A FEW MORE

 

FACES DONE IN JUNE - HOW CAN MAY BE OVER ALREADY?

 

MORE FACES

 France said she likes drawing men with wrinkles and beards but we finally got a female (pretty) model to use.  

I am doing one or two a day so these are all from the past few weeks…

MORE PORTRAITS IN THE DRAWING WITH FRANCE COURSE

 I will mostly do these on white sketch paper but sometimes I’ll go into my Strathmore toned (tan or grey) paper sketchbook…and mostly with graphite but sometimes I’ll want to add something else (a bit of charcoal pencil, etc.?)

SO MANY PORTRAITS - HOW ELSE CAN I GET BETTER?

After the Sketchy 30Days/30Faces Course was over, I finished those…and then began another through a Sktchy.com instructor, France Van Stone.  All portraits in graphite, Procreate drawing (which I will skip) and pen (uh, maybe?).  It was on sale for 1/2 off and I was thinking about it after seeing her on YouTube and liking her style…so here we are - I don’t know how many portraits there will be but it’s a lot!

And I swear to myself - and you - that I will not trace anything but learn to measure, check, recheck and draw without using tracing…just take it as it comes.

And, you know what?  So far, I am pleased.  The trick = slowly looking, measuring and checking the measuring over and over and not being worried about having to erase and start again… 

FACES

 

STILL GOING ON THE SKTCHY CHALLENGE - 30DAYS/30FACES

 Some work out and just flow…others, not so much.  All a learning process.  No tracing, drawing directly and being okay with the result.

COLORFUL STUFF FROM THE PORTRAIT CHALLENGE

 

STILL DOING THE 30FACES/30DAYS

 This first one was done using just 2 colors - a warm red and a cobalt teal blue.

MORE SKTCHY PORTRAITS

 A few more done.  I am behind but okay with that - don’t need to do them all in a week or so…

The old sailor (looks that way to me) was done on mineral paper with a mix of Deep Mayan Blue + Lunar Earth (just a touch).  I was okay with it but wanted to try it on rough paper (which is what the teacher did).  Not crazy about it.  She used a Canadian brand of watercolor - Rockwell Lapis Brown and it was gorgeous.  Can I get that?  Will it cost a fortune now that we are having ridiculous tariffs imposed on Canada daily??

The first one of the old sailor I traced because I didn’t feel comfortable drawing it on the mineral paper (which probably don’t take much erasing).  The second one I drew - can you see how I ALWAYS draw the figure upright even though it is obviously tilted or has a strong head turn?  Why?  Why do I do this?  

SKTCHY IS DOING THE 30 DAYS/30 PORTRAITS CLASS AGAIN

 I am doing the 30 Days/30 Portraits class again - different teachers, different muses.  Here are the first three - don’t know why they downloaded in the wrong order - little girl is the 3rd, woman reminding me of a Marilyn Monroe pose is the first one done.  

Since I’m having issues with Blogger and Facebook and who knows what, I’ll leave them as is.  

LITTLES

 These are small - placed on a black matboard substrate at 3.5 x 3.5 inches.  Who knew I had so many interesting little bits in bags all around?  And I have matboard I can cut down - most are black or white but some colored ones.

I MAY NEED TWO BIGGER ROOMS!

 Some more collages from the Collage Makers Summit classes - so much information that I can only pick and choose which ones I really want to try right now.  One video released every day with a different collage artist and I have loved all but one so will try more later.

This was a larger collage that went everywhere at once - just didn’t like it and kept adding to it so…decided to just take my little 3 x 5 inche mat and “find” interesting pieces at about that size.  

I NEED A BIGGER ROOM!

 If I’m going to do these collage lessons (Drew Steinbrecher’s Collage Makers Summit) I’m going to need more space.  It seems, over the years, that my little art room is shrinking inwards due to all the bins and boxes of things around the edges of the room!

Here’s the first thing I made, Day 1 and 2.  

This was done after watching the first video lesson by the artist, Tara Axford.  She called her lessons: Remove from Cart, Using Recyled Materials in Collage.

So pulled out some of the packing boxes I’d broken down and put in the recycle bin to use, cut some pieces, did as she said to prep them and then painted and added embellishments.

I like it but not sure how archival/lasting the piece will be  since it’s using cardboard box material.  Perhaps if we sealed it with acrylic matte medium or something else (clear gesso), it might hold up for a few years…but it was fun trying it out and it resonated with me so that I had an idea what the design would be right away and then added the broken earring (center off the circle), the little gemstones (glued on) and the string (I found in with my needlepoint/embroidery stuff).  You just never know what you have lying around!

SLOW DRAWING NATURE SKETCHBOOK AGAIN

 For this first one (which is really the last one I’ve done), you just paint some watercolor blobs of color and then draw over them, whatever takes your fancy).

The last two are more realistic versions of the items I found lying around.  Soon there will be flowers - or at least buds - on the trees and in the gardens. 

THE TRUE SIGN OF AN AMATEUR ARTIST

 I read someone online who critiques artwork say the true sign of an amateur is one who jumps around from subject to subject (or maybe from medium to medium) so I’m am amateur.  And I never said I wasn’t so I’m okay with still learning and keeping things spicey…

Signed up for a collage workshop (Collage Makers Summit) through the artist (Drew Steinbrecher)  who hosted the printmaking workshop last year.  I have all these printed papers so why not learn how to use them well?

Here’s Drew’s bonus lesson (prior to the class starting Monday).

Collage a sheet of paper (I used a heavy piece of mineral paper - like Yupo but not as slick).

Then turn that collage over and cut the paper into pieces - same sizes or different, doesn’t matter.

Then see what you have and work with those, either adding more collage work, rice paper, etc., or acrylic markers, etc., to embellish the smaller collages and make them more interesting.

I liked the outcomes on all of them, but Sweetie says the lower right one looks better with the blue on top and I think he’s right.  Another thing about this is that you can turn in however you want and see what looks best to you.