During the second week of working through the 29 Faces challenge, I created a series of sketches in one of my smashbook art journals (the pages are prepped with clear gesso already, most of them).  This was one of the ones I sketched but hadn’t painted out…until now.

She is just charcoal pencil and white gesso, with colored pencil.

I very nearly left her black and grey, but she needed just a bit of color to her…and it really added to her appeal.

Just fyi, I created a little flip through video of my 29 faces expedition...although keep in mind, there are many more than just twenty-nine faces for me this month…

 

Thanks for coming along.  🙂

Didn’t expect this today, did ya?

But I love this…

Faces 23? to … uhm, 31… 🙂

This one is an old sketch on a 4in x 6in postcard that I did forever ago.  I decided now was a good time to finish her.

This one was actually fun and is more minimal than you think.  This is a spread that started as smears and blots of paint from other work.  All I did was add in the facial features and a tiny bit of shading…the ‘skin’ was already there.

This is a crop of my Equinox spread.

This is the face of the first full mermaid I have done in a long time.  There is a story about this one; I’ll tell you some other time.

This is a second mermaid close-up.  On canvas board.  Oh, there will be many many more mermaids coming…

Sketch book playing, creating shapes without sketching them in first.

This is part of my Full Moon Spread…which is coming this Monday…

Playing with paint, minimal palette, in my 8in x 5in journal.

This is my truly minimal piece today.  Gesso and charcoal.  A little color on the lips.  Indigo for a tiny bit of shading on the face and in the hair.

Numbers 16 to 22

I had a bit of a brain freeze…which means my hands froze as well…no painting after about Wednesday…and then there was a *click* and everything was fine again…but none of those faces are posted here as I have not scanned them all in yet.

And please note–I post a lot of unfinished faces and in process faces in instagram, (among other things) if you’d like to see what goes on there…

First, we have the very first ACEO face that I have ever done…working that small is definitely an experience.  I do think I will keep it up to see what else comes up with it.

Her nose…now matter what I did, her nose kept wanting to do its own thing…and I had to finally just stop and let it be what it wanted to be…or at least be where it was…and move on …before I drove myself crazy.

 

To be honest, when I laid down the basic sketch, I hated this piece…but I know I know I know, if I work with it and I let it go where it wants, I will be happy…or at least in some cases happier…this one I am happy with at the end of the day…

This one was inspired by the New Moon…it says, etched into the gel medium: Shine Your Light…

This piece is actually 18 inches x 24 inches…and the face is only a part of that…

This is a 6in x 12in canvas…I have a stack of four –now three, I guess, where I had used an anatomical heart stencil…and once I had the heart stencil on and set on these canvases…I had brain freeze…and then one day last week, I grabbed one of them, grabbed my charcoal pencil, scribbled on a face…and let her emerge from there…and here she is…she is called My Heart Still Beats…

This is yet another refurbished She Who persona…She Who Breathes Life Into My Soul…

There are more faces coming…please stand by…

🙂

Faces #7 to #13

There is just no way I can create a piece and post it the same day–not without going completely crazy…so I will post randomly…when I have enough to make it worth my while.

I would love to say, hey, I am creating one face a day–but … nope…I have three kids…two dogs who are both worse than the kids…and a gerbil all alone in his task of taking over the world (long story…Pinky lost his Brain…and seems much happier…anyway…)

I’ll get there when I get there.  🙂

Today–I do have something to share…and in no particular order …

Face #1:

6in x 4-1/2in wood panel

Face #2:

in 3in x 5in journal

Face #3

in 3in x 5in journal

Face #4

in 3in x 5in journal

Face #5

roughly 10in x 7in smash book

Face #6

5in x 8in Dylusions journal

I have one more face drying at the moment…

I don’t do just one face at a time.

I sketch one face, usually using charcoal, water-soluble graphite or stabilo marks all pencl…then I use gesso or white paint to use the mark marker to create shadows and depth as I fill in the face and hair  as if preparing the surface before I start really painting–which I guess is really what I am doing.

While that is drying, I might work on creating another background…or maybe I’ll sketch another face.  Some days I might just prep pages…or maybe just sketch faces.  I do try not to do the gesso layer on more than one face at a time…because sometimes I get antsy/bored/whatever and over-paint the marks and lose too much of what I meant to keep.

Color can be added in many different ways.  Many of the above pieces were done over clear gesso…so there was a lot of colored pencil going on…because I have found I love colored pencil and clear gesso’s relationship with one another.

I also use a variety of paints, oil pastels, Caran D’Ache water-soluble crayons…to name what I have used in the past few days…

I try to work on at least two faces at a time, so I have a good reason to leave one alone to dry…otherwise, I will overwork a piece and overwork it…and get fed up…and then…collage over it…which sort of what happened with face # 6…she started out as something COMPLETELY different… I was trying out a new style…and found out…after about 2 days of trying to make it work…that that is not my style…so…collage covers a lot more permanently than gesso…

That’s my story and I am sticking to it…

More faces soon…

I really really want to say ERM MER GERD here…so I will…

This month–and yes, I understand we are only THREE days into it right now–this month has been SO SUPER BUSY…and not always in a good way…

I totally forgot–with everything else going on that I meant to participate in Ayala Art‘s 29 Faces in September challenge…

Luckily, this is a pretty flexible challenge…within reason, I am sure.  Joining late is ok…so thankfully–I am only a couple of days late.

Yes–but…do I have anything to show for myself today?

Luckily–art journalling and making faces is my thang lately…so I do have something to show…even if I did not make this one today…

Since I did this one outside of the scope of this challenge, I am not counting her towards my 29 faces…but she is something to look at until I have something to show for right now…

Come along and join us.

What is the worst thing that can happen?

If you hate it–you stop doing it.

If you love it–you KEEP doing it.  🙂

I hope to see your work there…