What's On My Work Table

Not sure where I am going with this if anywhere. This piece was born at New Moon Art Gallery this past Saturday. I did it in my collage journal using a stencil, green acrylic paint and my fingers. While that was still wet, I added a dark blue acrylic around the edges and smooshed it in with my fingers in a circular fashion. It came out darker than I wanted so I wiped it off with a damp paper towel still in a circular design. I added white acrylic with my finger and didn't blend it in as well as the blue then again wiped it with the damp paper towel (which had the blue all over it too. I don't worry about that stuff.) I added bits of white by thinning down the white paint and flicking it from the brush I had. Finding it too light I remixed with less water and applied it again. That's it! 

Interesting that tonight is a lunar eclipse. Maybe I will be motivated to do something more with it after tonight's celestial exhibit!

Quote of the Week

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. 

Pages of my Life - Sept 22-28

1) Gelli plate background (Acrylics)

2) Printed quote and glued it on

3) Added key words from quote and doodled

4) Lived with it for a few days as is

5) Glued on the bag from my Aveda "Comforting" tea

6) Cut out a flower doodle from a gelli printed piece of paper I found laying around. Aimlessly drew around it, on it. And around the tea bag envelope. 7) Hated it. 8) Took my favorite color paint and wiped it all over the non-glued portion using my finger. 9) Liked it better. For a day or two. 10) Outlined the key words from the quote with white ink. 

                         
                                                                                          11) Happily moved on!

#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

Just in case you are wondering...I call it "on my work table" because my easel is over at the gallery. And technically, these were on my small easel but whatever! 

These are 8x10 canvases. Acrylics. Apparently I am feeling dotty or like I'm going in circles?

This one came about after a discussion with one of the other members of the gallery (Geoff) about being centered and staying on true north and how we are both intrigued by compasses, maps, globes, etc. I purposely did not want it to be like a clock or symmetrical which is kind of surprising for me. But as a symbol of where I am at in life; there are so many directions to go and one path might lead to another one in reality. Regardless of the choices though I always come back to what is at the center of my life. 

Available for sale at New Moon Gallery, Waimea, Big Island or contact me directly!

     

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. 

Quote of the Week

I love Eddie.
Just saying.

On My Work Table

Do you recall the sneak peeks I gave you of these on facebook back in June?

I was able to finish up this past week but I needed Randy's help to come up with a way to be able to hang the pieces that would allow them to still move! Why? I wanted them to retain some of their original intent. Do you know what they are now?

THAT'S RIGHT! OLD VINYL LPs!! They were beyond use from scratches but they sat still long enough to get paint on them! I have 3 that are with two each and one that has three. Every one still spins! They are able to be hung on the wall in this vertical position. They have a protective matte finish on them as well and as you turn them you get ever changing art! I would recommend limiting the amount of handling if you want them to last YEARS. Oh and yes the grooves are still visible. They also have a decorative bead in finish the center. 

Pages of my Life - Sept 8-12

This is my journal page from last week (yes I'm late in posting it but oh well) I also did not add a quote to this week's page. (again, oh well)

I started out the same way as usual; laying on a background layer. It doesn't matter how you go about this. This was another one of my gelli plate prints though in case you are wondering. Of course, you don't HAVE to put in a background I just prefer to. What I want to point out in this photo is the border. I like to add borders but have been forgetting to lately. So this is just a really simple one. I made it as thick as the paintbrush I grabbed. Once that was dry I made little a little blob and then two swipes off the blob with yellow acrylic. When that dried, I took a sharpie pen (not marker) and drew in little leaf like details. It gives a messy but quick and nice finish to the page even though I added it before I wrote my notes on the page, And for some reason I actually WROTE most of the page instead of doodling.

Occasionally I love to do a senses list. I record what I am HEARING, SEEING, SMELLING, TOUCHING/FEELING, TASTING, and add in THINKING if I feel like it. I do this a lot in my scrapbooking still.

So now to you...do you add borders? If not, try it and see what you think. And do you ever write lists of things n your journal? Let me know if you share your journal pages...would love to see them!

Quote of the Week

This week's post was found on my fellow artist and friend, Paulette's facebook feed. She just read it last week herself. I like it. LOTS!

After adding this to my journal page, I took a few minutes to list what I am passionate about. I agree, these are the things that are my calling. How about you? What are YOU passionate about?

Quote of the Week

Somehow this just suits my mood today!

On My Work Table - 29Faces

I decided to post this one separately because I wanted to share more of the process I went through and am asking for any ideas or suggestions as to what I could do better next time. And for recoord keeping purposes this is 8/29 and 82/100


First, here is the photo I worked from:
 

You can see once I again, I'm working on an index card.

I decided to do his face first without the tattoos.  

Okay so sort of a big jump in the photo process; I forgot to get one before I began adding his tattoos. 

I should tell you that I did use pencil for the tattoos initially but felt it didn't look right so I inked over them. This may be where I went wrong? 

Obviously, my hand was not as steady with the ink pen and when you enlarge it like this is REALLY shows.  

And just for easy comparison....

So if you have ever attempted to do a face that is tattooed, or anything similar, I would LOVE to hear any suggestions you may have for improving this. Perhaps the first thing is don't work on an index card? LOL 

On my Work Table - 29Faces

Here is the next face...he is 7/29 and 81/100 and I find him to be simply adorable! You can see his photo here.

What do you think? Did I capture his impish and slightly inquisitive disposition?  

"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)

 

(it's now Friday and I'm using my pc to make the photo as large as possible to see details I want to capture)

I just realized that THIS is 80/100 (as well as #6/29 for this turn) I am SO excited to know that!

(Now I've added a bit more detail to her teeth...again and decide to call it done!)

My 29faces 2013

My 29faces 2014 (ongoing as of this date)