Art Journal Tryouts

After last months intensive face painting & drawing I decided to take few days break from artist stuff.

But I have to confess that the break did not last long. ;) I have been trying out some new stuff on my art journal...
The gesso based pages are not made for watercolours but the effect looks fun!
The upper one has a thick gesso base and the lower a thin layer.

And I'm also preparing for Halloween-time... :)

29 Faces: the remaining ones

Time to publish the last faces of 29 Faces challenge. This month has gone more quickly than I thought. I've enjoyed the challenge very much! It gave me a reason to explore what I can do, more self-confidence and many interesting blogs to visit (also in future)! Big thanks to Ayala Art blog for making everything possible!

In this last post I show some experimental faces and present even the ones I don't like. But it's now or never to go for all the crazy ideas. :)

The process was unlike anything I normally do. I started with acrylic colours. First I spread two colours on a large plastic cover, and before they dried pressed a paper on top and lifted it quickly. Although I tried to create something that would look like a face, it went quite badly. In my second attempt I used only one colour. I spread a thick layer of it as evenly as possible and drew lines in wet ink before pressing a paper into it. That went more like I wanted - not a total mess.

#23: From the first attempt. Because it didn't look like a face, I painted the black and grey areas afterwards with liquid ink. Still, this just doesn't look good.

#24: Second attempt. The frail lines I drew with the wrong end of a paintbrush.

#25: Number 24 quickly redone with my cheap image editing program. Normally I use the program just for turning images straight... :)

#26: Another one from the second patch. Painted the lines with paintbrush and fingers.
Afterwards lifting the paper I saw the ink blots. Didn't mean to make her cry, sigh...

#27: The last one from the second patch. Tried to leave some areas unsharp.

 #28:Continued the #27 with acrylics that I thinned down with water. I really like how the undertone and texture are dimly visible. Even though the area of mouth looks odd this seems better than the original.

#29: Finally I present an experiment of another kind, one that cheers me up! I mixed up two medium, oil pastels and watercolours. I also spread the pastels with some linseed oil. (I think she looks a bit like Lena Headey, the actor of Cersei Lannister in GoT.)

Thank you for all who have been visiting and commenting! You have made my day more than once and been very supportive! I hope I'll see you around. :)

29 Faces #21 & #22

I do very little model sketches these days, so yesterday I decided to go for it.

First I found a newspaper photo of a man who has somewhat sour expression. It seemed almost exaggerated, thus perfect for drawing.
Face #21:

Then I chose a totally different person. This young Indian is from a collection of digitalized historical photographs. I saw the link in SL Scheibe's blog, thanks for the tip! The photograph was taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1905.
Face #22:

29 Faces #18, #19 and #20

Here are some not-so-planned faces for the 29 Faces challenge...

18th, of subconscious messages. I had fun doing this a step by step, whatever came to my mind.

As you can see I used a lot of techniques and pre-cut paper shapes. That's too big list to start at this hour...


19th was a quick watercolour work that I didn't like earlier, but now it's better with ink lines.

20th, today's version of an old sketch from my notebook. Redrew her with watercolour pencils.

29 Faces #17

Wow, there are around 300 people taking part to 29 Faces challenge now!
So much styles too see and blogs to visit... :)

Ayala asked how we are doing, and for me the challenge is going fine. I still feel excited!
My 17th face is now ready. I take no pressures over the schedule even though my free time is limited. I just wish I could use more time visiting others. The comments cheer me up and mean a lot, and I try to do that to others too.

Well, this is my latest outcome: She does not look like me but I felt like I put a piece of myself here. That's probably because my thoughts take flight alike every now and then...

I experimented with stamp images and my own drawing. Learned many things of how to combine those. I guess I'm happy with result - watercolours and stamping colours mixed up nicely. Even the white ink I used for butterflies and some details looks good. I also added some metallic and shiny gelly pencil colours just for fun.

Thanks for visiting, hope you're enjoying the challenge! x

29 Faces: #14, #15 and #16

Today I got carried away by Scribbler Too. I'm a bit tired so this not-so-serious test was a lot of fun.

Managed to pull out some faces too.

14th face: scribbling produced a woman sewing something.

15th face: I like to think he's a fairy native to desert...

16th face: this lady I named Cinderella. She's going to the ball to meet the prince!

Faces of Nature

Glad to be back after lovely weekend!
I'm little late with the 29 Faces challenge, but fortunately inspiration still keeps flowing. :)

11th beastly face, a werewolf I guess...

12th, face of Spring:

13th, a feline face:

Drew these with watercolour pencils and spread colours with water.

Thank you for visiting, x