Faces 26, 27 28 and 29

Before I begin any projects for October, I just want to take time for posting the remainder of my 29 Faces.

#26

#27

#28

As these are merely  index cards and can be basically studies for other work I am more than happy with them. So I am FINISHED! I made it! 29 faces in September! YAY me! And congrats to everyone else that participated in the event. I learned SO much from you guys. See you next time!

OH WAIT!...wondering where number 29 is? I saved it. It is also my 100th Face in my collection.

I reached 100!

Faces that is!

This is my 100th face that I have  drawn since I started keeping track. 

(Even though it is only my 26th face for 29Faces I'm calling it done. I think its a good place to stop.) 

It is the face of our youngest daughter. I worked from a cropped image she gave me via facebook. 

I tried some different techniques with this one and I am super stoked about the results. I am working on a step out tutorial so won't go into details right now. Specifically I'm excited about the skin tones, the texture in her hat and sweater, the reflections in her eyes, the texture in her lips. And those eyebrows! Normally she spends more time on her eyebrows than I do drawing them. Not this time. There are at least five layers of pencil work on each one! I think it was totally worth it. 

This was a birthday gift for my husband by the way. It took me one week to complete it. The best part was being able to stare at her face all week long. 

#s 22, 23, 24, 25 of 29 And Lessons Learned from 29 Faces

I'm finding it challenging to keep up with this project on a daily basis with everything else I am working on. At this point it is determination that is driving me and little else. BUT this is GOOD because there is a lesson in it! It applies to life as an artist or just life in general, doesn't it? You start out excited about a new project and are sure you can do it. You are committed to it. Truly. And then stuff creeps in and life happens. Parts of it don't turn out the way you wanted them to. You get frustrated. A new project comes along that you would rather be working on. And all the details of the project (in this case taking pix, uploading, posting and blogging) begin to slip from your control and you are tempted to just toss in the towel.

I can see the light at the end of this tunnel though. And I have learned SO MUCH. There are techniques I've picked up that I am excited to keep improving in. I'm learning (still) to be okay with a less than a quality image just for the practice of daily face drawing. I'm learning that I do have a distinct style in my portraits. And that I can evolve in further. I've learned (again!) quality materials have their place. I've learned that out of a larger body of work (my 100 Faces project) there are certain pieces I like more than others and that applies to all works. Not every one is going to be worthy of more than a second glance. But they are all in me and deserve to come out. Some deserve more time than others. Some deserve a second go. Others not so much. I've learned practice, practice, practice makes improvement versus perfect.

And that is good. Very good.

What have you learned from this project?

On My Work Table (Yeah its a MESS!)

Yes! I have ALL kinds of stuff and projects piled up on my table. Although last week was a fun week with gallery tours, lunch dates and hanging with a new friend it was hectic. I don't do well with hectic. I need time to process things in order to keep a handle on my life. I have piles of notes to be filed, contacts and info for getting prints made of my work (my goal for this week!), projects I'm thinking about, my artist statement I'm composing for the gallery and my 29Faces are way behind. The faces are done I just haven't posted them. So here we go!

When last we visited this project we were with Maori Man # 8/29 and 82/100. I was feeling rushed so grabbed my sketch and wash pencil and made quick faces.

 

Then my mood got weird for a couple days....don;t ask because I don't know either. 

 

 A somewhat normal person's face; still using the sketch and wash pencil

Then I saw a tweet from Tam over at willowing and decided to be inspired by her style without putting much effort in to them because it was pretty late each night before I got around to drawing. 

 

Based on a photo of an online friend who I won't name because it doesn't do her justice. At this point I am totally frustrated with the index cards and wondering why I am torturing myself with using them. I overworked the mouth and the index card DOES NOT allow that. 

Last night's...yes this makes #21. I'm reluctant to tell you this is my child because again it does her NO justice. I am counting it because I want to keep going with the challenge plus I'm using it as a study for another drawing of her today. 

21/29 and 95/100

That's it! I'm caught up in posting my faces!

I am officially working on REAL paper today. Not sure I will finish the index card idea. Tune in again to see. 

Is Anybody Out There?

WOW! My friend, Robbie, mentioned I hadn't posted any art in a long time which I knew because I have been traveling quite a bit recently. I had no idea it's been since April though! That's crazy!

As I said, I've done some traveling lately to include Vegas, Colorado and Louisiana/Mississippi. I am going to Texas here shortly and now have a trip to DC planned as well. All that to say that I have NOT been making much of a mess with my paints and stuff and really need to. I am back in my studio and have been playing with a canvas just to rebuild strength and steadiness (which I seem to be sorely lacking) in my hands so have not begun on a planned piece that is intended to be a gift. Hopefully I will feel confident enough to start here within the next day or two.

So for now I will share the collaborative pieces I participated with for Face in the World. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of them all in their completed stage and one I am not able to share the photo at all. We worked in teams of 5 artists with each one doing a portion of the work and then sending it on for additional work. When your piece is completed it is returned to you. Mine is the lovely lady at the bottom!

(I did the hair in this one)

(again, golden highlights in the hair)

 (Eyelashes, brows and lips)

(This is mine to keep and I did the background and general face/neck)

This was an adventurous challenge for me and through it I have "met" some truly amazing and talented artists that have become a tremendous source of encouragement and laughs! 

BTW - our group grew out of the 29 Faces Challenge that I did in Feb 2013.

Evolution of a Painting - Part 2

So now I am ready to put paint to canvas. Let's begin! I basically just block in with color where thigns are going to go. Notice the wave?




Well I had to change it. Composition wise it just wasn't coming together the way I wanted it to. Once I reversed the curl...it flowed so fast I was thrilled! Her hair becomes the wave and it all comes from her tears. The lava comes from her lips - deep beneath the surface.


For this painting I did something I normally don't do and that was to turn the canvas as I worked on her face. I wanted to make sure she wasn't wonky! Her fern haku blends the two planes together.



More details in her eye and...voila!

The Legend of Haumea

An Fun Update on Rice Rice Baby!

I was prompted to try and locate the actual owner of the photo I used for the baby drawing yesterday. Come to find out, he is her daddy! She was born in Jan 2010 so is a little over three years old now! 

Thank you! I love the drawing. I will print it and put it in my daughters room! Thank you! :D Also I am going to put it on my blog, if you don't mind, http://www.bastish.net/blog/

In his email he gave me some background on the photo:
In your description you mention that she was a wee one enjoying rice, but that is only half of the story. She is enjoying the first rice of our harvest that year. The fresh rice is always the best. Please send me your address and remind me to send you some fresh rice next october when we have harvested :)

After seeing his daughter's delight I can't wait til October to try some!

And...I am pleased to tell you that my original drawing will be on its way to them shortly. After all, who should have it besides them? I hope they enjoy it as much as I enjoyed drawing her! I love when art can connect people worlds away to one another.

               

Rice Rice Baby

29 of 29 and 74 of 100

I found this delightful photo of a wee one enjoying eating rice and knew I HAD to try and draw it! I rarely draw babies (this might be the third one ever?) and certainly never one with its tongue out but it was just too darn cute to not at least try.

I use my fingers to smudge lines which can tend to create quite a mess so I am reminding myself to use a tortillon instead. I also knew that I needed to ignore all the proportions of an adult head so this  one was far more intuitive and free flowing.

I am happy with how the baby's hand  turned out as well and this makes 29 of 29 faces done! What an amazing challenge this has been. I am so glad I gave it a try and hope to be able to join in the next one.

Faces of the Weekend

My faces project went in a different direction than I thought it would but one I think is ultimately beneficial to me. I planned that I would draw more faces from my "Draw This Face" board but somehow ended up finding a tutorial to watch and follow from proko which then lead to another and another and another etc. I have not worked through all of them yet but it is on my agenda! After I posted "Another Face" and remarked about her eyes needing to be changed and then seeing other things I wanted to fix on her I thought I really needed to get specific about some of things I want to change about my portraits. I am always wanting to grow and improve in my work, aren't you? I felt these tutorials addressed a number of the specifics I was concerned with. I spent the rest of my free time over the weekend drawing tons of tiny little heads and faces and features in my "Body Parts" sketch book! Here is a mosaic of some of the work to share with you!

(Sorry about the bluish cast; not sure where that occurred - in the camera, mosaic maker, flickr?)

Now there are at least 15 more faces shown here that I am going to count toward my 29 for this challenge and 100 Faces collection (more in the sketch book of course!) This puts me at 27 of 29 and 72 of 100 but I am still going to be working on as many more the rest of the month as possible. The only way to learn and grow is to draw, draw, draw! Right? 

I do want to comment about the face on the upper left hand side - I am not happy with this one at all. It is completely over worked, has too many texture lines, tons of erasures, and still needs fixing. But! It stays as is because 1) It is merely an exercise 2) It lets me know what issues I need to continue to work on  3) It reminds me to switch to some other materials I have been wanting to play with again!

Another face

This past week I didn't work on faces (too busy doing mandala!) but I started this one last night and worked for about 90 minutes on it. 

This morning my youngest said I needed to change the eyes and she was right. So I just changed those and decided to stop. I wasn't going for hyper-realism ( have never even attempted that) so at this point I am satisfied with her. 

12 of 29 and 57 of 100

And in the time it took me to post this far....I go from being satisfied with her to noticing two things that I kinda wanna change - her nose is too long and her eyes are showing up as two different tones. ACK.  GO AWAY PATRICIA PERFECT. (My Inner Critic)

More Back-logged Artwork

Goodness! I just now realized that I am WAY behind in the posting of my 100 Faces series! SIGH. Oh well...no   biggie! Here's a bunch in one post. Let me know who you like and who creeps you out! I know I have a few more that I need to scan and share so stay tuned for more!

32/100 - While not my usual style this was fun to do. And it reminds me that I need to pull out my Japanese motif book I bought a few weeks ago and practice!



31/100 This is from a facial tutorial I was following.


29 & 30/100 Even though I'm not happy with how the little girl's ear and facial features turned out I am REALLY happy with the kids' hands on the glass window!


28/100 Found this photo in HanaHou magazine on the flight home and began working on it during the flight...it was too bumpy to finish then.


27/100 While I like to keep this a politically free zone I was intrigued by a photo of our Governor and kept thinking what an interesting face he has (for drawing anyway.)


26/100 Ojisan at Kona Airport - This guy was sitting a few rows away from me at the Kona airport. The funny part was this lady sitting directly across from me (and that I was ignoring totally) must have been bothered by my glancing up and down to sketch because she eventually leaned over into my viewpoint to make eye contact with me! It made me laugh out loud! She gestured wanting to see the sketch and gave me a thumbs up!


24&25/100 "Uncle" and "Facial Features Practice" - I was trying to capture my husband's uncle before he dozed off to sleep. I don't sketch faces very quickly so it was a challenge.


19-23/100 "Da Keiki at Aunty's House"


17& 18 "Twins"

28/100

28/100, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

This is from a photo in Dec-Jan2011 Hana Hou! magazine. I rough sketched it on the flight from BI and finished it moments ago. I am not happy with the scan so may redo it - or not.

Done on medium weight paper in my every day sketchbook using pencils and tortillion. Tried to represent the intricate designs and fibers of tapa cloth along with adding in additional designs on the side.

7-16/100 Faces

7-16/100 Faces, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

i thought applying some of tam's ideas from Art, Heart, Healing might help me create a more realistic japanese face.
argggg
obviously an area that continues to elude me yet one i want to conquer so i can draw my family.
practice practice practice.

4 & 5/100 Faces

2010-11-05-1320-53, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

As far as I can remember this is only the second male face I have EVER done.

3/100 Faces

2010-11-02-1553-52, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

I don't care for this much but it was still an excellent exercise for me and one I need to do more often. I sketched this gal in Starbuck's in about 4 minutes (or less) and then worked on the shading as best and surreptitiously as I was able to. Happily for me she was pretty occupied with her laptop.

2/100 Faces

2/100, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

Thought it does her no justice this is my rendering of Natalie Grant as she appears on her Relentless album.

1/100 Faces

2010-11-02-1551-50, originally uploaded by Trish Nonaka.

I decided to work on a grouping of 100 faces. Some will be real people, others imaginary. There is no particular rhyme or reason behind each face except to keep practicing portraits and facial features.