End of month

In the spirit of 29 faces, I want to close the month's challenge with a very old drawing. This is something I made for my husband, back in 1992, before our wedding. I made it as a self portrait, in a letter that I sent to him, telling him how my thoughts were all sunshine, birds flying, stars and clouds. All the cute things a girl thinks of her boyfriend, or in this case, fiance. ♥
This was before I knew of internet, zentangles or any of that stuff. Something triggered in my mind, after the ink face I made couple of days back... I knew I made a similar thing long  ago. And the best part is that he kept it all these years Xo)

Do you have old drawings? Isn't it fun to see old art work?

Three dear friends

These are my last faces to complete 29. I was in shock to see there were some missing, since I took extra time to finish some of the pieces. But anyway, with this little painting, I'm all done :o)
I decided for the coming holidays and because I like the Mexican folklore, I was going to do another Day of the dead art. This is a postcard size acrylic painting.

Their names are from Left to right: Hope, Faith and Charity.

 
They love to chat over a cup of tea, only that Faith insists on having their tea outdoors, because Hope and Charity make a mess, with them being all bones and that.

~*~

I want to thank everyone that participated in this last 29 faces challenge of the year ♥
So much fun, joy, learning, experimenting, and sometimes stress, shock and disappointment... but hopefully we all did something new, something difficult, met new friends, and learned a bit more about ourselves in the process.

Shall we do it again next year, in February?

Bunch of friends

These are 4 faces today! Cartoon style.
My version of the story:
Tommy took his girlfriend (and her friends) to watch a funny comedy to the movies but she was all teary eyed, while one of the friends was stealing all the popcorn and the other was all mad.
Over all, this was not a good date for Tommy.

My daughter said: "There are all strangers. Tommy is looking upon the uncalled for tears of the girl in purple, while the girl in pink is SO into the scene that she is eating the popcorn of the polka dot woman, who is not a fan of the movie, and is deeply disturbed, at a stranger eating her popcorn, which is very expensive at the movies."

What is your story version of this drawing? :oD

Funny exercise

I used all the left over paint from the last face, just smooshed it up in the paper, and then I made kind of shapes. Today I made the face features, and I was going to leave it like that, but then I went a bit more detailed until I got stuck in the hair part hehehe
I will see what kind of hair I will give her tomorrow :o)

Ginger? Brunette? Blond? I'm thinking of a wild color, to match her style :o)

Renaissance funk

 I have no idea how to call this portrait. It started as a mildly renaissance style lady (sans all the details!) and then decided to go without a sketch. The results is pretty funky, don't you think? The first layer is black gesso, which is not my usual.
After looking at it for a while, I like the end result. She is not pretty, but has something that catches the eye, maybe the intensity of color.

.... 4 more days!

zentangle

I don't care what they say... this was not relaxing! lol
I made a zentangle doodle face for my 25th day on the challenge. It was hard for me, took me a while to get into it, and the best part was inking.

I admire the people that can do it and looks so effortless...  But anyway, my intention was to make her like a mermaid, and somehow has an oriental look.
Can you believe we are just 5 days to the end of the challenge?

Check my available art and online classes get my newsletter

Almost finished old portrait

This face went through a big change. The old stained paper collage is not even visible... something that I wanted to keep, but splashing color was ore fun at the moment hehehe
I wish I had a matte crackle finish! Mine is shiny and I don't like that for this particular page. Even if I cover with medium, will remain glossy.
If you know of a matte brand, let me know :o)
I'm still working on her, she needs eyelashes and a couple of more things, but tonight is Back to school night so I better run, and do the marathon all over the campus till like 9 pm :oP

Video coming soon....

So many styles, so many thoughts...

You know how Scientist discover laws that everyone already knew about, or thought about, then they name them after themselves?
Well, here's a new one for ya...
Martha's law: Thou shall not Selleth, what thou doth not Listeth.
In other words--I'd better start filling up my Etsy shop!

But there's this thing... I don't like to stick too long to a style or medium. I tend to run from one style or size or substrate, to the next almost opposite. And when I hear they recommend to "do one thing and have only one style in your shop" that kinds of pokes a hole in my inspiration...
I recently heard Gotye saying that he likes to explore whatever he can in music, and he only gets excited  to work in the next project if it is significantly different from what he was doing last... and that is exactly the way I feel.
It was so relieving to hear that from someone else, in some other unrelated form of art.

I was not kidding when I said in the PPF blog that I suffered from "Quoque plures penicullus incompositus" which is fancy Latin for "Too many styles disorder". I term I coined and translated into Latin, to give it a fancy twist ;o)
Although I should say I enjoy the condition, not suffer from it. That little change can make a world of difference.

That has been stopping me from offering and listing all my recent work.  The thought of "who's going to like it" or "who's going to even find it" comes to mind after seeing that most of it doesn't even look like it came from the same pair of hands...!

But the answer will always be no one.... if it is not listed and offered, right?

So, for better or worse, and with the best of wishes, I will be listing and reopening my Etsy shop, (...and an online gallery I have been quietly working on for a while, but, shhh! Not quite ready to talk about it just yet)

With all that said, this is my collaborative face for today. My daughter finished the details of this sketch titled "Stop the negative thoughts!"

I invite you to do the same. Stop any negative thought and keep your art going ♥

Paper bag face

We went to the bookstore and of course I had to get a chocolate fix :oD
While sitting there, I started to doodle a portrait of my daughter. At the end, it didn't look like her, but whatever... I kept it to bring it home to the scanner. I like the image with the bag and all ;o)

 

Portrait on collage

I'm liking this one face! I collage a page of "old paper" and made a charcoal face, in the style of the old encaustic portraits:

I will add some color. I'm thinking of ochre, burgundy, gold, and black. The rest of the blank page, I think I want it in dark blue, maybe, not sure yet.

Working on Dali

After so many kind comments... here's what I re-worked today:
The cat is gone, replaced by a clock, more his style. I will ad water soluble wax pastels.

 

I added water soluble wax pastels:

The problem with a journal page for me is that I'm always and forever running out of space :oP 

Well, if nothing else, this page is funny.

Total fiasco...

My face today is a total fiasco :oP I decided to make a male face, and to make someone very recognizable. So yes, you can tell it is Dali, but half way there i lost interest. You can tell by the cat next to him LOL Horrible!
Oh well... this goes to show there are some days that it just counts as an effort, but not a well done job. It is still learning! :o)

Tomorrow I will either erase the cat and finish the portrait, or give up all together.

Quick pencil

Some days, there's not even time to draw a whole face...
Life gets in the way, and sometimes it feels like a brick wall :oP

... How many days till Friday? ;o)

Madonna with ink colors

I used inks, which I had not used much before. I had to thin them and I have to say that they go really strong when not evenly mixed, so in parts it looks blotchy but it kinds of goes with the watercolor style.

 

Even when she doesn't look much like the original Morning Madonna, still turned out sweet.

Sunday's face

Have I mentioned how hard it is to make a face around here, on a Sunday? lol This is my effort for today, I will complete it tomorrow.

I wanted to make a Madonna and baby, but wow, the search had more results on the singer than on actual art. Particularly after I typed Jesus... oh my... she is whatever they say, but she has good taste in guys XoD

Anyway, have fun with your 29 faces!

Encaustic portraits

My face for today is inspired on the Roman era Egyptian wax portraits. The look mainly, not the technique, but I'm planning to work on that ;o)

This is a wonderful link for of Encaustic art portraits, very much in the subject of our 29 faces challenge and I want to share it with you. Click HERE to see a collection.

It is fascinating to me to see artwork so old in such great shape! Some are thousands of years old, some less, as in, many centuries :oP
I had the chance to see some at the museum and I just love them.. I wonder if many of them are by the same artist? A lot of them seem to have the same eye style; mysterious, deep, kind of sad.

One of my favorites:

And a video:

Thoughts and Another profile portrait

As an exercise, I try to draw a photograph as close as possible. It takes me a while, but it can be done (if you have seen any of my videos you know what I mean) But if I try to do it fast, like for this 29 faces challenge, it gets complicated and my own style comes across instead.

Now, that is not wrong, after all we all try to have our own style, but that was what I meant yesterday, when I mentioned it didn't look like the original. I think I gave the wrong idea the way I said things? :o)

The spirit of the 29 faces challenge is to do something different than what we are used to. To improve a weakness, to dare working on something new.

Like I said back in May ...  Do something you have not tried YET. If you paint large, do a tiny face. If you work on ACEO size, make a large face. If you paint, draw with pencils; if you only sketch, paint a face.... you get the point.

Use materials you have not used, paint on wood; use that paper you have been saving forever... Open your watercolors or pastels; something that you usually don't do or use, or have not tried yet. That kind of thing.

Part of my personal problem is not only to work fast, -in my case-  but to find the time to scan, watermark, re-size, post and come up with some reasonable text. Sometimes I can barely think, let along say something reasonable into a post. (`^._.^')

 And here is my drawing today, profile portrait, step one and two:

   

Unfortunately the one on left barely shows the circles and lines to work on the face.

PS:
I just noticed there's 592 artsy people following my bloggy! yaay! Time for an "almost 600" giveaway!!
Have a nice weekend!

Profile Portrait

Thanks everyone that came to say hello and nice words for the PPF feature last week ♥

 

Today I made this profile lady. It is very loosely done based on Botichelli. I think she turned out ok, but doesn't resemble the original... oh well :o)

Charcoal portrait

Here is a 3/4 portrait of a lady. Unfortunately It is loosely inspired in a beautiful portrait. Not that it looks much like her, but it was a beautiful image.
I used charcoal, but i didn't want to deepen the shadows too much. I will add a hint of color later on.

9-11

Never forget...

Never forget to love. Never forget to do your best. Never forget to be thankful for the wonderful opportunity of "today". Never forget to laugh.
For every dark and sad moment that happens, there is light and good too.
We just have to find it.

Be positive, be determined, be creative.

little girl ACEO

It took me forever today to make this little ACEO, but here she is. I think she is going to my Etsy shop :o)
Are you all having fun with the challenge?

 

Also, look what got in the mail! I won this from Natasha May and the butterfly effect...

 

Outlined

FOr today, I just have an outlined drawing. I saw this awesome painting and I just had to try it! Not sure if I will add color to it. Maybe later.
My version is not well proportioned but here it goes....

The original painting is absolutely wonderful, I just don't have the author :o(

 

Day 8th, update

This is the pretty mom of the cuties I have been painting. You can see her youngest boy next to her too :o)    I am almost all finished with the portraits, couple of thisng and it will be ready for shipping.
I will miss seeing their faces every day!

Little by little I have been visiting all the amazing faces of the participants in the 29 faces.
163 in the FB group and 60 in the Linky. Some are in both places, and the numbers keep growing :oD

Bunch of faces and interview

There's an article about moi in the PPF blog, HERE thanks Eve and Kristin! ♥

You can see a bunch of faces I painted there.

Update on the family portrait: 

And with hair:

The mask is done

She has flowers in her hair. (why does it sound like a song...?)
She's been done since Monday but...  youtube finally finished uploading my video, after loooong hours :oS

With all her flowers...

Oh, and Crafty Chica will be visiting the Michael's in California! yaay! She posted a skull with flowers in her blog. HERE Sister of my mask lol

Day 5, DoD

A fun folk face for today! Dia de los Muertos mask, Day of the dead.
This is actually a mask I started over the long weekend we had, since I couldn't paint on anything large at that time. I video taped it, so I will upload the video and add a link here when ready.

             

She is not ready yet! Wait and see how purty she turned out ;oD

Day 4, more sweetness

More updates on this sweet girl. She is part of a 5 people portrait I'm working on,( for those that just started reading this blog) :o)
My lighting is not the best, I played with the editor to make it closer to real colors, but until I take photos outside and with good light, the results are just approximate.
I will be doing some patterns in her dress tomorrow.

Anyway, here she is:

 

For those that have asked, it is not too late to join the challenge! Add yourself in the Linky (in my menu, up there)  or go to the FB page HERE

I am also editing a video, I will show the previews tomorrow, as my face 5 of 29.

Day 3, sweet

For the 29 faces in September challenge...
Oh how fun it is to have a holiday... but not when mama wants to paint! After this long weekend, I'll pick up the pace, at least for this piece.

And how sweet it is to paint a girl? I simply love it. Sugar and spice and all that ;o)

This is how far I am in the portrait. The lighting is horrible, but I had to take a picture when I could, you know how it goes some days:

Thanks for comments! ♥
It is not too late to join the challenge! Just add your name to the Linky or join the FB group; post in the public FB page as well. Make as many faces as you can, the thing is to have fun and get to meet cool artsy people.

Day two

Since this is a long weekend, it is a bit hard to work around and trying to do stuff with the family. I didn't think of a holyday when planning for the challenge!
But what's a challenge without a challenge, right?

So here we go, an update on the current painting on my table:

 

It is in a scary stage when things look all missing, but it needs more layers and eyes, he will look so different when he's done :o)

For those that are in FB, check out the public challenge page: HERE

Thanks for visiting and have a good Labor day, my friends in the US.

29 faces in September starts!

Here we go again! Our 3rd time around with the 29 faces challenge!
I'm starting with a painting I'm currently working on then changing size so i can manage :o)
These are WIPs and I will post more as his face progresses .

 

The light is not helping me to show the real colors.

 

Thanks for visiting and I hope you can join the challenge! Click on the top menu button to see more participants. Add your name following the instructions if you will play with us ♥