All my faces together !

I first want to thank the beautiful people that wish me well and tell me to go for it! It means so much to me having people who believe in me. I must admit that last night it made me a bit nervous that I had actually written down what I want to do for everyone to see. It's so much easier to keep it for yourself. Because then, if you fail, no one knows. But it's also much easier then to give up on it. Now I have made a commitment to try my best and go for it, and it makes it so much more real. I really HAVE to do it now. It makes me nervous and jittery and excited all at the same time.

I also made a commitment to myself about this blog. I am going to post at least three times a week, and every week I will be sharing with you an artist that I admire or who inspires me. There are so many wonderful artists out there, and sometimes I get so enthusiastic about someone that I want to share it. But alas, my family is not really in to art. So I'll share it with you.

Here's a compilation of all the faces I did last month:

And here are the faces I did in the February challenge:

Actually, I'm impressed! It's amazing how much work you get done when you set your mind to it.

That's it for today. I'm off now to explore Leonie's Goddess Circle ...

Hope you all have a wonderful, restful weekend!

Day 31: last face!

I finally had time to paint today! My last face is again a girl with a very weird hairdo. I love painting these girls. You never know what's coming out of the drips. I'm sure I'll be making lots more of these.

Sooo, the challenge is officially over now. I'm kinda sad about it. And at the same time, I can't wait to go on  with all different projects I have planned. This challenge has been very good for me. It forced me to create every day, I have been trying things I've never done before, I had to find quick-fix solutions to problems in order to be able to post my daily face, it got me out of the creative slump I was in, and, best of all: I had the chance to connect with so many different creative people. I discovered so many wonderful artists, I am full of ideas I want to try out, and it just makes me happy to be part of this big online community willing to help eachother, encourage eachother and share with eachother.

And so, like I said, I have big plans. I have decided to try and make a living out of this. Just writing it like that makes me feel like "oh no, I'll never be able to do this, what am I thinking .."
It's what I've been wanting to do since I took a break from work in 2008 to take care of the children. But something always got in the way. Most of all my own thinking: fear of making myself look ridiculous, fear of not being good enough, fear of finding no one who would be interested in what I was doing, and also: not knowing how or where to start. I sold some stuff on craft markets, and some through my website, but as soon as I entered a competition or got in contact with more "serious" artists (read: with an official art education), I faced rejection. Which just fueled my fear of making a fool of myself by trying to take it further.

But now I'm thinking: to hell with it! I believe there is a market for my stuff. I believe I can make a go of it. And I'm gonna try my hardest to get there! This challenge has taught me to tackle my fears, to just step on top of them and go where I want and need to go.

Being in Australia also helps. There is way more attention for art in this country. Every little town has its art gallery. There are so many craft markets and communities for artists.

Thanks to Sandra, I found out about BrisStyle, an association of Australian artists, crafters and designers from Brisbane and surroundings. They have monthly meetings and a whole bunch of craft markets to take part in. So I joined them.

Thanks to Geri, who is always incredibly generous with all the knowledge she has, I am starting to think about selling my stuff online. Via E-bay or Etsy or RedBubble or something else.

But first I signed up for a business workshop with Leonie Dawson, starting tomorrow. I am going to be a "Business Goddess"! Sounds impressing eh!? She has a free introductory course too. Go check it out!

Anyway: before I forget it: here is my face: done in acrylics, inks and watersoluble pencils on a 20x20cm canvas. I might write a quote on her but I'm not sure yet.

 This is what I started with. Actually, at this point I could only "see" the hair ...

Thanks so much to all of you who take the time to come here and leave comments. Also a big thank you to all my (almost 50!) followers! I feel blessed that so many people show their appreciation  for my work, and it encourages me to try and take it further. And last but not least: a big thank you to Ayala for hosting this challenge. For all the reasons I've mentioned above.

I hope the end of this challenge doesn't mean the end of you visiting here ;-) I have set myself the challenge to post at least three times a week.

I'll be back tomorrow with a compilation of all the faces I have done.

See you then! Hugs, denthe

Day 30: almost done!

I've seen a lot of particpants who have already finished the challenge. Me, I just keep going ;-)
I took my 2 spare days, which means today's face is only my 28th. So tomorrow will be the finish!

Had very little time today, so I made another long-necked girl in markers. I hope tomorrow I'll be able to paint again.

Here she is, done in markers and pan pastels, with lyrics from Damien Rice:

Thanks for visiting and for all your lovely comments. I love each and every one of them!
See you tomorrow for my last face!

Day 29: Little Red Riding Hood

I am in love with the poem "Little Red Riding Hood" by Christina Reihill.

I don't know why, I don't even know what it means. But it just gives me shivers when I read it. Which is what a good poem should do I think.

I love using poetry and quotes in my work. The combination of words and images can be so powerful.

Usually, I just draw or paint something, and then I look through my endless supply of quotes and poems and lyrics, until I find something that I think fits the image perfectly.

For this poem I worked the other way around. I don't know why, but everytime I read it I see the image of a young, sad, disheveled girl before me. So that's what I drew.

I scanned the graphite drawing, and added the background and words in Photoshop.

Here she is:

About my charcoal-drawing yesterday: following Natasha's advice I sealed her.

Guess she won't be disappearing out of my journal in the near future ;-)

Day 28: challenge

Ayala created a challenge within the challenge. And that is to do or use something that you haven't yet done or don't use very much.

I didn't have to think too long about what that is for me ....

Charcoal.

I've been wanting to try out making a charcoalsketch on top of a coloured background for a while now. But for some reason, I didn't do it yet. Probably because of my dislike for charcoal.

So I thought today's the day! If I don't do it now, it may never get done. "Vooruit met de geit" as they say in Dutch (which means something like: take the bull with the horns and go for it"...)

I always have pages in my sketchbook where I use up al of my leftover paint. So I took one of these pages, made the form of a face, and went over it with white charcoal. Then I took out my black charcoal pencil. Some of you might say that charcoal pencils are not like the real thing. I don't mind. I hate all that black smudge on my fingers. So I use pencils.

Believe me, they smear as much as "normal" charcoal....

There were some things to get used to.

First of all: charcoal pencil is not like graphite. Meaning: softening the pencilstrokes with your fingers is not done. At least: not if you don't want to smear everything around it too.
It's hard to make a subtle shadow. Charcoal is VERY black....
If you use a blender stump you can't use it for anything else. Unless you clean it of course.
You need a special kneadable eraser for it (which I don't have, since I'm not such a huge fan of charcoal).
If you blend it on top of white charcoal, you get, well ... , grey. Which I should have known of course. And I really don't like grey ...
When I was finished with her eyes, the bottom half of her face was (almost) gone. That is because all the charcoal of her face was sticking on my hand...
And on the rest of the page ...
And on the  table I was working on ...
And on the sleeve of my jumper ....
I didn't work on the background anymore,  for fear of smudging her or making her disappear altogether.
I think she will disappear gradually out of my journal. So I didn't take any risk and scanned her right after finishing her.
Then I had to clean the scanner ...

Let me just say: I still don't like charcoal ...

I probably did all kinds of things wrong. Using it in the wrong way, as if it is a pencil. Which it isn't, really.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind getting my hands dirty. I paint a lot with my fingers and spray paint all over my workplace. But I do have a problem with the black dust from charcoal.

And also: I really like what some people create with charcoal. For instance Gretchen, one of the participants in this challenge. That's one of the reasons I wanted to try it out. But I guess it's just not for me.

Glad I finally tried it though ;-)

Here she is: done entirely with white and black charcoal. She looks a bit apprehensive. Probably not looking forward to disappearing in the near future ...

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow!

Day 27: Life's as kind as you let it be

I think this is the first time since the challenge started that it's not almost midnight when I post my face...

She started as a drawing in my journal a while ago (in that week that almost everything I touched turned out wrong ...). I was working on a small canvas and had some acrylics leftover. Since I hate wasting paint, I figured I could just as well try to paint her face with the leftover paint.

Wrong.

I was in a hurry, didn't feel like spending much time on her, she was in my cheap journal that doesn't take paint too well, and it showed. It really showed. In fact, she was so blotchy that I almost tore the page out of my journal.

But then I didn't. Actually, I never do. I just paint over it. But for some reason, I left her alone.

Until 2 days ago. I just bought 2 white charcoal pencils, and was trying them out, browsing through my journal. When I saw her, I started going over her face with the white charcoal. And see! The blotches more or less disappeared! While the color of the acrylics still came through. Another accidental happy discovery!

I went over the shadows again with black charcoal (finally getting over my distaste for charcoal. Thanks to this challenge I might add. I've seen some wonderful faces done with charcoal). Gave her a bit of blush with a red pencil, and that's it!

Today I finished the background with watercolour crayons and oil pastels, and did her hat with Inktense pencils.

And then I scanned her and played in Photoshop. Made a brush of a quote from Bukowski and played around with it.

It was good fun!

So, now I hope I'll be able to visit some more blogs tonight. Thank you all for paying a visit, and thanks so much for your lovely comments. As always: it's greatly appreciated!

Day 26: 2nd day off!

Okay, I'll have to take my second spare day today. We were late getting back from dinner with friends, and my face wasn't finished, and I don't feel like finishing it now.

I'm diving into bed right now, and post this before it's midnight!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you tomorrow!

Hugs, x

Day 25: another sketch

Felt like making a sketch today, wasn't in the mood to paint.

I have the feeling there's something wrong with her, but I can't pinpoint what it is. I'll probably see it right away tomorrow.

I'll post her anyway, since the day is almost done and I don't have anything else to post. Although, of course, there's still one spare day left ... Hmmm. Don't know yet if I'll take it. I might just make 30 faces, who knows!?

Here she is: face number 24:

I stumbled upon another Blogger mystery today. I wanted to add a link in the sidebar, and I discovered that, if you choose the HTML/Javascript gadget, you can't put in a picture anymore ... Huh !?! It's just the title and some text. Have been looking in the help-forum but can't find the solution.

Why do they change everything every time I just figured out how to do something!? It drives me mad.

Oh well, when this challenge is over I'm going to focus on Blogger and all its mysteries. It'll probably take me a few days I'm afraid ....

Of to watch some blogs now. See you tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by!

Day 24: Only kindness matters

Felt like doing a long-necked lady again. That's quite a while ago, in fact I think the last one I made was in the February challenge. So it's about time I did one again. I like to exaggerate features sometimes, long necks, long noses,... It makes a nice change from a "normal" face. I don't like to do the same thing over and over again.

Anyway, here she is, done in markers and pan pastels, with lyrics from Jewel:

Don't know what happened with one of the comments from yesterday. I got a comment from Jenny in my inbox, along with the comments from the other lovely ladies (thank you so much!), but Jenny's comment isn't visible in my blog. Weird ...  Sometimes things happen on this blog that I don't understand. I'm still struggling with some of the features, and the worst thing is: in the end I always find out how to do something, but only after trying a zillion things, and then I don't remember how I finally DID find the solution .... And I can start all over again. Bit silly really.

I think I'll put a notebook next to my computer and write everything that I do down from now on.

Although, why one of the comments is not visible is still a mystery to me. Anyone an idea?

Thanks for taking a look, it's greatly appreciated!

Day 23: what you see as possible

Made this girl in my journal with watercolor pencils.  I then scanned it in and added a background and quote in Photoshop. I'd like to embellish it a bit more, but for now it'll have to do. Almost bedtime ...

Made a discovery while I was working on her. I first made a drawing in my journal, but was a bit too enthusiastic with my eraser. So my paper became a bit rough, which didn't have a nice effect on my watercolor work afterwards. It was blotchy and not smooth at all. Couldn't get it right.

So I let it dry, and then put a layer of transparent gesso on top. When that was dry I used a bit of sandpaper, and oh la la, the drawing was smooth as a baby's bottom ... Really fun to work on with my Inktense pencils.

I'll have to remember that solution for next time (and I know there will be next times!)

Here she is:

Off now to watch some blogs on the list. Thanks for coming here and thanks for your lovely comments!
See you tomorrow!

Day 22: weird girl

Well, this one has been a bit of a struggle! It's a small canvas that I started a few weeks ago already. I'm not sure whether I like where it's gone, but I just didn't feel like painting over it again. I'll share the in-progress steps with you, so you'll have an idea where this came from ...

This is the end result. And I'm gonna leave it alone from now on!

It's done in acrylics, inks and acrylic markers

And this is how it started:

I like the background here. Looks great to use for hair ...

starting to paint the face in with acrylics. So far so good ...

Oops! I suddenly realize if I want to use the background for hair, she will be bald on top of her head ... Painted too much of her face, and can't recover the background. What to do!?

No problem, I'll just drip some more paint on her, and use some different colors to make it less boring ...

Uh-oh. What did I do? Where did my lovely background go? Got a bit carried away dripping and spraying. What now!??

At this point, I left the canvas where it was, and kept looking at it every now and then for more than a week. Hoping for a luminous idea ...

It just didn't come to me.

In the end I forced myself to finish it.
I'm not sure what that is on her head. Is it hair? Is it embellishment? Couldn't make anything out of it really. Hence the title: "weird girl".

I think it describes her well ....

Day 21: windy days

For some people, their hair looks like this on windy days. Well, it would almost have to be a hurricane maybe, but anyway, just felt like drawing wild hair again... Maybe I'm getting addicted ;-)

done in pencil and markers

I have finally reached the end of the linklist, and now I'm starting at the beginning again! I guess this challenge will be over by the time I reach the end for the second time ...

Got to get going then!

Only 9 more faces! I think I'm gonna miss this challenge and all the lovely and talented people that are participating ... But who knows: maybe Ayala or someone else will come up with something new ...

Day 20: sad girl

I can't believe it's the 20th of May already! Before we know it it'll be June! Time sure flies!

Although at times it's a bit stressy, I'm still enjoying this challenge. I learn so much from pushing myself to make or finish something every day. And there are so many talented people participating! I get heaps of ideas that I all want to try out. And I especially like those posts where you can see the works in progress. It's wonderful to see how some faces develop.

I am now at number 126 on the linklist. Still not finished, can you believe it! How can I ever finish if people keep signing up!? There are 132 participants right now. Although I've found a few blogs that seem to have quit the challenge, a lot of people are still hanging in there and try to produce a face every day. I think we all deserve a pat on the back for that!

Anyway, tonight I'll definitely try to make the end of the list. And then I can start at the beginning again ...

Here's my face for today. She looks a bit sad, hence the name I gave her. Done in colored pencil, Inktense, gesso and acrylics.

Off to visit the rest of the list now! See you tomorrow, and thanks for stopping by! I appreciate all your lovely comments!

Day 19: face number 18

Finished a small painting today that I made a background for last week already. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's a bit too dark for my liking. But I don't know how to lighten it up without losing all the drips.

So for now I'll just leave her as she is. Look at her every now and then, and then maybe in a few weeks I'll suddenly know what to do with it. It usually goes that way.

She's done in acrylics, inks and Inktense pencils.

And today I'm going to finish the links-list! Better start right now because it's getting late. Again!

See you tomorrow! Thanks for having a look!

Day 18: have to hurry ...

because it's almost midnight in this part of the world. Time to put my face on the net!

Well, today wasn't much different from yesterday. Everything I tried turned out blah. I watched Pam's video and painted simultaneously with her. While her face came out great, mine looked like, ..., well, you know ...

The only thing I liked about it were the colors, so I tried another face in the same colors. Same result though. I'm not gonna post any of them here because it gives me the shivers just looking at it. Other projects that I'm working on aren't finished yet, thanks to everything running so smooth lately .... not!

So I resorted to my back-up method: a lyrics-girl. Doesn't take too much of my time, although I chose very long lyrics to go with it. That's why now it's almost midnight.

Here she is, done in markers and pan pastels, with lyrics from Rosie Thomas.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Day 17: Hmmm

Not very happy with my face today. Actually, everything I've been doing today took a long time and looked like shit. Excuse the language ... Very frustrating.

Anyway, since it's night I have to post something, so I'll just post her. I've tried to pimp her up a bit in Photoshop. Added a background that I did in my "Chaos & Calm"-workshop with Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen (very good workshop BTW), and added a small but very true quote that I found on the net somewhere and made a brush of.

Here she is: watercolors and marker:

Since some people have been asking, I wanted to share with you a video that I found very helpful in learning to draw hair. It's from a guy who does amazing pencil drawings, usually from girls with very long and beautiful hair. I love looking at his work, and by watching his video I managed for the first time to draw more or less realistic hair. Once you know how to, it just takes practice, practice, practice... (like everything I guess ...) Here's the link. I hope you enjoy.

Well, it's late again. Can you believe I still didn't get to see all the participants!? I'm now at number 112 from a total of 129! I'll try to see some more today but I really should be going to bed. This challenge is turning out to be quite ... well ... challenging ...;-)

Day 16: miniature-painting

Finished another mini-painting on a 10x10cm canvas. Went a bit overboard with the eye-lashes, but hey, that's what you get when you do a workshop with Adriana ;-)

Done with gesso, watercolor pencils and acrylics:

I have almost looked at all the faces!! Very time-consuming, but so interesting to see how everybody is doing with the challenge. I've picked up so many ideas already. I accidently stumbled upon Tam's blog from Willowing. She's also participating in 29 faces, although I don't think her link is up on Ayala's blog. Anyway, since she has 2 little boys and therefore not much time, she limits herself to making a face in 15 minutes. And Tam being Tam, she made a video of it. Since I'm not sure how to put a video on my blog, and I don't have time to find out now, I'll just give the link of the page on Tam's blog so you can see for yourself. It's very interesting for those days that you don't have much time to finish a face. Have to try it out one of these days ...

Thank you all for your wonderful comments! It lifts my spirit!

See you tomorrow!

Day 15: sketch

I have been painting today but didn't finish anything. It's all works in progress. I like to work on different things at the same time. When I'm stuck with one (which happened all the time today!), I leave it alone for a while and continue with another.

So it's a sketch today. A girl that I started a very long time ago and forgot all about. And today I finished her. Well, not really finish, but sketchwise most of it is done. I'll problaby make a postcard with a text from it. But that's for another time.

Here she is:

Thanks for stopping by. I'll have a quick look at some other blogs now. (still didn't catch up ....)

Day 14: a world inside of me

I finally finished one of the small paintings on canvas that I started two weeks ago already. Once I leave a painting alone for too long, I find it very difficult to get back to. Not knowing where to go with it and afraid of messing up. But once I started again on her, I had lots of fun. And I'm very happy that she's finished now.

She's all done in acrylics and I used acrylic markers for some details. Here she is, face number 13:

Off to watch some blogs now before I go to bed ;-) See you tomorrow!

Day 13: sunburnt girl

Well, I'll admit right away that I didn't plan on painting a sunburnt girl. But she turned out that way. Maybe if her hair hadn't been so black-white, she would've looked a bit more natural, but now I really think she's too pink.

Anyway, didn't have time to fix it anymore, so I did the second best thing: I gave her a purple background in Photoshop. That way her purplish-ness (I'm not even sure this is a word...) fades away a bit in the background.

Had fun with the hair again. I'm experimenting a lot with different hairstyles lately.

Here she is, done with markers, watercolor pencils and gesso:

No time anymore to look at other blogs now, but I managed to catch up with half of them. Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish the other half...

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow!