'lil' ~ acrylic paint, fabric, and marks all pencil in old book, 4" x 6"

i started out last week painting acrylic faces, but became so frustrated that i switched to doodling simple girls in pencil.... one day i drew a puffy skirt (like lil's wearing), and then i was off drawing folk art girls inspired by laurie meseroll.  i dearly love laurie's paintings...

'belle' ~ acrylic paint, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

before that, endless messing...   i was unhappy with the right side of belle's face so i covered it up with white paint, which was much better.   also i tried *many* variations of lips before finding one she liked!

'madge'~ acrylic paint, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

next i painted madge, and she gave me no trouble...  as with the other faces, i used my fingers, a palette knife, and scrubber brushes.   i really *love* scrubber brushes.  thank you lisa for telling me about them!

untitled ~ acrylic paint and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

this was the last face i painted before i went off on the folk girl track;  i got completely stuck on this one;  just could not find my way to a happy ending.  so, after a ridiculous number of layers i gave up.  notice i tried The White Paint On One Side Of The Face Trick to no avail...   if she weren't on a fragile old book page i'd scrape a lot of the paint off and see what showed up, but since i can't, i'll leave her as is. 

pencil and colored pencil in charvin journal, 5 1/2" x 8"

i distract myself frequently with colored pencil drawings - it's fun, it's easy!   some of these drawings were inspired by katherine dunn's book 'creative illustration workshop'.   i'm crazy about that book...

 

pencil and colored pencil on part of page in charvin journal

pencil and colored pencil in charvin journal

me talking to acrylic paint, ha ha...

pencil and colored pencil in moleskine weekly planner

 bits from my moleskine weekly planner...    since the space for each day is about 3" x 5", i usually draw small so i can fit a bunch in.   the girl on the far right is a little over 1" tall;  if you're a small face drawer you know that getting the lips right can be challenging.   you need a very sharp point on your colored pencil... 

tuscan red and poppy red verithin pencils

i now use prismacolor verithin pencils for tiny lips...  they're hard and they keep a sharp point for a long time...  i *need* deco pink and orange!

'delia' ~ acrylic paint, cloth, oil pastels, and graphite in old book, 4" x 6"

it's been great to draw legs and arms at crazy angles; to lay down the task of learning how to draw figures more realistically.   i'm not sure i'll pick it up again...

'cornelia' ~ acrylic paint on 100# bristol

i went away on a big adventure for a month, and now i'm back...   i drew every day while i was gone, but by the time i got home i really wanted to paint messy.  so that's what i did with 'cornelia' and 'loraine'... 

'loraine' ~ acrylic paint on 100# bristol

i started painting 'cornelia' with my fingers, and finished 'loraine' with them.  i think that more than anything else i've done with acrylics, it helped me *know* just how much time i have before the paint gets tacky and stops moving easily.  it literally and figuratively gave me a 'feeling' for them. 

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

mostly i've been drawing figures - learning how to draw them.  it's not easy...  i seem to have no intuitive know-how on this matter!

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

but little by little i'm beginning to see how the shoulder falls or the foot sits...

pencil and watercolor pencils in stillman and birn 'gamma'

it's not as agonizingly difficult as it used to be.

pencil and watercolors in pentalic bamboo journal

and i don't want to draw perfect figures, but i do want to know how the parts of the body relate to one another.

pencil and watercolor pencils in stillman and birn 'gamma'

i've tried learning from books and that goes nowhere.  practice seems the only answer.

my new favorite drawing thing is a 2014 moleskine daily calendar/planner.   i love this! 

these two pages are last week... for someone who likes to draw small, it's perfect.  :)

* * * 

“Do anything, but let it produce joy. Do anything, but let it yield ecstasy.” 

~ Henry Miller

solstice heart ~ colored pencil and pencil on a shell from the outer banks of NC

on this beautiful solstice day i want to wish you a happy solstice - or a merry christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!

i'm still getting out when the weather's warmish, wandering and visiting trees.  this is the tree i sat beside today,

drawing, listening to music, dancing - going barefoot!  my favorite things!

me

i wish you the most joyous of holidays!  and for those of us in the northern hemisphere, here's to more light!

'madame butterfly' ~ acrylic paint, soft pastels, mica, and caran d'ache neocolor II crayons on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

a few weeks ago i took the plunge and ordered enough acrylic paints  to give them a fair try...

acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

this was my first painting.  i figured the writing could only help...  :)

 acrylic paint in stillman and birn gamma

hours later, this was my third.   i think i quit for the day after this - exhausted from the effort of learning!

i ordered all heavy body paints, mostly sennelier.   these are the 'face colors': white, titan buff, flesh ochre (i am unable to resist an ochre), yellow ochre, raw sienna, brown ochre, raw umber and payne's gray.

and this is the masterson's sta-wet palette (i got the small 'handy palette') that i learned about from gillian.   it makes *all* the difference - you can paint with no worries about your paint drying out.   most of the paint on the palette in the pic has been there for days.  flesh ochre and raw sienna dry out overnight no matter how moist i keep the sponge, so i only put tiny amounts of them out at a time.   the palette 'paper' seems to be indestructible.  i use a palette knife to scrape any dry paint off, and then put fresh down.   it took a while to figure out how wet to get the sponge - too wet and your paint gets watery, too dry and it starts to dry out.  with a little practice, you can figure this out, though.   i add a little water to the sponge every day, which seems to work best once you've got your paints on there.

'short story' ~ acrylic paint, caran d'ache neocolor II crayons, and soft pastels on canvas panel, 4" x 6"

i'm having a blast with them...  it's so easy to put down a bunch of layers and play.  i like that i have to work way faster than with oils or watercolors.  i think it helps keep things spontaneous.   and if i don't like what i've done, i cover it up.

now i just need more colors...  :)

after balthus ~ acrylic on canvas

the holes on the left are

for this little notebook.

it's a 'memo book' made by meade - 4 1/2" x 7" on the outside.  so i can have a book to stick oil - and all  kinds of - paintings in, on different kinds of paper.  the paper sticking out beyond the cover is the kind that comes in shoe boxes.

as much as i like the 'book boxes' that i made for loose paintings, there's nothing like flipping through a book of paintings. (it seems  ; ) 

p.s.  i switched to the mosaic template but the sidebar was way messed up,  so i've gone to a template similar to the old one.  but different, ha!   onward...

* * *

“As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said and done? A painter has only one language.” 

~ Pablo Picasso 

ink, colored pencil and graphite in softcover pocket moleskine.  stamp carved and given to me by another crazy diamond...

a couple of weeks ago my sister sent me a photo of a small memorial plaque (on top of a fencepost, i think).   i slowly read the writing, and i *thought* it said "shrine on you crazy diamond".  whoa! the thought of someone telling another person to "shrine on'' made all of my cells emit a burst of joy light!!     then i reread it and saw that it said "shine on you crazy diamond".   hunh!   well, that was a little disappointing, but i decided that it really didn't matter because for a brief moment the message for me was 'shrine on'...

i'm going to make a few changes on my blog; try them out and see how they feel...  i've been blogging for five years, with the layout pretty much looking like it does now the entire time - mostly because one of my least favorite things to do is sit in front of the computer and fiddle with font sizes, colors and layouts.  bah!   but i'm feeling like i want/need to make some changes.  shake things up a bit.

i'm going to change the format (template?) so that when you come here it'll look like a mosaic, with the newest post in the top left corner - you just click on that image.  if you don't like that format, you can click on the tab that says 'classic' and the blog goes back to (more or less) looking like it does now.  ha!  this is in theory anyway!   in the mosaic format, if you hover the cursor on the right edge of the screen, the clickable stuff in the sidebar pops up.

i'm going to try more short posts with less talking, but i'll still pass on helpful info that comes my way.  also more variety - not just paintings, but other stuff i doodle/draw.   make it more representative of what i'm up to art-wise.

finally, i'm going to go back to replying to comments here on the blog instead of via e-mail, because more and more people don't have e-mail addys associated with their blogger account. 

so, i'll give all of that a whirl.  

ink, watercolors, and colored pencils in softcover pocket moleskine.  stamp carved by the same crazy diamond as above

because i once saw a sign in a window that (i thought) said ''meditation services''.  wow! my mind was reeling with the concept of meditation services for hire!!   then i turned around to read the sign again and saw that it said ''mediation services''.  ohhhhh.... well, that's nice too...

shrine/shine on you crazy diamonds...

: )

'mrs. anna markowski' ~ oil paint on chocolate bar wrapper

* * *

via brain pickings