'lulu' ~ watercolors, gouache, acrylic paint, oil pastels and matte gel medium on collaged paper, 4" x 6"

i've been having a good time painting on collaged paper...  it's great to let the paper tell me what to draw/paint.   i take my glasses off, hold the (collaged) paper at arms length and see what shows up. if i don't see anything i squint either harder or looser!

 

'sir edgar and lady elaine' ~ all of these pieces have the same ingredients as 'lulu'

sir edgar and lady elaine (of the magenta branch of intercessors) are headed out. sir edgar appears to be in charge, but don't let appearances fool you...

a nameless white intercessor...  

on all of these pieces i used cream or white oil pastel for the skin. this may be my favorite way to do skin...   one thing that people have asked is how i get the oil pastels into small places;  i use a blending stump to push them around, or i use a white prismacolor pencil in very tiny spots.

the piece i'm working on now...  i've just put white oil pastel down for her skin.  i so love the way it looks, as is.  sometimes i just wanna stop there.  the bird is under a layer of gel medium.  i painted him last night but couldn't see anywhere interesting to go with him (within my skill level, lol), so i decided to make him a layer.  somehow or other the girl showed up after i did that.  (i may have been squinting just right)

if you've been coming here for a while you know that i stopped using acrylic paint a while ago, yet here i am listing it as an ingredient again!   i decided to switch back to white acrylic because  i just don't like the smell of casein paint.  so i bought the blick white acrylic, which i really like.  it's very thick.  the bleached sand was leftover from my acrylic days...   they're good for covering stuff up...

 

'adele' ~ colored pencil and graphite in pocket moleskine

i drew adele this morning.  as you can see, she and lulu have the same kind of hair and shape of head.  and they both have flowers in their hair!  maybe lulu's her crazy older sister...

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"The art student should be doggedly persistent.  If things don't go well in a given practice session, s/he should know that the best of artists have had many such sessions. But, the remarkable thing about going through a disheartening session is that the student is very often on the threshold of marvelous discovery."

~ Jack Hamm, 'Drawing the Head and Figure'