Face 4

Got my 4th done early today during a bit of downtime and a very strange conversation with an unknown in World of Warcraft. :/

Face 4 is the little cat girl at the bottom, in case you haven't been following along. They are all rather whimsical but that's the mood I have been in lately. I haven't felt like putting forth the effort for realism. I feel like drawing something that will make me smile, or drawing what I feel inside perhaps.

I plan on coloring the piece when I get as many little faces on there as I can, with what media stands to be decided. Check back!

Faces 2 & 3

I know, Face 2 (on the left) looks a lot like Face 1. I had to re-draw it but it is different. I went to paint Face 1 and the paper in my sketch journal did not stand up well, plus I had already over shaded with graphite so it is a muddy mess at the moment, completely destroyed. I am going to try to salvage it, but not tonight and probably not tomorrow.

So, these two ladies are on a watercolor block and once I get a few more faces in there I am going to color and embellish.

They were very therapeutic to draw today and didn't take me long at all I drew them while cooking dinner.

Face #1

I'm off to a fair start. I got my face done today. 28 left to go!
And this is how she evolved.

The shading is off, I'm not happy with it but I got really tired and I think I will let her rest and finish the shading at a later time. I am going to try and fit 29 faces (or as many as I can) on a two page spread in my journal. Wish me luck!

MDS in a Day Planner?

I haven't finished my Book of Days, volume 1 yet. It's actually sitting in the kitchen about 1/3 filled. But I kept missing weeks so I decided to try something a little different  and I have moved on, for now. I have moved my Book of Days, my main Art Journal into a daily planner. I did this because I have gotten pretty good at keeping a daily journal, even if it's just a word to describe my day. But I am BAD at keeping up with my book of days. I really don't know why this is, and I really don't have time to sit down and figure it out. Wisest advise my Muse imparted to me is - Just to do what feels right and good! And so, I did!

Below are the pictures of the evolution of my Multi Day Spread (MDS) for this week, week 1 in a day planner!

 I started with the idea to just do something everyday and also keep up with my normal daily journaling.

 No sparks, no ideas, no plans. I just do what I feel like when I feel like it.

At this point in the week I am not sure this "do what you feel like when you feel like it" is going to work as this page just looks like I bled all over it. : /

And this is week 1 finished. Now, I wouldn't say I have a theme, or that it represents anything. It's just what I felt like. I am not... pleased... No, my inner critic is not pleased with this page. Inner critic says it is a hot mess! But my muse says "It is what it is meant to be. Moving on!"

Ah, and P.S. the "lonely" on the neck of the girl on the right, doesn't really pertain to me actually being lonely. The daily entry reads something like (without quoting) - Hubby is going back to work and I have become used to his presence around the house on a daily basis and his help with the baby, so I expect there is going to be a little lonliness showing up in the future.

So, that's last week. I started this weeks MDS yesterday and normally I wouldn't share as I like to save it for a cohesive blog post once it's finished, but hey! I enjoyed creating this page so much yesterday, the act of laying down the bright colors of paint and coming across the girl in my magazine clippings was just pure therapy, joy, and peace!

So here is what this weeks spread started out like!

Soothing the Soul

Yesterday I worked on something that completely soothes my soul when I do work on it, but something that I don't work on nearly enough!

My Gratitude Journal.

I have not worked in the Gratitude Journal for some time, since April, in fact! I haven't even added to my list since around that time! You can see the last time I worked in my Gratitude Journal here, in my old blog.

Wow! That was a while ago. I always spend a few moments a day thinking of my blessings and what I am thankful for and I always think to myself that I should write some of this down. I don't, of course. I always say I will remember it later, I never do. But there is never a shortage of things I am grateful for, so I guess I had better get to work!

So this is what I completed yesterday...

Lukas' page. I used layers of red and blue acrylic paints and masking tape. This was a really fun background to do work on. Cut the letters from a magazine and used Opaque markers for the lettering. The red bleed a little into the sun and it doesn't want to cover very well but that's ok.

Lukas is my middle child, but he is my sunshine. He is the sweetest and most well behaved boy I know, always an angel. He was born 8 weeks early after a particularly rough pregnancy and didn't get to come home to me for 2 weeks. I am blessed to have him in my life.

 Arianna's page. The baby of the family and totally the trouble child. At 18 months she is my mischief maker. Always into everything she shouldn't be in, but I love her. The purple paper in the bottom left with scribbles on it is her "art". She loves to have her own paper and pens when I am sketching or painting and after writing all over herself she usually gets to the paper eventually! If there is going to be an actual artist in the family, my money is on her!

And lastly, I plopped down with my sketchbook last night while watching TV and this came out. I am particularly proud of it because I am really working on shading and I think it is a pretty good attempt. Maybe I will paint it tomorrow. Maybe not. I may leave it like it is and just do something fun with hair, I have a couple good ideas.

My mind and its magnificent walls

I have been around but I haven't been very active with art of any kind and it makes me a sad person, I think, to not work on art.

Though, I discovered just how clever my mind has been lately at keeping me from starting/completing projects or working in my journal. My craft area has been a wreck for over a month now and I usually just look at the mess and sigh, perhaps I wish I had a maid or could blink and make everything clean again, at the very least I just wish for the energy to get something done. I haven't had a lot of energy lately. But on Monday I woke up with an immense amount of drive to get some things done around the house and that helped, A LOT! I got the kitchen clean with the exception of the pantry and fridge. I also got the dining room sorted out and my craft supplies re-organized in there! Now I have a place to art and can find my things when I need to!

So after all that was done, I was wiped out! So I took my sketch book to bed with me and I intended to play with drawing eyes. Lesson 2 of my Face to Face class, yes, I am still only on lesson 2! But my sketch book sat there for the entirety of the night, every time I saw it my mind came up with SOMETHING new.
These are thoughts that have occupied my brain when thinking about working on eyes...
-You've worked too hard today and you're shaky, why don't you give it a day or two?
-You're OK at eyes, you know how to draw the basics, what do you need to finish that lesson for?
-Eyes are NO FUN to draw, plus you aren't any good at them, just move on. (Notice the conflicting thoughts there?)
-You should print out the pictures of faces but you're almost out of ink, oh well, guess we'll do it another day.

So, somewhere along the way I decided to bite the bullet and work on some eyes. I snapped some pictures with my phone camera of the faces (eyes) I had looked up on the computer so that I could draw while Anthony played his game and off to drawing I went.

First was a worksheet on which I was supposed to draw three sets of eyes in boxes, I started on the first set reluctantly but by the time I finished them I was having fun! Imagine that, FUN! I easily finished the last two sets and I realized they weren't perfect, far from, but I was OK with that, I just wanted to draw more eyes!


Here's my worksheet.

So, then, I got out my phone and worked on drawing a pretty set of Asian eyes. Unfortunately this was the only set I finished before bed, but I was looking forward to drawing more, and I did, I finished off the exercise yesterday and am looking forward to moving into Lesson 3!


Working on getting comfortable drawing from pictures.


Sans eyelashes, eyebrows and most shading,
just trying to get to where I shut my mind down and draw what I see.