A First Try....Stll Need Some Practice.

 

Since this blog is also my practice space, this is an attempt at drawing a woman's face. I admit the proportions are off, but I had fun doing it. Some things I got right, like contouring, shading, and some features. As a self critic, I have a lot to learn about drawing hair, making the face symmetrical, adding realism to the eyes and more. One thing that is important is the pressure on the pencil to obtain effective results for shading and desired results for facial hair like the eye lashes and eye brows. What I liked is the shape of her lips, the realism of her eyes (even though they are not the same) and the contour of her nose. I need to work on the space between her nose and her eyes, it should be less....but if I were going for a surrealistic look, it would be ok. She almost looks like she could be a man...lol! So anyway my friends... have fun! I did! And what I am most proud of, is that I tried by stepping out of my comfort zone. It was an exploration, a journey and I made it home safely...did not get lost, and no one was hurt. These kinds of journeys are the best kind. 

To quote Miles Davis:

Do not fear mistakes...there are none!

For a first attempt, I think I scored an A for courage. I always looked at others doing these types of drawings and though that it was way above my skill level...but then how would I ever get there unless I tried. So I give myself an "A" for effort. I shall continue to practice this type of drawing and work to improve my skills. What are you doing in life to improve a skill? Feel free to share below in the comments. Thanks for visiting. 

Materials used:

• No 2 pencil
• No 2b pencil
• No HB pencil

My Future...the Light

My Future

I just love this girl....She is a stamp by Prima Marketing of the Bloom Collection by Jamie Dougherty. Her name is Summer. I tried making a page with her early on in my Art Journaling journey, and I made all kinds of mistakes (which I later learned to turn into happy accidents)...But this time...Ah, I love her!

I experimented with some new materials in making this page. It includes a mixed dry pigment ink with walnut stain that activates with water to give that striated variable background. Instead of activating it with water, I mixed it with Gel Matte Medium to apply to the page to give me a non-porous surface to work with for shading and other layers that I knew I wanted to create.

I stamped Summer on the page with Archival ink and sealed it so I could do the coloring without worrying about anything bleeding and spreading. I added detail to accentuate her curly hair and brown skin tones and added blush to her cheeks and rose to her lips. The sun is made out of Washi tape, and the small lettering I did on my Brother label maker. I simply coated it with Gel Matte medium so I could add color and a distressed border to each of the words and applied that to my layout with more gel matte medium so it would not peel off later. I skip a page when creating so that if I need to punch a hole in the page as I did with the colorful brads on the flowers it does not ruin the art on the previous page. The flowers were die cut and colored with distress ink.

Overall, I love Summer with her Bindi jeweled eye wear and pink lips. This is a happy page. She exudes confidence, beauty, is prayerful, and says "My future starts in the morning when I wake up and sees the light" 

Materials used:

• Prima Marketing: Jamie Dougherty - Bloom Collection - Summer
• Paperartsy Fusions Coloured Stains: Lemoncello and Orange County
• Washi Tape
• Sheena Douglass Country Cottage Fanciful Fuchsia
• American Crafts: Remarks: Patchwork Letter and Number Sticker Book 
• Wink of Stella Clear glitter brush
• Glossy Accents by Ranger
• Golden Regular Gel Matte Medium
• Liquitex Acrylic Gesso
• Microline Permanent Markers
• Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Markers
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Vintage Photo, Mowed Lawn, Cracked Pistachio, Blueprint Sketch, Pickled Raspberry and Wilted Violet
• Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
• Uni-Ball White Gel Pen
• Office Depot Date Stamp

Happiness

Happiness

 

This was a remake of the very first Art Journal Page I made over a year ago and ripped out the page from my journal because I thought I had made a mistake and (which I did, I closed the book before it was dry and the pages stuck together and ruined my work, that was a trial by fire! I was so upset, disappointed in myself! I had worked so hard on that page.) But it was a good lesson, that all mistake can be happy accidents and you can recover no matter how bad you think it is.  Here's a picture of what I ripped out...

These layouts were inspired by Vicky Papaioannou, a very talented artist whom I have learned a lot from by watching her videos. She is so very good at what she does. I simply adore all of her work.

Now, back to this work, entitled Happiness! How was it made. My initial attempt (the one I ripped out above) were made with flowers I cut out from the Internet and colored them with markers. I was happy with this layout seeing that it was my first attempt, even though it was a copy of what I saw Vicky do on her channel. But in the completed work above, I actually drew freehand the flowers! I was so happy that I had the courage to try this! And I was happy with the outcome. So I decided to title the page Happiness. I did not have a title before I completed the background of the page.

I learned that there are stages in the process of creating that is like a journey. At some points along the way, you may think that it is not going to turn out good, or that you are not happy with your progress, but you just have to have courage to continue to the end resting assured that what you end up with will be good, if not better than your original vision of what you wanted to create. All things happen for the good. This is a metaphor for life and for art journaling. It will all be OK! All mistakes are recoverable, just keep going, you are the creator and have the power to repaint, cover, bend, adjust, correct. The process may take turns that are unexpected from your original vision, but keep going, you just might surprise yourself and be very happy with the end result.

Materials used in this layout:

• Golden Regular Gel Matte Medium
• Liquitex Acrylic Gesso
• Dylusions Paints: White Linen, Fresh Lime, Dirty Martini, Lemon Zest and Tangerine Dream
• Microline Permanaent Markers
• Faber-Castell Texture Gems Pearl White
• Ranger White Embossing Powder
• Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Markers
• Tim Holtz idea-ology / Cling Foam Stamps Block Upper and Block Lower
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Vintage Photo and Mowed Lawn
• Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous Ultimate Grunge
• Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black
• Uni-Ball White Gel Pen
• Office Depot Date Stamp

Please post comments and tell me what you think of this latest page in my journal. I am still working on creating videos of my process to share on Youtube..stay tuned.

Create, Peace, Love and Soul!

Love Yourself First

 

I had so much fun creating this page...it's a perfect example of starting a project and at various stages you decide that its not worth saving...but you keep at it until you make it work. And I am so glad I did! I love the page. The background took on many iterations before ending up like this and I am happy with the results. It was a lesson on staying the course, because so many times I wanted  to chuck it and discard the development along the way...but I hung in there and began to see in my minds eye what I wanted to see there. I knew I wanted the young girl to be fashionable, and I wanted to give her a message to to love herself, so then the flowers began to bloom in my minds eye, and the quote was perfect.

Materials used:

• Julie Nutting Cling Stamp: "Taylor"
• Dylusions Paint: White linen
• Tim Holtz Distressed ink: Carved Pumpkin
• Martha Stewart Punch: Hearts
• Liquidtex Light Modeling Paste Gel Medium
• Liquidtex Matte Gel Medium
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Uni-ball Signo Broad Gel Pen White
• Pigma Micron 03 Archival Ink Pen
• Wink of Stella Glitter Pen
• Faber-Castel Pitt Pen Big Brush: Deep Scarlet Red #219
• Faber-Castel Pitt Artist en Big Brush: Black #199
• ColourArte Silks Acrylic Glaze Lemondrop
• Things from my stash: flower stamps, stencils, lettering, and scrap-booking papers, silver micro beads.

Here are some close ups of the two page spread.