if I remember, I'll tell a funny on myself in relation to my word for the year - give.

~ Give ~

A Scribble of Paint...

and a Stabilo pencil, and I'm a happy camper.  I'm posting two more of my 100 faces challenge by Dina Wakley.  I do scrape a coat of gesso on the page before I draw.  That way if I make a major blunder, I can use a baby wipe to "erase".  No gesso, no "erase".  The goal is, however, to scribble away and not worry about perfection.

#13 above and #14 below…

The paint came first and then the drawing.  I promise you I did not plan the eyes to be as they are -- one over the blue paint and one over the green.  It was just one of those serendipitous things.

Face #12

Taking a day off yesterday really was just what I needed. I actually got quite a lot done.  I painted on my new piece, worked in my journal and drew another face below for my 100-face challenge.  I also tried out some new art supplies….Golden's high flow acrylics.  I bought fluorescent colors for the first time and they are really neon, in-your-face colors.  Then I spent some time in Photoshop and in Kim Klassen's Lightroom class.  So all in all, it was a very productive day.

Inspiration came from Pinterest.  Only 88 more to go!!

~ calm ~

Going for 100 Faces

I love faces so much and have been playing around with them for some time.  I've taken several online classes….Jane Davenport, Sharon Tomlinson, Dina Wakley and Julie Fei_Fan Balzer.  I've decided the only way I'll get really good at it is to take Dina's challenge to do 100 faces.
So here are a few more

Right now I'm enjoying playing with backgrounds in my journal and drawing over them with a Stabilo All pencil.  I won't bore you with the really "bad" ones.  As Dina says, "If you draw a face and it's not good, just turn the page and do another one - you are the boss of your art!" Rest assured I have turned a few pages.  That's the nice thing about working in a journal.  It's there for practice.  I can show it or not.   Now if I can just get control of these spray inks.  I seem to get them everywhere but where I want them…mainly my hands.   

~ calm ~

Are You One of Those?

Before I get to "Are you One of Those"….

  I decided to play with a sketch I did in my journal.  It wasn't really intended but I always thought she resembled Drew Barrymore.

I first changed the image to black and white and worked with some filters and text….a quote from Ms. B of course.

I did a different take by keeping the color and adding filters and a fun vector.

…and finally for Texture Tuesday.  I used two copies of Kim's Antiques Texture over sepia.

Okay, on to my topic for today.

I see them everyday walking through a parking lot or across the street transfixed on their smartphones.  The other night hubby and I were at a restaurant waiting for a table, standing in the lobby with many others.  Almost everyone of them was on his smartphone. A couple sat on a bench each playing with his/her phone.  Didn't they come together???

So here's what I have to say for that….

I totally cracked up when I saw this!

~ calm ~

Making Faces

#5 in this series…..I did a spread which I'm going to post in a journal group.  First acrylic paint, some stencils and then the face drawn over the background.  I decided to journal right over her, and I may add journaling to the left side.

  

Let's Face It…..

I think the one below is in a twit because I cut her hair too short!

~ Namaste~ 

Back to Faces

Yes, I'm back to faces.  Since this one is in my journal, I prepped the page with gesso and a wash of acrylics…..added a little doodling and a stencil.  I drew "Pretty Woman" with a Stabilo MarksAll pencil.  

In the coming days I will be doing more faces.  

Someday soon, I'll get back to my photography and PS edits.  I seem to flit back and forth and obsess over one or the other for a period of time.  

Bless you all who are following me….you never know what you will find on here.

Oh and look what I got in the mail from Linda at Just Another Volunteer.  Thank you, Linda!!

Do visit her blog.  She is involved in the ICAD project, and this is one of her works. ICAD stands for Index Card a Day.   For more info on this visit Tammy at Daisy Yellow blog.  I believe she is hosting it.  It's not too late to join in the fun.

~ Namaste ~

Art Adventures Part 2

I'm taking Jacki's class at Catalyst on Thursdays for the next few weeks.

There are about 15 terrific artists in the class, and we are having a ball.  She first taught us the technique of using a credit card to paint.  You might remember my posts with my "sassy girls" here 

and here. This week we worked with 4 x 4's.  We just tore out

 4"x 4" papers from anything - junk mail, catalogs, newspaper and brought them to class.  We added them to our journals and embellished with more torn papers.

We worked on adding borders to our pages and doing crazy text from a prompt across the page like this.  The border was done with a W I D E black marker.

And finally I did a  credit card face with a border of tissue paper.

I always have so much fun with other artists.  I wish I didn't have to clean my house and do all those mundane chores - I'd rather play with art, wouldn't you?

~ Calm ~

More Credit Card Faces

This credit card face thing is very addictive.  They don't always come out a "work of art" but sometimes it's fun just to see how they do come out.  It's just so difficult to control the marks the credit card makes.

I'm now wondering if I should have switched the captions on

these two…

 

The one below might be a better "Bad Hair Day" but that's what Photoshop is for .

Actually none of their hair looks like a good hair day.

I'm thinking these might be good for a calendar.

~ Calm ~

Beyond Layers II - Week 51

In our Beyond Layers II class, Kim gave us a link to a fun Photobooth frame action for our project.  You can either set up a template in Photoshop or you can download the action link.  If you use the action it makes your work easy as 1-2-3.  I did a black/white adjustment layer to these photos of my granddaughter, saved them to my desktop.  When you activate the action, it asks you to select the photo and then places it for you on the correct layer, and the same with each photo.

You can have either the white frame or do a black fill layer on the background layer to get the black frame.

I then created an 8.5 x 11 new white file, rotated it so it was "landscape", moved the Photobooth image on to that white background, duplicated the layer three times, so it would look like a photo package.

Remember those old Photobooth pics we used to do?  A step back in time….

~ Calm ~

Meet Marilyn

For our Documented Life Project week 2 challenge, we are asked to incorporate a "selfie",  either a photo, a drawing or a painted/collaged representation of our very own self.

While I don't exactly look like this, it's a fair representation for several reasons.  I have always said "It's all about big gold(silver) hoop earrings and red toenails". Of course, you can't see the red toenails here, but I assure you they're there!  Also my hair looks like this frequently, or to me, it looks like this!!  I drew this on a piece of old ledger paper with a black Stabilo All pencil.

Happy Days!

Photoshop Technique

I'm way behind on my Photoshop Artistry workshop, but just have needed to do some nitty gritty get the hands dirty art.  Today, though, I practiced on a technique Sebastian calls "pasting in".  I scanned an image of my hand painted fabric art piece and then embedded my selfie.  I added a stroke outline and used the pencil in PS to doodle in and around the selfie. 

I also played with this image of Starbucks with its unusual signage.  Sebastian has suggested we look for things that are out of character or incongruent.  I think this qualifies.