29 Faces Day 15 The Gaze

I love grabbing a pile of magazine scraps, a few pens, a few tubes of paint, my ink, and setting a timer for 20 minutes. I don't have time to over think, I simply have enough time to sketch, glue, layer, and move color into places that create visual interest. These types of mixed media paintings are unexpected, not what you would consider 'pretty', and they have an artistic voice that beckons from that not so perfect place in all of us. There are days I wish I could create from only that place, as it seems fearless. 

Valspar Sketches for 29 Faces Days 5-7 and Paper Swapping

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Woooohooooo! I love a great paper swap because checking the mail is like Christmas Morning all over again. My new artist friend, Susan Libertiny, swapped hand painted papers with me and I am swooning over all the gorgeousness she sent my way. Can....not....WAIT to turn these into a 
painting! 

Visited my local Lowes for some stuff and have simply fallen in love with their 8 oz samples that they mix for you while you wait. These paints are satin, offer fabulous coverage, and once dried, make for a beautiful substrate to write on using various inks and markers. They are quickly becoming my favorite art journal paint because of their price too, $3 bottle. Way better than the little fluids found at craft stores. 

While I was there  I picked up a trifold brochure for their white paint samples and realized it would make the perfect little mini journal for my 29 Faces practice. My first 5 are done and working in these little boxes pushed my line control issues over the edge. I couldn't over think it, just had to sketch and sketch tiny. I found this to be excellent practice for my illustration work and am looking forward to filling up each square with a new face. 

Lots of juicy happenings have been landing in my lap these days, looking forward to sharing the details with you as I can. In the mean time, I hope your weekend was filled with beauty, creativity, and a big bowl of awesomesauce! 

29 Faces Challenge Day 4

Sketching throughout a magazine, especially when the cover has such juicy color or pattern, is one of my favorite ways to recycle and practice my craft. I was drawn to the red and pattern of this cover and decided it would make a unique 'flesh' for the face I would sketch. The clock was set for 8 minutes and I was off. 

I sketched the male face with a Uniball Needle fine liner then painted the negative space to bring out the form. Sketching fast and loose makes me let go of control and allow the shapes to flow more freely. Male faces are becoming a favorite of mine as well as this challenge! Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog and leave a comment for this challenge, that means a lot! 
Click HERE to view all of the faces in this series. 

It Comes From Within Art Journal Page and 29 Faces Day 3

I think a lot about beauty....what it means, how it is obtained, how we are taken aback by it. Words about beauty have flowed from me before, as if they were released to make room for meaning, but with each passing day the concept of beauty morphs into something different for me. This art journal page captured my conundrum with the African Masks marking how that culture perceived beauty, with an intuitive contour sketch of how I mark beauty, and with the written word explaining my understanding of it. Regardless of the outward look in the human form, to me, beauty comes from within, as a product of strength and grace. 

Artists tended to either try and capture it within a form, dissect it apart, or destroy it in an effort to shatter our constructs about it. I simply wanted to give it some space today, to capture the flowing line of the face, the beautiful contour marks, and to let go of the illusion that perfection creates it. 

The color palette is odd for me, as is the mood, but I like that. I like that I stepped out of my ordinary into a place where my spirit needed to go, beautiful or not. 

This serves as my day 3 of 29 faces. I am so enjoying that journey and seeking to experience the essence of the face rather than the ability to sketch a realistic one. 

29 Faces Challenge Day 2

In my circles guy faces are few and far between. Not sure if it's because artists are really trying to master the craft of nailing the beautiful female face, or if the male face is less inspiring. Regardless, I find them a challenge and hope to focus a good number of my sketches on the male face.

This image began in my sketchbook because I fell in love with the orange and green of the squash plants in the collage piece. Sadly, when I glued the pieces on, the paper was too thin to keep the toner and much of the beauty rubbed off. Rather than start over, I chose to go with the flow, stay with the same color palate, and embrace the texture. 

I then collaged a background and set off to sketch more of the face. 

After adding some paint, markers, gesso, and slick paint for an outline, I love that I captured the essence of this guy in my 25 minute window. Loose, inquisitive, earthy, my kind of guy, :) For me, if a face looks "face(ish)" I am one step closer to creating faces in my own artistic style rather than seeking perfection of other artists styles. Excellence of Effort is way more important than trying to lock our artistic spirit in a "perfection quest." Let that go...strive for "ISH." 

29 Faces Challenge Day 1

Ayala Art is home of the 29 Faces Challenge and I finally am able to participate this year! Faces fascinate me and if you ask me if I can paint portraits.....nope, but I can paint, draw, sketch, and collage faces, so this challenge is right up my ally! The challenge starts today, hope some of you might join me! 

Little Red Dress Art Journal Page

For the LOVE of a cute dress! Inwardly, I am quite the girly girl but most folks who know me wouldn't know that because I dress rather....Ardithian. I do this for two reasons: 1. I LOVE the weird and whimsical look while still looking nice and 2. I can't wear high heel shoes....ever. Flats don't really work either because I have orthopedic issues and any girl knows who has had to deal with wearing 'safe' shoes, there is nothing girly about them. Hence, I avoid the dresses as well. 

There are times I miss getting all dolled up, but for the most part, I have come to terms with it. That doesn't mean when I see a darling dress that I don't admire it, because I so do. What occurred to me though, is that it really isn't as much about the dress as it is about the person behind the dress. Inwardly, if I am totally ok with dressing the way I do, then yeeeehaw for me! I have accepted my body and its peccadilloes, learned to embrace the style that fits me, and have managed to take on a rather unique taste in shoe wear. Still, what I know today is that it isn't about the dress or the shoes, it's all about how I feel on the inside! 

This journal page served many purposes as well. I wanted to tinker with a pre-prepped page that had a layer of gel medium with ridges. I wanted to try out some different layering styles by using Neocolor II, Water Soluble Graphite, Inks, and Fluid Acrylics. Most of all, I wanted to try out my new slick paint to see if it sticks to other pages when my book is closed overnight. My gut says it will, but I won't know until tomorrow. Using my art journal rather than committing on a canvas is a much better way to try out a few new process so we will see how this goes. 

Although I loved the abstract colors of my initial color glazes, I chose to throw Pyrole Red and Mint Green in the mix. Ultimately I washed out the entire piece with waterproof white ink, and loved that result for a background. The figure was a pure after thought but gave me a great way to test out the slick paint.

 

This page makes me smile and taught me a lot about colors I will use more often. We shall see how the paint holds up tomorrow!  These are more like the shoes I wear every day, they make me happy too, :) 

For The Love Of Table Paper

I am such a fan....make that....obsessed with table paper in an art room. Having paper accessible at all times to sketch, doodle, draw, and design with lines and color is so important to any artist, even the youngest ones. For the past few weeks we have been testing out the best paper to use based on what would last and be durable even through water spills. Newsprint was a big fail and butcher paper was a big win. 

Once the paper has been 'loved on' a good deal, or begins to tear, I change it out and then we begin to rip it up based on colors or patterns. Today, those piles were filled with yummy patterns and designs. This paper creates a wonderful record of what type of lines and styles the kids seem to love, and then we use it to collage with onto canvas. Here is a new piece that I worked on today in the classroom. I love the personality of this piece and it will hang in the administration office (once the flag is corrected, lol). 

Once we start creating with ceramics I might need to adjust the type of paper we are using but for today, the tables are full of yumminess! 

Next week we will be using some of this paper in our art journals as well, can't wait! 

Count Moments Art Journal Page

There are days when all I feel I do is count things....

I count minutes before I must, I mean MUST get out of bed each morning,
I count scoops of coffee so I can get out of bed each morning,
I count numbers of orange cars that pass by, 
I count events that cause me great pause as a chance to learn something,
I count the amount of notifications in that little red box, 
I count dollars and cents and breaths between the dollars and cents, 
and on, and on, and on. 

Counting is something that must be done, must be part of our daily functions because we record things numerically, whether we realize it or not. 

As I sat down this evening to work on my journal, numbers seemed to be all around me and I knew they were calling out to me...counting the minutes before I acknowledged their presence in my world. The pages I chose showcased two of Leger's abstracts, made with geometric and organic lines, full of patterns which, underneath all of that, held the power of numbers, so it was a perfect choice for today. 

I cut, I pasted, I viewed the numbers and what they might mean to me, and I then chose to release control and allow the numbers to reveal their artistic measure, rather than their numeric. What occurred to me was a conversation I had in my head about how artists tend to get stuck on controlling the outcome, counting the steps to get things right, and I knew embracing the freedom of 'record keeping' was the message I was hear to learn today. 

Life is full of moments, beautiful, tragic, graceful, remarkable moments. If I could go back and tell my younger self anything it would be to value the moments of the mundane, for they are what bind the red letter ones together. I will sit with the numbers message this evening, tinker with it, meditate on it, and learn from it. While I do that I will relish in the realization that art journaling created without expectation of "getting it right," is way more powerful than any forced journal page. May I apply this tidbit of living throughout my moments tomorrow. 

For this page I used collage elements, Golden Fluids, Portfolio Oil Pastels, Painters Pens, and Copic Markers. It is part of an altered book I am working through and you can view some of my other journal pages in this series HERE.

Contour Drawing With Shaving Cream

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Say the words "Shaving Cream" to a group of kids and what do you get? TOTAL EXCITEMENT! My 6th graders were introduced to contour lines last week and I knew I wanted to introduce them to contour sketching in real life this week. My choice was to use shaving cream for several reasons: It is tactile, It Is forgiving, and It smells yummy! 

The black plastic 'sketch sheets' are table cloth plastic I purchased from my local fabric store, for less than $2 a yard. The trick to success with this is not giving the students too much shaving cream. About two squirts is all it takes to make a 'thin' layer so that when students make their marks, the black lines show through. They spread the cream with a well loved gift card and then completed their contour sketches with a pointed wooden/plastic stick. 

The main goal of this activity is to teach the students to draw what they see, not what they think they see, which is really challenging for anyone who has never attempted contour sketching. The shaving cream is forgiving, so students can re-spread the cream out, and begin again. When we move into mixed media painting on canvases, they will already have the experience of manipulating a medium with gift card plastic so it preps them ahead of time for that. 

Adapting this lesson is a breeze. Younger students can use their fingers to sketch, practice mark making, and older students can create a much more detailed sketch. If you use Barbasol, the left over shaving cream can be molded into basic shapes and left overnight to dry out. As the moisture evaporates, it leaves a solid type of shape, which fascinates the students. 

(Students can use this process to practice handwriting, spelling, math, you name it!)

Tomorrow we graduate to blind contour sketches.....can't wait!