29 Faces: All done!

Well that was a blast! There were days when I didn't think I'd be able to finish the 29 Faces art challenge. Too many other projects on the go, and family too. But it all worked out and was great fun. I somehow ended up with 31 faces. Not sure how I ended up with more faces since I thought I was keeping count. So much for my math skills. :)

I never did get to finish the David painting. I'll have to get back to that one, or take on the entire sculpture.

I look forward to seeing everyone's final faces today. I think there were a few blogs I missed so I'll try to visit as many as I can.

Paint Party Friday: An old WIP that needs help

 Here is a half finished painting from over a year ago. It's mixed media though right now it's basically just torn up book pages with a painted lady (acrylic) over top. It was never finished and she has sat in my office/art room looking sad for ages. And now I have to finish the painting since my sister claimed it and I want to give it to her when (if) she comes in a few weeks for the holiday weekend.

Any suggestions? Text? Quotes? I was thinking of adding mixed media and/or painted flowers throughout her hair and then maybe a found poetry style quote in the blue area. Something like that. I don't know if more text is a good idea though. Sometimes text ruins an otherwise decent painting.

This is my first Paint Party Friday post. I'm usually working on something or other so sounds like a good weekly group to join in on.

29 Faces: Faces 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 & 29

I'm not going to have time to do many portraits over the next few days so I thought I'd make a batch in advance this morning. This takes me to 29!!!! Woohoo!! The WIP I posted yesterday will bring it up to Face 30 (once she's done) and I'm going to call it done after that. I'll be posting a big image of all of my faces next week.

Thanks to everyone who has commented on my portraits over the past 4 weeks. I really appreciate the feedback. And I've very much loved checking out everyone else's portraits too. I've seen a lot of great art and fun techniques. I plan on visiting everyone in the future too, to see what other wonderful art you've been coming up with!

WIP Pretty Lady with Necklace

A painting I'm working on for my portfolio. Hopefully will get a chance to finish it up tomorrow. I'll have to catch up on my 29 Faces tomorrow. :)

29 Faces & A Snow Lover

I made this winter image for my illustration portfolio and she's also going to be face 23 of the 29 Faces art challenge. This is a digital painting in Photoshop. I'm looking forward to the snow! I love the stuff. Well.... until March, then I seriously dislike it.

29 Faces: Face 22

Reaching the end now. Woo! Unfortunately, I have a lot of work to get done today so I'm submitting more of a doodle than a portrait but those count too. Hopefully, I'll have more time tomorrow.

29 Faces: Face 20! Face 21!

Woohoo! I made it to 20! And 21! Only 8 more to go :)

I spent more time than I should have on this one since I didn't really like it when I was making it. It's disappointing when you have a vision in your head but the execution doesn't match. I knew it was going badly after the sketch but I plowed on anyway, thinking it might be ok. Ah well. One for the experiments book. I like the cat. :)

Later today: I've finished another face and so I'm close to being caught up. I have a good book to read so it won't be caught up today.

ZOMBIE ALERT

It's really ugly, I know. But I've never seen a pretty zombie. I kept the image small in case you're not a fan of the undead. If you are, you can click on the image for a bloodier look.

Is anyone else excited about The Walking Dead coming back to TV soon? My main hope for this season is that the Governor dies... early on. I hated him with a passion last season and I can't believe they've dragged him back for yet another season. I think David Morrissey is fantastic but the Governor needs to go away. At least he's not quite as evil and vile as he is in the comic.

29 Faces: Face 19

Here's face 19 for the 29 Faces art challenge. Another digital painting but more in the style of my portfolio art rather than the realism I was "attempting" before. I might even add this one to my portfolio, and a few more too since I still have 10 to go!

I need to catch up on my commenting this weekend and go visiting more blogs to see all of the wonderful art being made. So many beautiful portraits to see.

Illustration Friday: Together

Here's my illustration for Illustration Friday's Together theme. A couple of people hanging out on the couch, drinking wine and chatting away. That's a good interpretation of together I think. Especially the wine drinking part. And the chatting too.

29 Faces: Faces 16, 17 &18

I've been busy with other projects this week and haven't had enough time to devote to hour long faces so I've gone with the 10 minute cartoon versions. Much quicker and I still get to play! I'll revert back to the other style as soon as my plate clears up a bit. These versions are fun though. I haven't made any long necked girls in a few years.

29 Faces: Face 15

I didn't get a chance to finish David today but I did manage to finish Face 15 for the 29 Faces art challenge. This one is based on an old photo I have. I can't remember if it came from the Brady-Handy collection or if it was one of those funny links on Buzzfeed. It was a nice exercise in values!

Speaking of old photos, if you're not familiar with the Brady-Handy collection of civil war era photos, it's definitely worth a browse. Tons of high resolution photos in the public domain. 

Below I've posted some of the acrylic ATCs I did from this collection of photos. Tons of great portrait shots there.

I'll come back to Michaelangelo's David tomorrow. Hopefully.





 

 I managed to fit in drawing a couple of Halloween Digital Stamps for my Etsy store today. One is a set of naughty pumpkin monster and the other is a Zombie Crossing stamp. I love Halloween!

29 Faces: 12, 13 & 14 (WIP)

Painting my bathroom took longer than I thought so I didn't get as many faces done as I had hoped on the weekend. But I do have 2.3! And I'm almost halfway done the challenge. Face 3 is a work in progress obviously. I was looking through my reference library and found a lovely pic of Michaelangelo's David. I thought it would make a good value exercise and a nice addition to the 29 Faces art challenge. I'll finish it off tomorrow after I get some work done.

29 Faces: Face 11

I didn't think I'd make it to Face 11 tonight but I managed to pull it off while watching, "Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire" with Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Munro. Old School! This painting took a bit longer than normal since I spent more time painting hair. Painting all of those strands takes a while.

Hopefully, I can catch up on the two faces I'm missing over the weekend. Sadly, I have to paint my bathroom so who knows if that's a reachable goal. I'll probably be lucky to get the regular portraits done. :)

It's almost midnight here so I'll have to save my viewing and commenting for tomorrow. It's a lot of fun seeing what everyone else is doing for their portraits. I've seen some wonderful art these past two weeks!

29 Faces: Face 10

Here's a pretty girl for Face 10 of the 29 Faces art challenge. I thought she needed a flower in her hair. Another digital painting in Photoshop.

I'm heading to my weekly life drawing session this afternoon so I'll give a portrait a whirl. Maybe I'll get Face 11 done today too!

Later in the afternoon: I managed to do a portrait during the life drawing session. It was about a 25 minute pose. This is done with colored pencils on kraft paper. Definitely not one of my best (ugh) but it's ok. Some days are great drawing days and others, well....  not so much!

29 Faces: Scary Face 8 & Freckle Face 9

Here is face 8 for the 29 Faces art challenge. I originally painted a pretty profile of a lovely girl but it was so dark and the lighting somewhat extreme and I thought it might be interesting to make her a bit scary with dripping blood. I probably watch too much True Blood, I know. I love The Walking Dead too so a gory zombie will probably appear here sometime during the challenge.

I have used references for all of these paintings. I think my painting without one would look a little wonky. I'll give it a whirl for the final portrait.

Later this afternoon: I finished Face 9 and gave her lots of lovely freckles! My brother had a face full of freckles and he was adorable when he was young. This lady reminds me of him. I also included my WIPs again (I remembered to save occasionally this time) since it's fun to see how a painting goes from A to B.

I'm enjoying doing the digital painting again. I use it for work of course but everything I've done for pleasure these past few years has been traditional media so it's nice to go back and just play around. My favorite part of digital painting is Ctrl +Z. I find myself wishing for that feature in traditional painting. :)











 

In looking at these portraits over the past week, I've noticed one thing I really need to work on - HAIR! Maybe tomorrow I'll give an elaborate do a whirl and try to to it justice. Painting hair is hard.

29 Faces: Face 7

I finally managed to paint a new face for the 29 Faces art challenge. Woo! This is another digital painting. I didn't manage to make a nice background but the painting was taking forever so maybe tomorrow I can draw in a background. A field of flowers sounds nice, or maybe a forest.

This is only face 7 so I'm a little behind. I'm trying for two tomorrow!

29 Faces: Some Temporary Faces!

I had my in-laws here from Germany this weekend so I couldn't stop and do the 29 Faces art challenge. I have 3 faces to make up over the course of the month but I wanted to post something so no one thinks I just gave up, lol. I'll be back to face painting tomorrow!  And commenting too. I have a lot of blogs to visit again in the morning. These two portraits are acrylic and are in my Etsy shop. :)

29 Faces: Face 6

Here's my sixth face for the 29 Faces art challenge. I think maybe next week I will start to spend a bit more time on the portraits and see how they go. Maybe doing more for the background too since it's a bit sterile here.

This is another digital painting in Photoshop. I might give acrylics a whirl this month too. I don't use them often but I do like them a lot.

29 Faces: Face 5

Here is Face 5 for the 29 Faces art challenge. I added some swirls and an eye mask for fun. It seemed to suit her fun face.

She is based on a photo I have in my reference folder. Digital painting in Photoshop.

29 Faces: Face 4

Here is my fourth face for the 29 Faces art challenge. I've gone back to digital painting and will likely stay with this medium since it's good practice. I really want to get my paintings from flat to more life like. Not necessarily realism but better flesh tones and more depth. My paintings still feel really flat to me so I'm hopeful that 30 days of portrait painting will help me some.

This is a very sad lady. She features in a few of my reference / stock photos and I've always wanted to paint her sad face since it was so expressive.

Day of the Dead Digistamp

Here's another Day of the Dead digistamp I made today. This one is a profile view Calavera Girl for cards and other art pieces you want to color. It's available in my Etsy store.

29 Faces: Face 3

Today I went a mixture of mediums with a traditional base pen drawing and a lightly colored layer added digitally in Photoshop.

I wish I had more time to make layered mixed media pieces because I see so many people doing them and it looks like tons of fun. I want to give it a whirl. It's been a long time. I'll have to save that plan for a quiet weekend in September I think!

I am looking forward to making one big image out of all of the faces I draw this month. Be cool to see them all together in one image.

29 Faces: Face 2

Here's my second face for the 29 Faces art challenge.

I went with a digital painting again since that's my favorite! I'll have to try traditional for tomorrow's face. :)

I stuck up some of my WIPs too since I always find them fun to look at when others post them. It's cool to see a painting come to life from a few scratchy strokes.

29 Faces: Face 1!

Woohoo!

Day 1 of the 29 Faces art challenge and here is my messy entry. This is a digital painting done in Photoshop.

I spent about 46 - 60 mins on this since I don't have a lot of time today. I hope to spend more time on some of the other portraits and try for a variety of styles and mediums.  Maybe I'll do the same face in many mediums and styles and see how that turns out. Could be an interesting experiment.