ABORIGINE BOY

Twelve pages into my journal and I discovered some pretty interesting things about drawing and painting faces.  Here are the top ten:

1.  I have a tendency to make the faces more round or fatter than the photo.
2.  I most often draw the right eye higher than the left eye.  I discovered this by viewing my drawing in the mirror.  Did you know that you can see your mistakes by doing this?
3.  I am at a total loss when it comes to painting with acrylic paint.  Tube paints or paint pens...it makes no difference.  Ugh!
4.  I overwork watercolors.  I wish I could be looser.
5.  I love the Molotow Masking pen.  I was surprised at the fine lines that it would make.  I will surely use this more often.
6.  I love Walnut Ink, sepia tone paintings, and plan to explore this media more.
7.  My second love is the Derwent Intense pencils.  They are so juicy and work wonderfully on the hot press watercolor paper.  I used cold press paper in the past but find the results on hot press paper to be much better!
8.  Chalk paint (Art Deco) works well as a highlight with Derwent Intense pencils.  I learned about using Chalk Paint from Kate Thompson in her Class "Fancy Lassies." She uses them with watercolors!
9.  Prismacolor Pencils are my favorite for drawing whimsical faces.
10. Painting from and studying photos allows you to train your eye to see all the little details...the shadows, highlights and proportions.  Also, the more that you practice...the better that you will become.  Draw...draw...draw.  I can't wait to see my progress at the completion of my journal.

Aborigine Boy was drawn by using an inexpensive PaperMate 0.5mm mechanical pencil that I purchased from Target.  I used a chamois to blend the background.

Until next time....

Hugs,
Ginny

EXPLORING FACES...A NEW JOURNAL

"The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter."

Marcus Tilius Cicero

I have always loved drawing faces.  When I look at my portfolio from high school, (yes, I saved them.  They must be true antiques by now...lol.) it is filled with faces drawn in pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel or watercolor.  I tried all the different mediums, except for oil.  I never could wrap my head around painting with oils or the yucky smell of turpentine...so no oils will find their way into this journal except for the occasional oil stick which is mostly wax.

With this journal, I hope to explore new techniques and perhaps find my identity. Will I prefer watercolor as opposed to acrylic?  Will I prefer drawing whimsical faces as opposed to realism?  Will I find my unique style or will I continue to follow the path of diversity?  Wherever this journey takes me, I will go with eyes wide open...accepting my successes as well as failures and learning not to be too hard on myself when things don't go according to my liking.

BOHEMIAN GIRL

When I painted this girl in watercolor, I realized that I forgot how to paint skin tones.  I am sure that there is something on the internet that explains this but a friend of mine just happened to be at my house with her inexpensive set of watercolors which had a tube of paint named, of all things, "Flesh." 

Wooo hoo!  You can't find this color in artist grade watercolor so I am very grateful that she offered to share.  

 INSPIRATION PHOTO:

This is the inspiration photo that I used for my painting.  I plan to tape them to the opposite page of my journal to remind me of my thought process and to see what I should have done differently or what I might try again.  

BONNET GIRL

This face started as a pencil drawing, then I added s little collage to the bonnet, stenciled a few flowers and texture using gesso and lastly, it was tinted using Ranger Distress Inks.

INSPIRATION PHOTO:

GOAT BOY

"Goat Boy" was done using a technique that I learned in Kate Thompson's "Children Of The Wild" class.  It was drawn in pencil, painted and stenciled with gesso on a copy of antique ledger paper and then highlighted using a R&F oil stick.

If you are interested in learning this technique from Kate, her on-line class is still available on jeanneoliver.com.  I have taken classes from Danielle Donaldson, Wendy Brightbill, Kate Thompson, Jeanne Oliver and many other fine artists.  Also, this site has many free videos so you may want to sign up to receive their notices even if you are not ready to join a class. 

THE THINKER

This guy started out as a pencil drawing then I shaded areas with a light wash using a Stabilo Aquarellable pencil.  I used a black Faber Castell Pitt big brush pen for the background.  These are two of my favorite tools for shading.  The Stabilo pencil is nice and juicy allowing for a very light wash to a solid black line and the big brush pen is perfect for solid black areas as it does not bleed through the watercolor paper.  It is filled with India ink unlike alcohol ink pens.

INSPIRATION PHOTO:

Well, I hope that you are enjoying the start of my new journal, "Faces." I am really inspired by all the photos that I have collected and can't wait to see how they reveal themselves on the page.

Until next time.....

Hugs,
Ginny

TRYING OUT A MOLESKINE

Where do I begin?  I am trying out a Moleskine journal for the first time.  I am a Moleskine virgin!  As  with using any art medium for the first time...there are always challenges.  In this case…it is the thinness of the paper.

I already know that the paper in the Moleskine journal will probably support only graphite and colored pencil so I plan to use it just for pencil sketches.  No ink! That was the plan but once I completed my pencil sketch, I felt that something was lacking and outlined it in ink.  Well...guess what?  It bled through to the other side!  Anyway, I did what I usually do...I decided to go with the flow and let happen what may and deal with the issue later.

In the art world there is always a solution to a problem…right?  Maybe a little gesso or gluing something over it?  Or….maybe even gluing two pages together.  What would you do?  I would love to hear from you and learn how you deal with this issue.

Until next time!

Hugs,
Ginny

GETTING BACK TO BASICS

There are times when I feel the need to get back to basics and for me that means pencil drawing.  Start at the beginning...grab paper and pencils and draw from real life or photographs.  Make it as realistic as possible…not abstract but an honest to goodness likeness of what I see or how I interpret what I see.  For me, this is the platform or jumping off point of where all my art comes from.  Getting back to basics teaches me to be observant of the details and these details can then be interpreted in various ways to draw or paint the abstract, whimsey, fantasy, etc. 

My inspiration photo was found on Pinterest.  It is a picture of a little girl with blonde hair cut in a "Buster Brown" cut.  I was attracted to this picture because it reminded me of ME at that age.  I always had a "Buster Brown" haircut thanks to my mother's haircutting skills.  Do you see the resemblance?  

I made the sketch into cards by scanning, printing, embossing, coloring with neon markers and adding the faux rhinestone.  There you have it…..instant "Thank You" notecards!  PS…I tell everyone it is a drawing of ME!!!  lol

Until next time!

Hugs,
Ginny