Back to Your Roots

When you take an art class, as I did with Dina Wakley's face painting class, you are learning a technique. It has steps, and a certain order. As you experiment later on your own, you tweak the steps, and tweak again. Sometimes you tweak so much you get away from the original method. I like to go back to the original instructions, re-visit them a bit, to remind me of how it all began. Here's a face I did in her initial outlining method.

The background is a bit busy, and of course you can see so much of it when it's just an outline. I like this one. It's simple, proportional, and still has a bit of the personality that I'm seeing in my faces. This takes it back to the simplest of elements.

Happier Friday Faces

Now that you've seen a few Fridays' worth of faces, what do you think? I'm certainly trying different things. I've learned how to make them happier. They're not necessarily attractive, but I think they have personality. 

One other thing you may notice is that occasionally they seem to be wearing makeup. You may not think that's so odd, but for me, I just don't wear makeup that often. It's never been my thing. Look at this face, though. She seems to have a little bit of eye shadow, and she is certainly wearing lipstick. Maybe I'm living vicariously through these faces. I'm enjoying putting the makeup on the girls.

Not sure what that is above her head. I'm thinking I started another face, flipped the page around, and started again. Well, that's what experimenting is all about!

A Simple Bracelet

Sometimes going simple makes a stunning piece of art. I made this bracelet using colored freshwater pearls. I used a shiny silver magnetic clasp that stands out nicely. When I put it on, I give it a couple of twists so the strands twist together.

Different Skin Tones

In an effort to try out darker skin tones, I give you these faces.

All I can say is, ick. The ick color of her face above is accentuated by the weird background color as well. Oh well, I tried.

This one is a little better, but I don't know why her neck is colored so differently. I do like how I did the shading, though. The cheeks are a lighter color that the face. I like that rather than relying on shades of black to make shadow. I'm not sure if there are pupils in her eyes, but I do like the effect.

Faces Inspired by . . .

Have you been to outdoor shows where an artist is painting people's portraits? They are set up with an easel, their paints or pens, and someone sits in the chair across for them for a bit to have their portrait done. That artist is an amazing artist -- but he still needs something in front of him to inspire him and get him going. Try painting a face from memory. It's tough. It's hard to get the proportions right, the expression just so. But try it again with a picture in front of you, and it's so much easier. In my face painting practice, I've used magazine pictures (usually ads; invest in a Vogue or other fashion magazine, and you'll have tons to choose from), other artists' books or blogs, and of course, the new standby, Pinterest.

As I've said earlier, these paintings are not to be sold. They are practice. So if I am inspired by an artist, or I outright copy that artist's picture, it's just for me to practice. I am publicly putting my paintings on my blog, but I will tell you if I've copied another artist for practice. I don't think that artist will think for a minute that I am profiting from his or her work.

This first one came from an artist's website. She's wearing a big hat. I don't know, I think mine kind of looks like hair. I think it's very Bride of Frankenstein-like. I like this next one because it wasn't as detailed as the ones I've done, and it didn't rely on hair for beauty or interest. I think it's someone wearing a hoodie. This also was inspired by another artist.

Artistic --- shoes?

As I mentioned in my earlier post about the Continuum gallery that I helped with, the admission to the opening night was a new pair of children's shoes. The shoes were given to a local group that provides education and afterschool programs. Another part of the charity was an artistic shoe auction. Artists painted and decorated new sneakers then they were auctioned to the highest bidder. Here are a few photos of their amazing creations.