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!