Lifebook Lesson 14 - Honoring your (my) Past

This is our week 14 lesson in Lifebook.
I have been an unruly student and have jumped around a bunch in the Lifebook course so you will often see the weeks out of order. Here I just picked the most recent lesson that Tam had posted and ran with it!

I started this page last week, and as you can see below, she went through many processes.


This is how she started out, I was most proud of this drawing because I didn't have to refer to my drawing notebook to be able to complete the face.
Not once did I refer to my learning materials! I am getting it!


Then I watercolored her face and worked on some shading. Shading is always difficult for me but, practice makes perfect right?!? Have to keep after it.
I got her roughly where I wanted her without too much fuss but then she sat for several days, I had lost interest and I didn't know where I was going with her.
Last night I sat down and re-watched Tam's videos and worked along with her and this is where it took me...


It was around here that her hair had changed. I had lost the outline of the short "do" that I had penciled in but it didn't seem to fit anymore. I don't know why she turned out this way but I was lead to it and it feels right.





Voila!
Well, it is missing a fold out piece but I have yet to come up with something creative to do that will not cover my picture.

I am really enjoying the Lifebook course, many of the lessons are really fun and interesting!

Life Book Week 5 - Kylie's Lesson

Kylie's lesson in week 5 of Life Book was both inspirational and so much fun!
It took me 6 days to complete it and I definitely had some moments in which I wanted to rip it apart and throw it away, but I just put it away for the day and picked it up the next.
I tried to make sure that I did something on it everyday.



It started with a tissue paper and scrapbook paper collage, a layer of gesso and a layer of watered down pink acrylic paint, then a watered down layer of brown acrylic paint.


Next, I started working on the background.
These are a selection of words that I feel describe me.

I worked on clothing and color a wee bit and totally messed up my own teeth!


And finally I reached a point where I was pretty happy with my project!


I was not super happy with the paper I used underneath the face, it ended up being a lined scrapbook paper and I hadn't realized that until after I got the photo transfer of the face down, but oh well.
And, while I was burnishing the photo transfer it started to peel! Oh no!
I just went with it though.


After I finished burnishing the transfer I still had to shade it in and add some color and while it is not perfect, I really ended up liking this project! It was a really great learning experience, it inspired me, gave me a hundred more ideas, and I think that photo transfers are going to become one of my most favorite new techniques!

Yes indeedy!

What have I been up to?

Well, for starters, I missed What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, AGAIN!

But I did take a picture for it, I just forgot to post and link it.
This was my desk on Wednesday.

Sorry for the slim pic there, due to living conditions at the moment my desk is situated between my bed and the wall in my bedroom and my bedroom was a wreck!
That's what I get for drawing and painting all day!

Anyhow, what you see here is my art journal and what I had set out preparing to finish the outside flap of my first page for my Life Book 2012 class.
And here it is, all finished!

Can't say I am SUPER pleased with it, I feel if I re-did it I would do better.
But we aren't doing that.

Then I retouched a picture I had drawn for practice on the above project and had started painting. I figured it would be a good opportunity to practice more instead of letting her just sit in my journal, unloved and incomplete.


And lastly I have my finished portrait for my Fabulous Faces Class, week 2.
It is a front view of a face with color.
I had quite a bit of trouble with painting her. I took some advice off the forums and gesso-ed my journal (a simple hardbound sketchbook) page with a credit card and let it dry before I started drawing her. I LOVED the surface for drawing and I think it will be great for painting, it was just something I wasn't used to and it really showed.
I found that too much water removed color from my picture so it went back and forth for a long while, color, apply too much water, wipe all color away, start over.
Sigh.
Eventually I got tired of painting her and let her be, then moved on to shading. I really wanted her to be turning away from the light so that's what I was shooting for.
Shading is difficult for me still.


And lastly, I have been taking my time with my Draw Happy class by Jane Davenport.
It's really a cute class and I have been having fun with it. Right now my homework is to create a tool page, which I am excited about but haven't had time to set up.

Life Book Week 1 - Intimidation and Battling the Inner Critic, and yet...

I am almost finished with my page for week 1 of Life Book!

All that is left is to finish the outside flap with a picture of myself and some doodling. And I have to wait to print the picture because I am out of ink in my printer and I am dreading venturing out to Walmart to get more because I hate Walmart.
: /

Really, I am pleased with my progress, and yet I still feel like it is far from good.

So, from start to finish, here is my process...


This is my list of my happy-making-positive-qualities-that-make-me-me.
Doodled in my art journal opposite my first graphite portrait
(yeah, that's not need to know information but I am in a rambly mood)
I wrote the list and then re-worked it several times over the course of a day.


This is the beginning of my girl.


Here it is almost finished but I forgot a couple small things.

This side is complete now, I think.
Like I said, I still have the flap to do but that waits for a picture.

Posting my work on the Life Book forums is really daunting, everyone's work is so awesome, and my mistakes SCREAM at me. I considered starting over and tossing this one, but I came to my senses and decided that this page and all others will be fun to look back on in a year when I have hopefully improved.

I, for one, can NOT wait for the week where we work on our inner critic. Mine is schizophrenic, it bounces between "Heyyyyy, you can draw!" to "But that's far from good enough to share with anyone!"

Today is turning out to be not such a great day for me, but I suspected that it wouldn't be this morning when I was still awake at 4am due to leg pain. I will just work through it, maybe draw a new girl or two for practice and wait for miss Jane Davenport to contact me regarding my Draw Happy class that my mom got for me for my birthday. Yes, I get to play with it now! :P

Happy New Year!

Yesterday I acquired my most prized possessions thus far in my art making journey, Watercolor Crayons and Watercolor Pencils!
I know I didn't need both, but I got both and I am sooo happy I did.
The pencils were very inexpensive but came in a larger color choice than my crayons and both are just so fun to play with!
And this is what happens when I played on a previously Zentangled page with crayons...

This piece is not finished, I am going to do another Zentangle on the left in the shape of an A and an M, you can see them if you look close! But, before Christmas I was waiting for my new pens and my book to help me finish this. Now, I am waiting for the mood to take me.

And then, I just HAD to share a lil bit!
I joined Tamara Laporte's Life Book for 2012 and today it opened up!
We are working on our first project and since my hubby just signed me up the day before yesterday and I didn't realize I was going to need watercolor paper. I have been watercoloring with my watercolor paints in my journal and thought I would just put our projects in my journal... nope!
Gonna make my own book!
So I have to go get watercolor paper tomorrow or the next day.
Anyhow, so I was practicing the 3/4 face in my journal and this was my first attempt at drawing a face!

Yeah, she isn't perfect, far from, in fact.
But, I am pretty happy with my very first attempt, I didn't think I could do it!
And I can't wait to give the project a go tomorrow after I hunt down watercolor paper because watercoloring in a sketch journal is a baaaaaad idea!!

I also have the class Fabulous Faces to work on still, I spent very litter time on it yesterday and will probably not spend much time on it today either, but I will get to it I'm sure!