Sketchbook Stuff

 I was playing in my sketchbook yesterday and played around with a face and tangled my hand.  It was fun to find time just to play again after working so hard on exhibition stuff last week.

 

Fabulous Face in pencil

Last night I worked in my moleskine and did a face with an hb mechanical pencil.  It amazes me sometimes what can be achieved with one little pencil lol

Florence and the Machine

This afternoon I was working in my moleskine and had a little play with a macro face and decided to put lyrics that mean a lot to me at the moment down the right hand side of the spread.  I just love the song "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence & the Machine.  I used the first verse from the song to connect to.

Another Pencil Portrait

Tonight I was playing in my moleskine with two pencils this time an HB and a B to make this little journal spread and portrait. Im finding that the more I practice the better I am getting at hair.  Should really look up a detailed hair tutorial on google soon though.

Pencil Portrait

Today I worked on a Fabulous Face. Taking referece from a model in Elle magazine and using an HB pencil.  I also used a little shammy leather to polish the graphite and help with the shading.

Braided Hair

I worked on this portrait a few days ago and wanted to share it as part of my Fabulous Faces practice.

This next sketch was great fun to play with.  I was connecting to sunflowers symbolism once more and put that detail on her hat. This is following through on my whimsical girl practice.

Inspired by Willowing

After reading all the pdf''s and watching the videos for the FF course.  I was inspired to paint a girl with her teddy bear using mixed media.  I used a torn map in the background and texture paste for the mountain and gems in the sky to simulate sparkling stars.  The rest of the painting was done using watercolour crayons mixed with acrylic paints and graphite pencils to enhance shading. It was the first time I had used a watercolour board and the first time I had produced a full coloured 3/4 portrait.  I had so much fun with this, that I knew I was going to have such a great time on the Fabulous Faces coursework.

Week 6 of Fabulous Faces

Last week of the Fabulous Faces Course.  Its been a blast.  Ive still tons to learn but I've really enjoyed the journey on this course.  This final piece was done on hot pressed watercolour paper. Its the first time Ive use this surface, I did enjoy the smooth quality of it for the portrait tones.  I used torn book pages in the background, lots of stamps and brayering to add to the texture.  In the dark strands of her hair, I added more texture with tissue paper.  We had to integrate our portraits with other elements and some lettering/quote. We also had to try something different with her hair, hence the tissue paper.  I used die cuts for the word magical.  I used stadelier felt pens to draw in the flowers and leaves and other lettering.

Week 5 of Fabulous Faces

I was playing with my graphitint and coloursoft pencils on some rough watercolour paper to do week 5 homework for fabulous faces.  We had to practice the 3/4 face and add other elements to tell a story.  We also had to limit the use of our palette.  I enjoyed doing this one and found using a limited palette a challenge but very interesting.

 

Week 4 of Fabulous Faces

Studied the profile portrait for this weeks lesson for fabulous faces on Willowing.  It was fun.  I need to do more of these.

Week 3 of Fabulous Faces

I enjoyed doing this 3/4 portrait.  I played with a new hairstyle and had my first shot at doing braids.  I'm loving this course at Willowing

Week 2 of Fabulous Faces

I was having a hard time with this portrait as the sketchbook page didnt appreciate all the watercolour I was putting on it.  The page deteriorated so badly around the eye area as I shaded some more and ripped through, so I had to reinforce it with a piece of card on the back.  The eyes looked so awful, so I decided to go with what was happening and see if I could salvage something from the piece. I added the mask to hide all the mistakes and played with some gel pens till I was happier with the result.

 I kept thinking of what Tam teaches us.....its not the destination thats important but rather the journey itself.
That seemed to shut up my inner critic LOL

Hair study & Week One of Fabulous Faces

I played with some sketching pencils yesterday and was exploring hair texture and style.  Here is how the sketch turned out.