Capturing Sadness

AEDM Day 11

I added color, experimenting with leaving the face mostly black and white because I like the contrast, and adding abstract watercolor around the edges. I'm not happy with the abstract because you can't push-pull with watercolor like you can with acrylics, so I cut most of that out. It's all learning! I will keep trying until I come up with something I like. 

AEDM Day 7

AEDM Day #4 the Second

AEDM Day #4

Here's #3, the one I didn't complete yesterday. Phew! I put paint to paper and it wasn't so bad. The resistance to it, and the fear of doing it, is the worst part. The solution is to act anyway.  Another to come later. 

November is Art Everyday Month

Thank you to Artsyville for reminding me that it's Art Every Day Month. I was planning to get back into creating this month and this is just what I need to get started. Tonight I had time to do a quick sketch. I'm not living in a place that allows for messy painting right now, so I'm thinking I'll concentrate on pencil and watercolor. I'm a little rusty after not having drawn anything for a long time, and another month-long challenge will get me back into the swing of things. I found some videos on Suzi Blu's website that I look forward to watching, too. Woot! Here we go!

Outstretched

The arm and hand on this one drove me a little bit crazy. They both look a little bit atrophied, but I've worked on them so much, drawn and redrawn them, that I'm done. I'm glad I've challenged myself, but I'm ready to move onto the next challenge. 

June Guy #2

Drawing someone you know is more anxiety producing than drawing someone you don't. It's hard to keep myself from criticizing my work and making excuses for the imperfections. 

June Guy #1

This poem is on my mind today:

The Pickaxe

tear down this house. A hundred thousand new houses can be built from the transparent yellow carnelian buried beneath it, and the only way to get to that is to do the work of demolishing and then digging under the foundations. With that value in hand all the new construction will be done without effort. And anyway, sooner or later this house will fall on its own. The jewel treasure will be uncovered, but it won't be yours then. The buried wealth is your pay for doing the demolition, the pick and shovel work. If you wait and just let it happen, you'd bite your hand and say, "I didn't do as I knew I should have." This is a rented house. You don't own the deed. You have a lease, and you've set up a little shop, where you barely make a living sewing patches on torn clothing. Yet only a few feet underneath are two veins, pure red and bright gold carnelian. Quick! Take the pickaxe and pry the foundation. You've got to quit this seamstress work. What does the patch-sewing mean, you ask. Eating and drinking. The heavy cloak of the body is always getting torn. You patch it with food, and other restless ego-satisfactions. Rip up one board from the shop floor and look into the basement. You'll see two glints in the dirt. ~Rumi

Attempt At a Self-Portrait

I look like a sour puss. I have a big nose, a tiny mouth, and buggy eyes. But the fact that I can draw myself—with glasses, and without anxiety, is massive progress. :-)

29 Faces #27

I used the same model as yesterday, this time with paint. I had actually started this one first, but then I got my new hot press watercolor paper yesterday and wanted to start over. Today I decided to finish the first one that I started on cheap cold press paper. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I'm tired of messing with it. I had to make the hair up in both pictures because it didn't show in the photo I used. Hair is difficult enough without making it up! Ears are always a challenge, too.

One trick I'm learning is to take pictures of my work in progress so that I can then fix all the imperfections that I don't see beforehand. I keep telling myself I want to do that, but then I just want to post it and get it done for the day.

29 Faces #25

Not real crazy about this one. Actually, I painted the face a few months ago (for Fabulous Faces) and added the background today (a day late). It looks more vibrant and interesting in life. 

I'm trying to achieve a particular grungy effect, but haven't found the right substrate to do so, except for on journal (composition book) covers, which of course are not archival. For some reason, I love painting on thin paper glued to thick cardboard. The cheap watercolor paper that I used for this portrait is too absorbent, but the good news is that I finally got a bunch of Arches hot press watercolor paper today, as well as oodles of graphite, both water soluable and none, as well as more watercolors—gouache and Neocolor IIs. 

I don't know what to play with first.

29 Faces #20 and a Guest Face

I added some dark lines to make the figure stand out more, compared to what I originally posted below. It's still not finished.

Today I've been working on the cover for my latest journal. It's unfinished because I'm traveling and I have limited art supplies (as is so often the case in my life right now). I've learned something: Never travel without white paint and/or a white paint pen for pulling stuff to the foreground and adding highlights when things get muddy. I brought a white Souffle gel pen, but it's not working as well as I'd like. The good news is that I ordered a bunch of new art supplies this morning, and I'm getting some gouache, which will be perfect for "pulling," and for traveling. I also ordered three blocks of hot press watercolor paper, which will keep me supplied with difficult-to-find hot press paper for a while. Do so few artists use hot press? I don't understand why cold press is so readily available, and hot press is so rare.

Today I'm sharing a face from a guest. My nearly 13-year-old daughter recently became interested drawing elves. Here's one she drew yesterday.

29 Faces #18

Sketch in progress.

All I had time for yesterday.

29 Faces #17

A quick sketch and an experiment with charcoal on a dark background. 

29 Faces #15

Hair confounds me.

29 Faces #14

A journal page for today.
With a spelling error. Doh.

29 Faces #13

Stabilo and graphite.

I cropped the picture because his hat looks funny.

It looks more like a helmet than a knit hat.

One eye is also bigger than the other.

Imperfections always become more apparent after posting.

29 Faces #12

At first I hated this because I've never used Copic markers before. This was a simple practice picture that I did in preparation to add color to another one that I drew today. I'm still not sure whether I want to use Copics for that one (I don't have many colors), but I added some graphite to this one—much better!

I believe my art is improving in this challenge, after only twelve days. Amazing and happy making! Also saddening. I've spent over twenty years being too afraid to make art, and all it took was someone giving me "permission" to make a face a day, and me doing it. I'm doing it!

29 Faces #11

There's something exciting about number eleven. 

I was going to color this with Copic markers, but I started drawing with pencil and just kept going. I love graphite. That's one thing I've learned in this 29 Faces in May challenge.