Monday, November 21, 2011

AJ Monday

Our AJ challenge this week over at Stamping Bella was to draw a face. Now I am no portrait artist but I have been practicing a lot this month and I am getting better at it. I also must say that taking a couple of Suzi Blu's online classes have helped to build my confidence.


I drew her roughly, VERY roughly with pencils first. One thing I have learned is that I am more of a sketchy drawer and cannot get that line correct the first time so I sort of sketch with lots of lines. Then I erased some of the extra lines and watercoloured her face and the background lightly. Now the best part...adding some pencil crayon....AHH the control of the pencil crayon after the uneasy looseness of the pencil and watercolour. I started to gain confidence at this point. Then I used a foam stamp with acrylic paint for the flowers building some layers and softness. And of course I used bright happy colours to represent my mood at the time....a new 'do' will do that to me (don't worry...I'll update my profile pic shortly)

That's it....I couldn't even bring myself to journal anything on it! And speaking of journalling, I have had a couple questions on how I do my journalling. It's no big deal really, NO it is not a stencil, not computer generated, no die cuts....here is how I do it...and it turns out different every time depending on where I thicken my lines.

Step 1: just write (or print) what you want to say

Step 2: I use a black Pitt Big Brush pen to start thickening the lines on the left side

Step 3: Start filling in those thicker lines and wherever else you want! Again, I am using my Pitt Big brush but you can also use a Sharpie, pen and ink caligraphy set, whatever. Just be careful that what you use is not going to react with water if you want to seal your work with mod podge or PPA.

Step 4: this is my fun part and I add some shading. Lately I have been addicted to one of my Golden Fluid Acrylic paints. It is such a beautiful rich gold and really opaque. If I have time and/or desire I might even make those words pop more by adding another 'strip' of shading along the gold lines with a browinsh shade of pitt pen and while it is still wet, just soften it off with my finger.
So that's it, my attempt at drawing a face and my journal style. Hope you enjoyed it. Next week our Bellarific AJ challenge comes directly from Emily's daughter Jayden....YAY Jayden...I miss you sweetie....she wants to see hearts on your page. I think I can do that! Stay tooned!

And other stuff....
  1. if you got a 'sneak peek' at my CPS challenge all I can say is OOPS! It wasn't supposed to be posted until NEXT Sunday.
  2. our theme this Friday at Blogabella is FREE FORM! Strutt your stuff and show us what you got.
  3. Emily snuck in a new 'mini' release not even telling us babes about it! How is that for secrecy! My order is going in tonight....go check it out here
  4. I'm signing off because I'm going shopping! (then sleeping...the time change is KILLING ME!)
later, Linda.

7 comments:

Bren said...

You know Linda?... You never disapoint. This is FABULOUS work indeed. You certainly inspire me and I'm sure many others.

Linda Carson said...

Oh that's beautiful! You did a fantastic job on the face! WOW! Love the bright colors!

CraftyViolet said...

You keep saying you are not an artist but I disagree. You are most definitely an artist. Love it!

Thanks for the tutorial on the lettering. I shall give it a try as I don't like my plain old handwriting at all.

Violet

Tracy Valure said...

Linda, your face turned out so beautiful! Love the details and shading in it. You're a true artist! All of it is just beautiful!!!

Hugs,
Tracy Valure

Michele (mitchygitchygoomy) said...

Linda, I don't know how you do it ALL, but I love it!! Your colors are so vibrant and cheery and I LOVE the color in your portrait's eyes. I do have a question for you: A while back you posted some of your faves for a basic copic color startup. After a few years, are you still using these as your "go to" greens, yellows, browns, reds, blues etc. If not, could you pretty please post an update?!! I want to order for Christmas and since you are on my copic pedestal, I just wanted to have your faves in my stash!! Thanks, and I can't wait to see your new doo!! Michele

Michele (mitchygitchygoomy) said...

Ah, the lovely Linda sporting her new doo. Love the new portrait. Suits you and makes a lovely soft frame for your face.

paula tracy williamson said...

This is your haircut!!

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