"Yeah this face thing...I don't get it" or "Conversations with Non-Arty Friends"

As I was going through and developing my art business plan, one of the goals I set was, of course, to share my art with everyone! And that includes all my NON-ARTY friends and believe me there are a bunch of you (including family members!)

Conversation with a friend this morning....

R> What are you doing today?

T> Post office and then work on some faces

R> Yeah...your non-artist friend isn't getting the faces thingy.

T> LOL

R> Hey...I'm trying

T> (Realizing she's serious) A couple times a year a group gets together online and we draw 29 faces in 29 days. A while ago I set a personal goal of doing 100 faces over time. I collect images on pinterest and use them to draw from for this challenge.

R> I've just never seen it before. Kewl.

T> Its a completely different form of art than my usual these days and one I enjoy going back to.

R> I just didn't want to be your stupid non-artist friend asking stupid questions and looking stupid to your artist friends.

After assuring her she could never do that, and that I know of no artists that would respond that way; perhaps a few gallery directors maybe but those are the ones who can't create doo-doo themselves (or something to that effect!) I told her most artists can't wait to talk about their work and love it when people ask questions. It's one of the things I am enjoying most about working in the gallery. Talking to non-artists about what they see, think and are experiencing looking at the art; even if the answer is "nothing."

(NOTE: Artists hope that's not the answer but even that is helpful)

I went on to tell her I've been wanting to start a regular feature discussing art with non-artists and opening up dialog about my work and art in general. Now I don't mean highmakamaka "hoighty toighty" conversation about art people...SO not my style. I mean just like regular conversations...like this:

**You know you're kinda weird yeah?

** Why do you draw so many faces?

**You have pages of eye balls? Why? Lips too?

**Why you gotta be so weird?

**Does this mean something?

**Which way does it go?

**Uh...whats the bird for?

**How did you do that?

**You collect WHAT?!?!!! Oh! To draw it. I get it. Why you gotta be so weird?

**I don't get it but its colorful!

**NOTE: All based on actual conversations I have had and enjoyed! So with all that in mind, welcome to the first of what I hope will be MANY "Conversations with Non-Arty Friends".

So...continuing from the conversation above...let me tell you about 29 faces and about what drawing faces does for me. I have always done faces...and yes I have sketch books filled with facial pieces and parts. I think most artists go through a period where they do this; especially if they attend art school. After a while you begin to know what you can do easily and where you struggle. (TEETH make me nuts!) If you enlarge these photos below you will see subtle changes in the teeth and lips. Eventually I said (out loud to a different friend) "I need to let this go. Its only on an index card!"

(working via my kindle before bed)

The people participating in the challenge are all at various stages in their art pursuits; some are professionals and others have NEVER drawn anything in their lives. Some do pencil, others use ipads and everything in between. Some do large pieces, others like me this time, use very small work surfaces. One lady is using brown paper bags...her work is amazing! Some work is realistic and some is quite whimsical looking. Each person decides for themselves what it is they want to concentrate on; for many its the idea of doing something creative for 29 days in a row! This time I decided I didn't want my daily face to take up so much of my time and thought an index card was a good size. I could keep them with me and work on them easily no matter where I was. It has been a huge challenge for me to keep things in the right proportion and still have enough detail to make the face somewhat recognizable. There's not much space for correction and hiding mistakes. The texture of the cards is horrible compared to fine quality art paper. I normally work with a mechanical pencil with a .5mm lead, an HB and 2B drawing pencil. These are fine lines and the lead is hard. For the cards I've had to switch to doing a rough sketch lightly using the mechanical pencil and then working with 4B and 6B pencils (much softer lead) and from there using a smudge or blending tool for the shadows, etc.

To see the work of others click here and then click on the names of whomever you would like to visit. Everyone posts using #29Faces or uses labels/categories so you should be able to see all their work at once.

(Here you can see I've lightened her teeth up by erasing most of the details but I still don't like it)