30 faces - i finished it!

So, I finally finished this a couple days ago! And it feels great! It's one of those paintings which I learned alot from, and I'm happy with, and so it's a success already, no matter what.
I learned about a limited palette, as well as broader strokes. I learned about acrylic and texture, as well as how not drawing first can affect a painting positively and negatively. It's an exciting new phase for me.
Also, today I scored a great deal. I bought some 50-60 tubes and jars of acrylic paints plus mediums, used of course, for just $70. This about triples what I had in paints, and gives me the freedom to continue to experiment! It's a great feeling! Thank goodness for craigslist!

11x14 acrylics on linen canvas pad







I also finished another drawing...
This one is on the moleskine, with the gray pitt pens and then ending with the sepia for the background.

30 faces - Steve

A face I started 2 days ago, and finished yesterday.
I'm a bit slow this month. Still trying to figure out why.
I'm not entirely happy with this one, but there are some aspects I still appreciate.

30 days - one more face

Another face, a slightly different approach at hatching.
More of an exercise, than a presentable piece, but at least I am putting pen to paper.
Pilot v5 pen on large moleskine

30 faces - nigel

I'm still a bit behind on my 30 faces, and yesterday, I thought I'd catch up, and sketch a few extra faces. Instead, I had a terrible time, and only one of them was of any merit.
Pitt brush pens on moleskine

30 faces - new sketch tool

I came across this in Ryan's blog. It's a tool that lets you draw directly within your browser, with your mouse, and it records your strokes.
So now, you can see my drawing take shape.
Nothing spectacular, but fun nonetheless.
Hopefully, with practice, I can get better at it...

What do you think?

30 faces - art with my son

Yesterday would be the last day that Willik was home with the chicken pox, first, then with a terrible cough.
He'd been wanting to teach me a technique he learned at school in art class, so we attempted it.
It's called "drawing with scissors" and we had a lot of fun doing it. You can make it as realistic or abstract as one wants. And using different interesting papers would make it more special. For this particular application, we used construction paper, and it worked well.
Because I'm in the middle of my 30 faces, I naturally figured this would be a good day to "make" another face, and that I did. I cut a profile out.
The process is to cut any shape you want out of a piece of paper.
Have another 2 pieces of paper of the same size, but different colors/textures ready to go.
Once you cut, you then glue your "positive" image to one paper, and your "negative" to the other.
You end up with 2 versions of the piece. I chose to glue mine down as mirror images.
It was a lot of fun, and practicing with scissors is a great thing for any child! and artistic moms too!

Mine:

Willik's umbrella bird:

30 faces - liz

While looking for faces to draw, I came across a contact sheet of portrait shots I had taken during college. This was one of them. I liked it because it was an unusual expression, and therefore, challenging to get the features correct. I think I did it. It also was a picture with good contrast.

If anyone has a good photo of yourself or someone you'd like me to draw, please send it my way.
It needs to be clear and have good contrast.

liz
colored pencils on moleskine

30 faces - alex(in progress)

This is my effort for today.
Despite still having Willik at home with the chicken pox, and I had a big headache all day.
So, I painted this on a new canvas linen pad. I like the color of the linen, though I think I'd like it best if it was a stretched canvas.
I'm using a limited palette of 4 colors only, and I like it so far.
There was no underdrawing, just straight painting. It's very liberating. I still need to do about an hour's worth to call it done, but I'm not looing for a peice with every detail. I want to keep this loose, quality about it, somewhat abstracted, and treated as big shapes of the different planes of the face. it's a new way of painting for me, and it's a great learning process.
I also stretched my first canvas this morning. That made me feel like a "real" artist. Believe it or not, I've never stretched canvas before. I've stretched watercolor paper before, and that's super cool, and the concept is the same, but stretching canvas requires some heavy duty manual labor. You really have to pull the canvas tight, and it's difficult to do with your hands only. I used some of my husband's tools to get the job done. To staple the canvas to the bars, I used my own, recently purchased, heavy duty stapler. It worked great, but you really have to put some force into it. And now I know why one really needs canvas pliers. They are probably easier to use than regular flat little pliers found in a "normal" tool box. But all in all, I think the stretch on my canvas is pretty tight, and I need to gesso it, before I paint on it.

30 faces - jay

This is a sketch, and not a finished piece, but this is my face for today.
Some might say there's not much of a face, but I think the whole point for me, is doing interesting angles, and unusual, styles. I think this drawing has both.
Of course, it's another drawing from church, as you might notice the small quote up at the top.
I didn't have my regular moleskine with me, so I drew this inside my journal, and I like the lines going thru it.
What do you think?
I know, I'm still 2 behind, but I'll get there!
Thanks for looking.

30 faces once again!

Yes, another stab at 30 faces in November.
I'm already behind, in posting, but I've worked over the course of 2 days in one drawing. That means I am one behind, so I have to bang out 2 things one of these days. A bit of a challenge with Willik home from school with chicken pox, but I have to get thru it and still manage some art in there.
Anyway, here's a 2b pencil drawing of a lady from our church.

9x12 canson drawing paper
2B pencil
"Edna"