different kind of face: number 7

I felt like exaggerating some features, and she turned out a little bit like a Nefertiti-head. All done in markers, didn't have time for painting today.

When she was finished, I thought she looked a bit bitchy, so figured the lyrics of Meredith Brooks' song fitted well with her. Here she is, now I'm off to bed ...

markers and panpastels

Day 6

Experimented with a new technique today: trying to let a face emerge from a coloured background. Had loads of fun getting the background ready, with painting, stamping, spraying, dripping, etc...

I think it might be a bit too dark. That's the problem with me doing a background like that. I get totally carried away and in the end it looks much darker than I want. I'll have to remember that for next time: start with very light colours, and try not to mix too many colours on one page. STOP in time!

Well, here she is, girl number 6:

acrylics, ink, watercolour pencils

Day 5

Sleeptime again, but I managed to do my daily face. Not much time today, because we were at the beach all day (ah yes, it is summertime here in Australia, while Belgium is suffering from snow and freezing temperatures... Sure glad I'm not there right now!).

I did a lyrics-girl again. Only markers, so didn't have to wait in between to let the paint dry. Goes a lot faster that way. Here she is:

lyrics from Neil Young, Pitt brush markers

Day 4

Has it really been only four days!? I feel as if I have been spending way longer on this challenge. Not that I didn't have fun, mind you! I just hope I can keep it up. Because you know what? I will be starting my online workshop with Flora Bowley on Monday! Well, for me it will probably be Tuesday, since I'm in Australia and Flora is in the US.

I'm really looking forward to it. Since I got to know her work (sometime last year), I have been looking with great envy at all the pictures of her workshops, wishing I could've been there. So finding out that she now has her first online workshop was great news. Signed up as soon as I read about it and have been looking forward to it ever since. I haven't painted on a canvas since last March, and I miss it so much. But with the move to Australia and trying to get settled here, there just wasn't enough time.

Set up my easel today (it was still in the cupboard!), bought some plastic to put on the floor, because painting the way Flora does can get pretty messy, sorted out my supplies, and now I'm all ready to go.

So I hope I can squeeze in some time to do my daily face as well. This one was kind of an experiment. I wanted to use different colours and not blend so much. But it didn't really turn out as planned. I started out with watercolours, but soon discovered that the journal I was using wasn't reacting too well to all that water. So I had to call in the help of my trusted Inktense pencils and my gesso, almost made a hole in my page, and ended up with more blending that I had planned. The background was fun, I spread the paint with my fingers, decided it was too dark, spread some white gesso on top and then discovered it was real thick and very nice to scribble in with the back of my brush. Don't try to read what's written there though, because I don't even know it myself. I just made marks and sometimes a word came out... Just don't think it makes sense ;-)

boring-meeting-doodle-girl

I happened to look into an old notebook from work today, and was amazed by all the doodles that were in there. I remember sitting in those boring meetings that just kept going for hours on end, and then slowly regressing into my own world and starting to draw, or doodle, or whatever you want to call it.

When my notebooks started to have more doodles in there than notes, I knew it was time to quit ...

Anyway, inspired by all those doodles, I decided to use this for my face-drawing today. I first wanted to put some colour in there, but then decided against it, because I really want it to be like the doodles you make when you're bored out of your mind, and you only have one pen or marker.

So that's what I did. And like in my notebook, there are parts that I don't like or that are overdone, but hey, it's a doodle and it is the way it is. Can't use an eraser on those markers. So I'll post it anyway. I had fun, and that's the whole purpose, right?

 black markers

2nd day!

This challenge is fun! I've decided to try out new things and do as many different styles as possible. Not really different drawing styles, but more like different mediums.

For today it's a pencil drawing with a coloured background. I've noticed that I tend to do things a certain way when I use a certain medium. And I want to change that. Venture out into the unknown. And play!

graphite, watercolour and Inktense pencils

1st day of the 29 faces challenge!

Yep,we have a leap year this year, so 29 faces for the 29 days of February! I'm lucky that I usually do faces anyway.

I felt like painting today, so I took one of the pages in my journal where I had been trying out different inks and paints, and I painted a girl on top of it. Wow, that took ages! I just couldn't get it right.

I might put some text around her head or something, but for now I'll leave it as it is. When I see it tomorrow I will know what to do. I think ...

Derwent Inktense pencils, gesso, watercolour