Week 5 - Self Portrait from a photograph

Yeah! Yeah!  Before you take a sneaky look at my painting, there is a little artistic licence, I must admit.  No, not really, just that I used a picture of myself taken about 30 years ago.  Well, this week it was about our inner self, and I still feel a lot younger on the inside than I look on the outside!!  Anyway it was great fun, and the Workshop was by Kylie Fowler, an Australian Portrait Artist.  There are over 1000 of us who have signed on for this Life Book 2012, so from the tutor's point of view it must be extremely difficult to meet everyone's expectations, impossible I would say!  Kylie started the video with two black and white computer printed photos the same, but one was a mirror image.  We then cut out just the face of the mirror image and transferred it onto the watercolour paper using gesso - this was a first for me. (I'd done it on fabric - not with gesso though)  I rubbed rather too much of my face away, but it didn't matter, as the original was there for you to draw the face back in(with biro).  The idea was to make a type of cartoon, and fill in whatever you wanted for the hair and body etc. adding a crown or something, as this was representing your Inner Goddess! 

Kylie's second video was using a printout of her face, stuck onto watercolour paper and then colouring with watersoluble crayons.  She used all sorts of weird colours on her face, like olive green, prussion blue and red, as well as flesh, orange and yellow etc.  I decided to have a go on my face, and was quite delighted with the results.  Kylie's face was obviously still smooth paper when she coloured it, and mine was very 'rubbed up' and rough, but even so, the result of the weird colours I tried stll surprised me, which was the best bit of the whole exercise for me.   I'm really not into collaging - not yet anyway!!
If you want to join in the fun, click on the moving Logo - it's still not too late!
Till next time .........

Week 3 - Workshop with Bonnie Rose Bryan

This Life Book on-line course is turning out, at the moment, to be rather 'deep thinking'!  Bonnie Rose (this week's tutor) writes in her introduction:  "This project is all about using symbolism to depict the very differet parts of yourself, coexisting in balance and harmony.  It is a deeply personal and intensely introspective project .... to look inward into oneself, and represent, using archetypes or other imagery, both the light and dark aspects of your inner being .  This is no small task!"

Bonnie illustrated the Workshop by drawing two Goddesses with various attributes written down, but she  illustrated her drawings using ink, (a ballpoint pen) and hatching and cross hatching to create the shading and depth.

This I got very excited about, so ............

Here is the beginning of my two 'goddesses' (one public on the left and one private on the right).  You can see I've been working on the left hand side with more hatching.  I started by pencil drawing the portraits (not very much shading) and going over the drawing with the ball point pen, then rubbing out the pencil.   Point of no return is when you start hatching with the pen 'cos you can't rub out!

Anyway, this is my finished page, with a little colour added representing day and night or light and dark or sun and moon. and a few words.  The idea is to realise everyone has 'two faces' but they work in harmony. 
This is the first time I have tried drawing in ball point pen - I loved it and will certainly try again!!
The next workshop is around the 6th Feb. so till then .........

New Beginnings

Happy New Year to my blogging friends (and anyone else who pops by of course!)  To encourage myself to learn how to draw freely, I have joined an on-line workshop called Life Book 20l2, run by Tamara Laporte who is based in Brighton, Sussex.  She is a very caring, sharing person, who incidentally has only just had her second baby, just before Christmas, and has organised this YEAR LONG Workshop, which includes at least fifteen other Tutors from around the world.  It started on the lst Jan. and Tam did the first workshop for the first page of the Life Book, explaining that we are all goddesses (over 700 people have signed up!) and to include all our best qualities onto this first page, after painting the inner goddess we all have!  Well, this is my first page ........

 It is the first time I have tried to draw/paint a face, using an oval shape as a base, let alone a three-quarter face.  It was familiar though, as I have made and painted faces on fabric dolls, so I did understand the instructions, although you wouldn't think so.  It is amazing how drawing is one thng, then adding paint can completely change the expression etc.  I am hoping to learn a lot from all these brilliant tutors over the coming year, and will post each page as I go along.  I should then be able to see if there is any improvement!!

We are going to bind all the pages together, into a book, at the end of the year, and the 'flap' shown here was part of Tam's instructions.  She did say to stick collage paper on the back to form the 'hinge' but I don't have any suitable, so I used some fabric paper I made ages ago - worked a treat!

This is the back of the page, which will show as the book is opened.  I can always draw/write something on it to link to the next page, when I know what the next page is ....!
If you would like to know more about Life Book 20l2, or even join in, click on the button on the left.  Life Book 20l2 is also on Facebook and Flkr.
Till next time .......

A small gift for a special Friend

Each Christmastime I receive one or two christmas cards that really inspire me, and I now have quite a collection.  This particular little fabric and stitched quilt was inspired by such  a card I received several years ago, and reminds me somewhat of Zentangles.  The design appears to be hand drawn, and filled in with amazing detail, down to drawn lace and small embroidery lazy daisy stitches.  Anyway, my friend Alis was delighted with her little gift, and I would like to share the quilt wth all my blogging friends, to bring you all

Christmas Tidings. 

Here is the inspiration.  Unfortunately I do not know the artist, to be able to give credit where it is due.  I do hope you all have a lovely Christmas, and a very happy, healthy and creative New Year.

Fairy is finished .....

Following on from my last post, this is a scan of the painting actually, so it is a little larger than shown here - there is quite a few more leaves on the bottom and it is a bit wider. It is all water colour, except for the green background, which is layered acrylics.

This is also a scan of the finished Angel I posted some time back - now has a dark background, again using acrylics.
Bye for now ......

Getting there - slow but sure

Further to my last post, I've been working on this drawing I did, using a photograph of some toadstools I took for the background.  First of all I used a sepia pen to go over the drawing lines, then rubbed them out (very gently!)

I then added colours to various parts, using water soluble wax crayons mostly, then started to put the details in, plus some shadows.  The fairy is only very lightly coloured (nowhere near finished).  I am concentrating on the leaves mostly at the moment, and haven't quite decided about the background at the top.  Lots to do still, but I think it's coming on.
It's great for me to compare the pictures of the process, if only I could remember to do more scans as I went along!
Bye for now .....

Foraging for Fungus ......

Actually, to be honest, I was foraging for Fairies ........

but looking at the texture on these Honey Fungus (which is what I think it is) no wonder there were no fairies around.  It looks so spikey and rough, but really amazing.  The patterns are truly so inspiring!

Further along the lane I found these - much smoother, but still no sign of any fairy .....

wonderful Autumn colours though.  Even these round smooth ones were fairyless!

 I reckon they must have heard me approaching .......

and just took off.  I felt quite bereft, so decided I draw one .......

There you go - I just knew they were there really.  I'm off to add some paint.
Till next time ......