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 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"

30 faces no.21

Another pencil drawing, this one done with General's ALL pencil (inpired by Onionboy's Stabilo All drawing) on moleskine.
The drawing doesn't have this sepia quality, but all the pictures of the moleskine seem to have this tone with my camera. I like the original as well as this "version".
What is so nice about pencil is the ability to get all the shading and shadows you want.
I found the ALL pencil to be more waxy than I'd expected, but I guess that's what makes it able to write in all surfaces.
My friend looks great, especially with this new look...

30 faces no. 20

Another drawing done at church, during the sermon. I enjoy drawing people in the congregation. And I can jot a quick note, here and there, to help me remember a good point.
this woman was far away from me, but luckily, I had a good clear view of her.
There's not much of her face in this drawing, but that is what I like about it. The angle and the "less than profile" look I captured.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any colors at the time, and colorful she was. I may put some color in later on.
Done with pitt fine and medium black markers on sketchbook paper.

30 faces no.19

This one was fun and quick...
A couple weeks ago, my oldest son, who's in Kindergarten, told me about a technique they'd used in art class, with oil pastels and watercolor, and it was magic, because the watercolor didn't go where the pastels were. I told him we could do that at home too, cause I had the supplies. Finally, today we found our chance.
So, I made a face, of course. Just any face. Nobody's face. I like how it turned out, but I wish I had used a darker color for the oil pastels.
This was done on canson watercolor paper with crayola watercolor and generic oil pastels.
Try it!











Willik is really into racecars...











Phoenix is still just making shapes and colors, and I do love his colors...

30 faces no. 18

This was my faces endeavor for yesterday. I am just obssessed with doing sculpture right now.
This was done with plastilina.
It will never harden, so I can work on him more later, if I feel like it. I think he might need a hat, or a hairdress or something, and I need to make him "stand up" on his own.
It'd been about 14 years since I worked with this material, and I can't believe I still had some around. It's fun.
He's about 2-3" tall. If I want to add more details to him, I will definetely need some smaller tools.

30 faces no. 17

Little girls are a whole different breed than my 2 little boys.
Here's my niece. In a world of pink swirls.
This was done in canson watercolor paper with brush pen and a watercolor wash.

30 faces no.16

At the risk of sounding like I think myself the greatest, here's another one of me.
If anything, it's actually the opposite, because as you will note, I wouldn't say it's a particularly flattering view, but rather a distorted look, from a weird angle. I love the picture, taken by my husband, and thought that it would work out well for this medium.
Please forgive the flash-like aspects of reflection. This is done in a clay coated scratchboard, where I've used a fine dipping/scratching pen, to reveal the silver/white lines. The surface is semi shiny, and when light was on it, for the picture, it reflected it back.
I plan on doing some more work on it, but I like it enough at this point to post it.
Happy scratching!

30 faces no.15

Doing this drawing brought back great memories.
This is an Indonesian woman who was at a medical clinic which I helped with in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, just about a year ago.
I love how well defined her features are, and her very distinguished look.
This was done with a brown watercolor colored pencil, on sketchbook paper. No erasing.

30 faces no.14

This is my nephew, Seth. Isn't he adorable? Don't wake sleeping babies, no matter where they are at!!
This was done with soft pastels on gray thick cardstock speckly paper.
It was fun to blend colors and get my fingers dirty!

Today, I'm catching up on my faces, finally. It feels good to be back in the groove!

30 faces no.13

I'm playing catch up, and was inspired by an internet ad, of all things. This drawing was done on cardstock, with my fave brush pen, without lifting the pen off the paper. I added the lines on the left for texture, contrast and effect after the drawing and border were done.
It's a fun exercise, and it makes you look more carefully. Try it!

30 faces no.12

Okay, so about 2 years ago, a friend gave me some wood, and got me started on wood sculpture.
Every once in a while, I pick it up, and work a bit more on it. I don't have many tools, and there are lots of things I still need to learn, but it is so fun doing it!
So , tonight, instead of drawing, I sculpted some more. It's a long way from done, and it might be another year till it is, but it's super fun, and one day, there will be a completed face.
For now, enjoy the process, and if you have any experience with wood sculpture/carving, let me know, cause I have much to learn!

30 faces no.11

I drew this man in church today. I'm still a drawing behind, and hopefully I will be able to catch up with it tonight, but we'll see.
I don't know this man's name, but he was intently listening to the sermon, and checking his bible.
Done in my moleskine with a fine pitt black pen.

30 faces no.10

Yesterday I did want to draw or paint or something, but I was out all day, and then I was with the kids and then I had the rare opportunity of watching a dvd with my love, so I took it. by the time the movie was over, I was definetely was too tired to do anything.
There was full intention of doing something first thing in the morning, but saturdays tend to be very long days, while my husband is at work and the boys drive me a little nuts. Today was no different. I finally got them to do some play-doh, while I worked on this collage. It's different, but was somewhat therapeutic to my tired mommy brain.
Hopefully I will be able to make more art tonight, in order to stay caught up.