Week 25 - Weekly Art Challenge - Old Paintings

I'm going to post a couple of paintings that I did some time ago for this week's challenge. Babysitting grandchildren keeps me busy and leaves me exhausted, so I do not have as much time for creating as I would like to. Also, since I'm behind due to life and computer problems, this is an easy way for me to work on catching up with where I am supposed to be (I believe on Week 27 - so I'm getting there!) Thank you for your patience!!

Grandchildren - 14" x 20" colored pencil on hot press illustration board. I drew this for my mother-in-law of all her grandchildren. The seven older children had spontaneously posed themselves for a photo that I used for the drawing. I added the 2nd youngest working from a photo of her standing against her grandfather. Before I had the painting completed, the youngest grandchild was born. I rearranged the arms and had one of the girls hold the baby. It was fun to have everyone ask me how I managed to get all nine grandchildren posed at the same time!

Grandparents - 11"x14" unframed colored pencil drawing on hot-press illustration board. I worked from a photo of my grandparents taken when my grandfather turned 90 years old. Unfortunately, my grandmother passed away the following month. I painted this for my grandfather as a surprise. I had never seen him cry, until he unwrapped this painting. I am so glad that I made this for him. 

Carrie, 11"x 14" unframed hot press illustration board, double-matted and framed (14" x 20"). This is a black and white colored pencil commission that I did for my husband's cousin. He surprised his wife for her birthday with it.

I enjoy working with colored pencils. They blend nicely and can be layered many times. They are transparent, so layering adds a richness that is hard to achieve with paints. I love the challenge portraits bring. However, I would like to improve drawing portraits without working from photos. 

Keep creating!

Lynnita

Week 21 - Weekly Art Challenge - Other Artwork

For Week 21, I didn't get anything new completed to post. So I'm posting a couple pieces that I finished some time ago. 

Dad's Hunting Dog - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

 This is an oil painting I did for my father-in-law of one of his favorite hunting dogs that he lost too early. He was very pleased and it hangs in the dining room of his home.

Mom and Dad - 20" x 16", oil on canvas

I painted this portrait of my parents from a photo I took of them when they stayed with me in Florida one year while I had surgery. My parents had fun figuring out when I photographed them in the clothing they are wearing, as they couldn't remember having any such outfits! I had to laugh and tell them it's artistic license! (Mom is an artist, so she should have guessed this!). Dad had a white T-shirt with a wild print on, so I painted it as yellow. Mom wore a bright, printed button-down shirt. I painted a plain blue jacket over her brightly-colored top. They were very surprised with the gift and it has a prominent location in their home, overlooking photos of the rest of the family.

I no longer work in oils very much, as the smell bothers me more and I'm starting to react to the oils if I get them on my hands for any length of time. It's a shame, as they are easy to work with and so forgiving if a mistake is made!  However, water-soluble oils are now available. I don't know if I would react the same to these, since I wouldn't have to work with solvents. I might have to give them a try.

Keep creating!
Lynnita

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

Week 19 - Weekly Art Challenge - Patt Blair Retreat

I'll be trying to post the last few weeks art challenges in the next few days. I'm running behind due to computer issues and life (especially babysitting three grandchildren that range from infant to toddlers!)

For the last three years, I've been attending a quilt retreat in May with Patt Blair at Vina de Lestonnac in Temecula, CA. It's an awesome time, with many of the same people returning each year. So it's more like catching up with old friends who all enjoy the creative process as much as I do! These are a couple of bird quilts that Patt showed.

Another bird quilted and painted by Patt.

This is a small bird quilt that Patt painted.
I love the detail and the quilting Patt
chose. She is such an accomplished artist.

I didn't take as many photos as in past years (see posts here).  I really enjoy the Vina de Lestonnac's grounds. They are beautifully manicured with many roses and other flowers, bushes, trees, and grape vines. They are located close to several wineries and horse ranches. Love the country!

One of the beautiful rose plants in the garden. 

The rabbits are cute and often out in the early morning and evening.
They will pose for photos if one doesn't move too quickly.

Looking out over the neighboring winery and country.

I mainly worked on my project (plus it rained the first two days!). Patt teaches wholecloth painting on fabric with Tsukineko inks and how to quilt the resulting painting. I enjoy portraits, which I have done in colored pencils and oils.  I had never used Tsukineko inks for portraits and wanted to pick Patt's brain on how to accomplish this. I combined a couple photos of my 4 month old granddaughter and am adding fairy wings to her.I didn't get finished, but will show what I have completed so far.

Line drawing of granddaughter. Haven't combined the two photos of her yet in this line drawing. She was about to cry in this pose, so chose another photo for her face. In the 2nd photo, she is cooing and has her lips puckered. I also moved her right arm up towards her face as it is in the 2nd photo. Added wings to make her a fairy. She was blessed with long hair at birth, which is wild as it stands straight up! 

In progress painting of granddaughter. Still have more work to do on her eyes and hair. Need to add background color and wings, too. 

 I did figure out how I'm going to do her hair by practicing on a scrap piece of fabric. It came out great. Can't wait to add it, once I get the background color painted. I also plan to add beads and crystal to the fairy wings.

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

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

Week 25 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This week has been a challenge. Spent the beginning of the week at the hospital helping my daughter-in-law with our two grandsons. She called late Sunday night with news that my 2-year old grandson was in the emergency room, as he had managed to cut off the end of his finger My husband and I got dressed and went to the hospital, so I could watch the baby (6-weeks old)  in the waiting room, that way she could go back with our son and grandson in the room where he was being treated. A hand-surgeon was called in to perform surgery at 11pm that night to re-attach the end of the finger. He was moved to pediatric ICU. Unfortunately, the re-attachment didn't take. But doctors said it was iffy as there was only a couple tiny blood vessels to try to get blood flow to the whole tip. They had to do a second surgery Tuesday morning to remove it and then the doctors made a cap for his finger. He was able to go home later that day!

He was quite the trooper!! On Monday, he showed me the opposite hand with the pulse-ox monitor (that glowed red with a tiny light) and asked me to kiss it as it was his "owie". So cute!! But at least that meant his finger that was injured didn't hurt! He certainly made out with getting several larger cars, a car track that included a dinosaur, and a set of matchbox cars to play with in his crib and take home with him!

While he was sleeping, I sketched a picture of him. It isn't quite right, but it does capture his chubby cheeks, lips and nose.  His forehead needs some work. He looked so sweet and angelic sleeping! My daughter commented, "It looks like his arm is in a cast. I thought he just injured his finger.". His arm was completely bandaged up to his elbow! Can't expect a 2-year old to leave a bandaged finger alone! The doctors sent him home bandaged up to his elbow, with just his thumb sticking out. His thumb has a smiley face on it, so it's his happy thumb! He's adorable!!  He's running around at home with his usual, exuberant energy!

Pencil on mixed-media paper.  Two-year old grandson sleeping in the crib in pediatric ICU with
his hand and arm bandaged after loosing the end of his index finger accidentally. What an angel! 

Thank you for putting up with "Grandma" carrying on this week about her grandson's crisis!  I even managed to get a sketch done, too!!  

Have a great week!