Week 20 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

For this Weekly Art Challenge, I worked on the next exercise in  Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. (See previous posts here). Jane described drawing and shading spheres; then explained how the face can be represented by spheres to help create dimension with shading. Working with the "Draw Happy" faces, she added spheres for the cheeks, nose, chin and lips.  These are the two faces I did in this style. 

"Baby face" - 4" x 4" - charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper.

In this sketch, I started with the guidelines and eyes. I added spheres for the nose, lips, chin, and cheeks. After adding the shading, I saw a baby's face, so added just a few tufts of hair.

"Young girl" - 4" x 4", charcoal and 0.005 black Sakura micron pen on mixed-media paper.

Again, I started with the guidelines and eyes, adding spheres for the various facial features. This young girl still needs work, but I think I got the concept Jane was illustrating with using spheres to help add dimension to a face.

I'm enjoying Jane's book and learning more about how to draw faces. However, for me, it's tough to get a good face without a photograph.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

May ATC Challenge - Tea Party

I'm running really behind in posting on my blog. Between my computer acting up, my granddaughter getting her first illness (which was scary with the heart defect - she is fine now!), going out of town, and just life in general, time has gotten away from me!

At any rate, May's ATC Challenge, hosted by Blue Twig Studio,  was Tea Party. I made two cards. The first was a collage.

Can You Lend Your Ear? ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". Collage on multimedia paper.

I layered the background with Dylusions Spray Inks through a couple of stencils. Then I added a photo of a tea cup with a fairy peeking around a column under the moonlight that I cut from a fantasy magazine, adding steam to the cup with a micron pen. Finally, I added a piece of Washi tape with a teapot that says, "I'm just very lucky. Can you lend your ear for a while?" 

The second ATC card was from a favorite nursery rhyme:

I'm a Little Teapot. ATC Card, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", Watercolor pencils on multimedia paper.

I found a free clip art with a picture of this vintage teapot. I drew and painted it using Derwent watercolor pencils.  I'm a Little Teapot was one of my favorite nursery rhymes as a child. I taped two 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards together with Washi tape featuring music. I painted the background blue with Derwent watercolor pencils and wrote out the I'm a Little Teapot nursery rhyme. The "I'm a Little Teapot" ATC card opens up like a tiny book, featuring the nursery rhyme inside.

Inside of "I'm a Little Teapot" ATC card.

The ATC Challenge is taking a break for a couple of months. I will let you know when it restarts! 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

April ATC Challenge - Architecture

This month's ATC challenge for Blue Twig Studio was architecture. This was a tough challenge for me. I really struggled with what to do for architecture. Finally, I had to just do it, as the deadline (April 30!) was quickly approaching.

I feel like I chose a couple of easy ideas, but I like how they turned out! For the first one, I created a simple landscape with a 3D house made of cardboard, so it looked as if it had siding and a slate blue stone roof. I tried to create a welcoming house with blue shutters and a warm, yellow glow showing through the windows and front door. The house has a walkway surrounded by stones and flowers. A tree is on one side of the house, and a bush on the other. The sun is shining, while birds soar in the sky.

House, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", acrylics, gel pens, Souffle
pens, and Sharpie on watercolor paper. Front view.

House. Side view to show 3D effects. 

The 2nd ATC card is designed in a Zentangle-Inspired Art fashion, using ancient Greek architecture enhancements for the tangles. Swirls, feathers, fancy leaves, and geometric shapes were used to embellish the many columns, pillars, archways, porticoes, and other entry ways in ancient Greece.

Ancient Greek Architecture, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", Bristol
paper, 0.005 and 0.02 black Sakura pens.

May's ATC theme is "Tea Party". Only one card is needed to join! ATC's are only 2 1/2" x 3 1/2", so they are small pieces of artwork. They can be simple or as complex as desired. Lots of fun, they are a good canvas for experimenting with that new technique you wanted to try. They can be done with paper or fabric or a combination of materials. Embellishments can be up stand or dangle off the card.  A winner is drawn at random to win all the cards! (Unless more than 20 cards are turned in, then a 2nd winner will be drawn). See Deb Prewitt's blog for more details and where to send your card.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 15 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

This week for the Weekly Art Challenge, I've been working from Jane Davenport's Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. I enjoy creating portraits and want to be able to create faces better and use them in mixed-media artwork and also to create portrait paintings. I've done a few faces in past blogs posts (see posts here).

This week I did the exercises for "the Hot Zones" and "Jane-style whimsical proportions."  In the hot zones, Jane explains the distance between eyes, the stack of the nose, mouth and chin, how the lips line up with the eyebrows,  how the ears line with our facial features, and finally, the curve of the cheeks. In whimsical proportions, Jane shows how the proportions can be played with for drama and to look for what we find interesting and aesthetically pleasing.

These are the "whimsical  proportions" I focused on this week, while using the "hot zones" to keep the drawings balanced and proportionally pleasing.

Realistic Proportions, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Jane-style Proportions, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Fey, Tilted Eyes,, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Pixie, Large Wide-Set Eyes, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Feline, Large Eyes, Bunched Features, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

Hollywood, Large Lips, Small Noses, 3"x3", pencil and pen on mixed-media paper

I think I still need some work on the faces, but playing with the proportions and placement of the features is a learning experience. It was interesting to see how varying these elements affects the way the face looks. It also helps me to know that I do not have to have realistic proportions all the time when working with portraits - they just need to be balanced and pleasing. Thanks, Jane!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Blue Twig Studio - Feb Product Review

I'm running a bit late with February's product review for Blue Twig Studio as my granddaughter was born a month premature and spent 3 weeks in the neonatal ICU, I had hand surgery on my dominant hand to remove a ganglion cyst, and then I needed IV fluids for severe dehydration due the worst case of flu I have ever had. It was a long month. Our granddaughter is now home from the hospital and doing well. She will require open heart surgery when she is 4-6 months old to repair a congenital heart defect. I am feeling much better and my hand has healed for the most part - at least I can use it again!

I finally finished my review and project for five different black pens and a sketchbook.

The pens include:

Various black pens on mixed-media paper.

•  a black Sakura 02 micron pen (0.30mm nib) - an archival writing and design pen; acid-free; fine-line for papercrafts, journals, illustration, manga art and crafts; comes in 6 nib sizes and 15 colors.
• a black Faber Castell Pitt artist pen (0.60mm nib) - black India ink; waterproof; permanent; acid-free; archival; for sketching, journals, cartooning, fine-ink drawings; perfect for mixed-media; ideal for traveling. 
• a black Sakura 05 Microperm pen (0.45mm nib) - permanent on most surfaces; water and fade resistant; alcohol based cleaners may remove ink; do not launder; test prior to final application; low odor. 
• a black Uni-ball Signo 207 Impact gel pen (1.0mm nib) - contoured rubber grip; uni-super InkTM to help prevent against check and document fraud; thick, vibrant lines to make a bold statement; refillable, quick-drying, fade- and water-resistant gel pen. 
• a black fine point Sharpie pen.(1.00mm nib) - a permanent marker that marks on most surfaces; is quick-drying, fade-and water-resistant; no bleed and smear resistant.

Bleed-thru of pens on mixed-media paper.

The photo above shows the five pens written on mixed-media paper with a tangle pattern that used a heavy black fill. All the pens wrote well. The Sakura micron and the Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen both have a nice, fine black mark. This is nice for writing, illustrating and fine lines for Zentangles or ZIAs (Zentangle-Inspired Art). The Sakura Microperm pen is actually darker than the Uni-ball Signo Impact gel pen, although it has a smaller nib size. The Sharpie fine-point pen having the boldest, blackest line of all the pens. It has the same nib size as the Uni-ball Signo Impact 207 gel pen.

The Sakura Microperm pen and the Sharpie
fine-point pen both show significant bleed-thru on mixed-media paper.  The tangle patterns for both the Faber Castell Pitt artist pen and Uni-ball Signo Impact 207 gel pen can be seen in the photo on the reverse side of the paper, but the actual paper does not show bleed-thru.

Crescent RENDЯ 
3.5" x 5.5" sketchbook.   

The sketchbook:
I reviewed a Crescent RENDЯ 3.5" x 5.5" sketchbook. It has acid- and lignin-free, white heavy-weight, 110 lb paper consisting of 32 sheets or 64 pages, with a regular binding. The sketchbook claims media won't bleed though pages, that the pages will lay flat, and it can be used with all media, including spray paint, markers, pastels, pencil (or charcoal), watercolors, and ink. Note: Limited show-through may occur over time with heavy application of Xylene markers. This sketchbook is made in the USA.

I first created several pages in black and white, using the five pens included in the review. I am happy to report that not one of the black pens show any sign of bleed-thru. I was able to work on both sides of the pages for my art journaling. After creating the artwork with the various pens, I went back and added color using various media to test the claims of the sketchbook. None of the media I used bled-thru the pages, although some of the watercolors, spray paints, and pastels managed to run over the edges of the sheets onto other sheets, as I was very enthusiastic in my application of the various media. Following is the artwork I created in the sketchbook to date.

Title page using Sakura micron pen.

Title page after adding watercolors. I also added gel 
pens in various colors over the letters in "Journal". 
The page curled initially after getting wet from the 
watercolors, but eventually dried flat.

Quote using the Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen. Zingers and feather done with Sakura micron pen.

Added Tim Holtz Distress Stain in spiced marmalade through a TCW Mini
Daisy Cluster 6" stencil. Added red ink with a Sakura Moonlight gel pen. 

Zentangle Garden using Sakura micron, Faber-Castell Pitt artist, and
Sakura Microperm pens and shaded with charcoal.

Derwent watercolor pencils were used to add color to the Zentangle Garden.

Zentangle stripes using Sakura micron, Sakura Micropern, and Uni-ball Signo Impact pens.

Prismacolor Nupastel color blocks used to add a rainbow of color between
 the Zentangle stripes. Sealed with Krylon Workable Fixatif 1306.

Dragon and quote created with Sharpie fine-point and Sakura Microperm pens.

Tim Holtz Distress Stain in aged mahogany applied to TCW Mini Navaho 6" stencil over the quote. Background, horns, beak, and eyes of dragon painted with Derwent watercolor pencils. Dragon wings and scales painted with blackberry Facetten-Lack Croco Crackling Colour. Unfortunately, only a few spots on the body were thick enough to show the crackling effect. The rest was painted too thin for the paint to crackle.  

Griffin Momma and babies. Momma griffin created with Uni-ball
Signo Impact gel pen and babies created with Sakura micron pen.

Griffins painted with Prismacolor Premiere markers and Tombow markers. 
Tombow marker blender used to help blend the various shades of markers. 
Background painted with Derwent watercolor pencils.

Sisters created with Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen.

Background spray-painted in layers with Dylusions Ink Spray in London blue, lemon zest, and pure sunshine, and Perfect Pearls Mists in perfect copper.  TCW Mini Swirly Garden and TCW Mini Wedding Ring stencils were used.  The faces were painted with titanium white acrylic paint and various shades of Derwent watercolor pencils. The hair was created from a clothing catalog and adhered using matte medium.

I enjoyed all the products this month. A variety of black pens is essential for artwork, as drawings, Zentangles, illustrations, quotes, mixed-media, and so forth, all require a mixture of line widths and a shades of black. The Crescent RENDЯ sketchbook was a joy to work with using a variety of media. I felt it met the claims it made - I had no bleed-thru using any of the black pens or the various media I added to my artwork. The pages laid flat, so I could easily work across two pages.  Note:  I did not use gesso on any of these pages prior to creating any of the above drawings, as I did not want it to add any strength to the paper in order to test the claims made by the company.

The only comment I have would be to watch the amount of water (or alcohol) added to the page, as too much can make the pages start to roughen. Although, I scrubbed a few spots and still had no bleed-thru and could still paint these spots. Also, the more liquid added to the pages, the more they curl. However, the pages became almost flat once dry. If they need to be completely flat, the sketchbook can be pressed between two heavy items to finish flattening any curled pages.

I would definitely use a Crescent RENDЯ sketchbook for any art journal needs. The 3.5" x 5.5" size is perfect for traveling. It fits in my purse nicely, along with the pens, to enable me to create anywhere. A larger size would be nice for working out of at home.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 7 - Weekly Art Challenge - Faces

Trying to catch up on my weekly art challenge posts. Our grandbaby is home from the hospital, my hand is healing from my hand surgery (my dominate hand, of course!), so I'm trying to get settled into creating again! Although, in the 4 days our grandbaby has been home, we've babysat two days and the other two days, I had to take her or her mother to routine check-ups! I'm not complaining about the babysitting - she is such a joy! She's so quiet, I can almost forget she's here! I'm hoping as our daughter and her boyfriend adjust to being new parents, things will settle down some. However, they may be moving in with us in a month, if they cannot find another apartment! LOL! life is always changing!

This week, I still haven't gotten back to my painting. I did do another drawing from Jane Davenport's book: Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. I had started the first couple of exercises before all the excitement with a new baby (see posts here).  The next exercise is called "Grand Scale". Instead of the small, simple "Draw Happy" faces, this exercise scaled the drawing to a full page. She goes into more detail of placement of facial features and shape of the face. This is my result:

Face, 7" x 10", pencil and 0.005 black Sakura pen on mixed-media paper.

I like the facial features, although the eyes are too large and too close together. The hair and neck need some work, but those weren't the focus of this exercise. I do pretty well doing portraits from a photograph (I've actually done commissions in oils, acrylics, and colored pencil),  but to draw a portrait without a photo to look at is such a challenge for me. I'm hoping Jane's book (and I also bought her video recently) will help me to overcome these difficulties.

I hope for Week 8 to be able to finally start painting in my art journal for the Documented Life Project 2015 (DLP) with Art to the 5th Academy, that I originally set out to do for my weekly art challenge this year! I'll see what this week holds!


Keep creating!
Lynnita

January ATC Challenge - Circles

The theme for this month's ATC Challenge from Blue Twig Studio is circles.  I made two cards for this month.

The first one is Zentangle-Inspired-Art or ZIA. I drew 5 circles with a pencil and then started adding various tangles with a 0.005 black Sakura micron pen. I used a 0.05 black Sakura micron pen in the areas filled with black ink. I added shading with a pencil and tortillion. I used fain, flower, dragonair, tipples, and mooka tangle patterns. Zentangles are so very relaxing and fun to create. I never know how the finished piece will turn out until I'm done. It's always a happy surprise. I added this quote to the back:
                 "It's okay to spin around and around in the same place. Just so long as your  
                 singing your heart out. THAT's what life is all about." - Chica Umino

Zen Circles ATC - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2". 0.005 and 0.05 black
Sakura micron pen and pencil on bristol paper.

The second ATC card started with blue watercolor painted in streaks on the bristol paper. Then I added circles of colors in yellow, blue, red, white, green, and purples. With a white paint pen, I added dots and dashes inside a couple of the circles. I embellished three of the circles with flower sequins and a fan-shaped sequin. I added googly eyes and a crystal nose to two of the circles to add whimsy to the whole card. On the back, I added this quote:
               "When in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout." - Laurence J. Peter

Googly Eye Circles ATC - 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" - watercolor on bristol paper.
 Embellished with sequins, googly eyes, and crystals.

This was a fun challenge. I hope you will join us next time!

Keep creating!!
Lynnita

Face Sketching continued

I am continuing to work on faces using Jane Davenport's new book "Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces" (see last week's post here) to improve my portraiture skills.

After drawing simple, little "Draw Happy" faces for the first exercise, Davenport moves to adding guidelines to help place features on the face with confidence. The eyes are about halfway between the hairline and the chin, while the bottom of the nose is about halfway between the eyes and the chin, with  the mouth about halfway between the nose and chin. The ears sit between the eyes and nose.  All sketches are approximately 3" x 3" and use a pencil, 0.005 black Sakura micron pen, and a white Uni-Ball Signo gel pen.

Simple face with guidelines showing placement
 of the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. 

Davenport calls this Divide and Conquer! She says although there is a huge amount of variety in every face, the guides will work on any face shape and by sticking to these basic placements, the face will look balanced no matter what face shape is drawn. The exercise was to create a series of different shapes and draw simple faces onto them using these guidelines. (I did not completely erase all of my guidelines.) 

Circle base for the face.

Oval base for the face.

Square base for the face.

Rectangle base for the face.

Heart shape for the face.

These guidelines are a huge help with creating a face that looks realistic, although they are still simple faces. I only added a bit of shading to create depth. I added simple hairdo's - I wasn't concerned if they looked real - since I was mainly concerned with creating a symmetrical, somewhat, realistic face. The next few exercises start going into more details for creating a larger face - where getting facial features placed right will matter more.

I have a hard time creating a face that looks real from my imagination (that is not drawn by using a photo or looking at someone), but I'm already feeling more comfortable from just these first two simple exercises.  I think I'll soon be ready to add faces to mixed-media work and art journaling. 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Face Sketching

I recently picked up a new book by Jane Davenport called "Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces: A Mixed-Media Portrait Workshop."  I had to skim the entire book the day it arrived. She draws such beautiful, whimsical faces.

Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces by Jane Davenport 

Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces back

When I took my first art classes several years ago, my instructor talked my into trying portraits, kicking and screaming the whole way! But I found out that I really enjoy creating portraits. Since then, I have done portraits in oil and colored pencil, and for commissions. I did these working from photos. I find it harder to draw a face without something to look at and have been wanting to get better at drawing faces for some time now. So when I saw her book online, I just had to pre-order it and it arrived a couple days later!

I stayed up until the middle of the night dong several faces for her first exercise called "Drawing Happy". These are little, simple "Draw Happy" faces that she gives about 10 step-by-step instructions to complete. Following these instructions I made about a dozen "Draw Happy" faces, approximately 2" x 2" in pencil, 0.005 black Sakura micron pen, and white Uni-Ball Signo gel pen unless stated otherwise.

Face #1 

Face #2 - Also used 0.005 red and sepia Prismacolor pens.

Face #3

Face #4

Face #5

Face #6 - Also used 0.005 red Prismacolor pen

Face #7

Face *8

Face #9 

Face #10

Face #11

Face #12

As you can see, my faces improved the more I drew. I like the last 3 the best. I can see the point of Davenport's exercise - the more you draw, the better you become! With drawing small faces, I could draw several in a fairly short period of time. These aren't meant to be detailed, realistic faces - just small, simplistic representations.

I'm looking forward to continuing to do the exercises in Davenport's book. She goes into more details in drawing faces that look more realistic, yet whimsical and she uses a variety of media - including pencil, pens, colored pencils, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, inks, etc. to accomplish the various drawings. Fun, fun, fun!! I also want to use these in my art journaling.  I used one of Jane Davenport's face stencils in my December project as a design team member for Blue Twig Studio. I hope to be able to draw my own whimsical faces, in addition to using the stencils, for various mixed-media, quilting, or drawing projects in the future.


Keep creating!
Lynnita