Who is Steph Curry?

I have an amazingly creative granddaughter. She is my favorite partner in art and all things crafty. She even has her own art table in my studio so that she can create whenever she's at my house. Awhile back, she asked me to create a drawing for her of Steph Curry. My response: "Who is Steph Curry?" The look on her face was priceless as she said, "Seriously, grandma?" Then she proceeded to school me on all things Steph Curry and convinced me to create this drawing for her. I was having blog issues, so I never posted it. 

This is all just simple black Sharpie. I swear, I should own stock in the company that makes Sharpies. I go through so many of them, at home and at school. At any rate, I wasn't sure if she'd like it, but she definitely did. And even though I'll probably not be drawing an athlete again any time in the near future, at least I know a little more than I did before about this particular basketball star.

Geometric Portrait

Well, I was in the mood to try something different in one of my art journals over the weekend. So, since I'd been working on Cubist-inspired Fall Trees with some of students the last few weeks, I decided to take a cue from Picasso and do a sort of Cubist take on a portrait.

I started with a general sketch of a face. Then I grabbed an ultra fine Sharpie and started drawing triangle shapes in areas around the face. I just drew a few triangles at a time, and then I free-handed the the repeating lines inside each triangle. I found this whole process to be very relaxing. It's not a style of drawing that I'd really done before, but I really enjoyed doing it. So you may find me doing this type of drawing again in the future.

Face Sketch in My Art Journal

Before I got out of my studio over the weekend, I decided to do a quick face sketch in one of my art journals. I wasn't in the studio for very long because I had other things I needed to get done in the house, but I felt like I needed to squeeze out one quick sketch before I called it quits that day.

Even when I can't spend a lot of time on things, I'm happy that I can at least be creative...even if it's just for a short while. And it sure doesn't hurt to keep practicing drawing faces. But, as you can see, I only drew one eye! LOL. That second eye is always the hardest part...don't you think?! ;) 

Butterfly Mixed Media Girl

I was in my studio again on Sunday. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to create. So, I decided to start by collaging my canvas with some scrapbook paper and printed tissue and then see what that might inspire. I added a little bit of acrylic paint too. At that point, my canvas looked like this.

After looking at it for awhile, I started to see something in the canvas. That happens sometimes after I've put a bunch of papers and paint down. It's kind of like seeing shapes in clouds--something just sort of appears to me. Once I saw it, I started drawing. Then the canvas started to look like this.

Yep, I somehow saw a face appearing in the middle of the canvas, so I just went with it. I drew most of her face, then I painted over the face with transparent gesso so that I wouldn't lose the face as I painted. After that, it was just a matter of painting! This is the finishing Butterfly Mixed Media Girl.

This is mostly acrylic paint, but I've added other media as well. I used Neocolor II crayons, acrylic paint pens, and black pencil too. I don't do a lot of faces that aren't facing forward. That's a skill I'm trying to improve upon, so I decided to give it a shot. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, but I'm still going to keep trying to improve. And you know, for some reason I'm always drawn to pink hair. The butterflies were the final touch, but then I decided I wanted to add a quote too, which I did.

The butterfly counts not months but moments and it has time enough.

In other words, make the most of the time you have, and make every moment count!

Believe in Your Own Magic Mixed Media Girl Fairy

I can't tell you how glad I was to be able to get into my studio two weekends in a row for a change! My weeks are still busy with grad school and hanging out with the grands, so I can't always get into the studio during the week. But getting in on the weekend will do!

I wasn't sure what I was going to create, but I was in a Mixed Media mood. So the first thing I did was to cover my 12" canvas with some different scrapbook papers and some printed tissue paper as well. I like to use at least 3-4 different papers when I do this, and I use matte medium to adhere the paper to the canvas.

At this point, I decided I would do a Mixed Media Girl, so I whipped out my drawing pad and started drawing. I keep my drawings fairly simple, since I'll add all the important details with paint. Once I was happy with the drawing, I used transfer paper to transfer my drawing to my canvas.

Once I get the face on the background, I brush over it with Clear Gesso. This helps to give me a good surface to paint on, and it helps keep my drawing in place and prevents smearing while I paint. It can smear a little bit during the gesso process, but that doesn't bother me. It's not really enough to worry about it. Once my drawing is gesso'd, I'm ready for the fun part: painting!

I tend to use the colors of the background papers as inspiration for my painting's color palette. I don't think you *have* to do that, but that's just generally what I do. So this Mixed Media Girl, who became a fairy (as I am wont to do), took her color cues from the background. Some pinks and greens mostly, with black and white accents. And this is the end result.

I'm pleased with how this fairy came out. I added the text digitally, because sometimes that's just easier than painting. I really thought the painting needed some words or something. And as it says...

Believe in your own magic!

La Beaute Mixed Media Girl

Now that I'm off work for the summer, I finally had a chance to get back into my studio and finish this painting that I began over Spring Break. I call her La Beauté. 

She was created with watercolors, Neocolor II Crayons, Zig Brush Markers, and a hint of acrylic paint pens as well. I was inspired by Alphonse Mucha and his beautiful art nouveau portraits of women. I know that's not obvious in my painting, but then, I wasn't trying to copy him either. I love his art though and it definitely inspired this piece.  I posted about her initially in my Mucha-Inspired Mixed Media Girl WIP post.

I find inspiration wherever I can: in nature, in music, in books, in the art of my peers, and from the masters. 

Angelina Redux

I've been in the mood for creating digital art the last few days. And today I decided to play around with a photo of one of my old celebrity oil paintings and make some digital art out of it.

Now if you didn't know this was supposed to be Angelina Jolie, you might think it was pretty good. I love Angelina's face and features; I think she is really beautiful. But try as I might, I've not been able to capture her on canvas as well as I'd like. I do still like my painting of her though, so it was fun to turn it into some digital art. 

To see the original oil painting, just click here:

Angelina Jolie

One of these days I will attempt to paint her again. :)

Just Breathe Mixed Media Girl

I can't believe I got to spend two Sundays in a row in my studio! That is not the norm of late, since I always seem to be busy with school work or something else. But I made the most of my Sunday studio time yesterday to create this new Mixed Media Girl I'm calling, Just Breathe.

I covered the background canvas with 4-5 different scrapbook papers. Then I added some acrylic paints and stenciling here and there. Then as that dried I drew my mixed media girl onto some drawing paper, and then transferred her onto my canvas. Sometimes I draw straight on the canvas, but sometimes it's just easier to draw it and transfer it. Once I transferred the drawing (which smears easily from the transfer paper) I put a layer of clear gesso over the drawing so that it won't get messy and smeared. Then I could paint my girl with acrylics and add all the little embellishments. And once I was happy with her I added the little quote at the bottom--a little reminder that sometimes what's best is to slow down and...just breathe.

Stars Beauty Mixed Media Girl

Last year I created a post about the art journal spread I was doing after buying Jane Davenport's book called Beautiful Faces. After I had finished that spread last April, I had gone in a few months later and added some stars to my mixed media girl I'd created in the spread. And as I was flipping through some photos today, I realized I never shared the updated creation. So I'm gonna share that with you now.

I just thought that my background was a bit plain, especially considering that most of the time I add torn paper or something to the backgrounds of my paintings. I wasn't feeling like adding solid color, and I didn't want to distract from the face too much. So I decided that stars would be the way to go. It added a sense of texture and just a little something extra to make it feel more finished. I like her much better now. Sometimes you just have to step away from something you've done for awhile, and then come back and look at it again with fresh eyes. It can make all the difference.

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful Mixed Media

After about a month of being so busy with school work that I couldn't manage to find creative time in my studio, I finally got a little bit of a break and spent my entire Sunday painting away. It was wonderful. And I felt like making a Mixed Media Girl, since I haven't painted one in quite awhile. I'd hope to do a page in my art journal as well. I got the page all gesso'd and prepped but didn't have enough time for a journal page. So I'll try to do that next time. But this painting--Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful--is the result of my studio time yesterday.

Hopefully I'll be back in the studio next weekend. I hate it when I can't get in there. My muse gets a little feisty when I can't let her out to play. ;)

Ian Somerhalder in Blue

Well, you know it had to happen eventually. I HAD to create a portrait of Ian Somerhalder to add to my Celebrities in Blue collection. The only difference this time is that, instead of painting him in oils, I created him digitally on my iPad Pro that I got for Christmas. 

Hello, beautiful man. (Yes, I still love my husband!). Ahem. He is rather gorgeous. I created this using ProCreate and Brushtrokes--two of my favorite art apps. Then I did a little digital enhancement on my computer when I was finished. I love how this turned out.

Gonna share this on Twitter too for Fang Art Friday! :)

Beautiful Faces

I recently bought a wonderful book by Jane Davenport called Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. Now, I already know how to draw and paint a face, so I wasn't in need of a how-to book on the mechanics of it as such. However, I'd seen enough of Jane's videos and blog posts etc to know that she does awesome faces and I love her style. And I always love to learn new techniques and new media. So when I saw her book suggested on Amazon, I bought it right away. 

Let me just say that I truly LOVE Jane's book. She does provide instruction on how to draw a face and its features. But even better, she shows you how to draw and paint faces using a variety of different media. This is exactly what I love! I may have an art degree and I may be an artist myself, but there is always, ALWAYS, media out there that I haven't used, and different techniques that I haven't yet tried. And Jane's book provides lots of ways for me to do just that. She shows--with lots of step-by-step photos--how to do faces with Pan Pastels, Copic (or Tombow) markers, colored pencils, acrylics, and more. She also lists all the media she uses with each technique. 

The technique I tried over the weekend was one I hadn't tried before, and it was her Glazing technique (on page 98, in case you're wondering). It was a little scary--it always is when I'm doing something new. And Jane even said of this technique that it would have an "ugly duckling" phase in process, and it sure did! But when my face was done I loved it! Here are a couple of photos; the first was my initial drawing and the second is my finished face.

Glazing is the use of a medium mixed with paint and then building up the layers of paint to create a finished painting. I used matte medium to create the glazes and followed Jane's instruction for this technique. I even used the art journal recommended by Jane in her book: it's a Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media Art Journal. It's hardbound and the paper is deliciously thick and perfect for mixed media. I can see why she recommended it and it will surely become my new favorite art journal! I love how my face turned out. I don't think I'm done with the page yet; I'll probably add a background of some sort next time I'm in the studio. But I think this is a great first entry in my new art journal!

So anyway, if you're wanting a great book to help you either begin to draw and paint faces, or just to learn some new techniques and media you may have not tried before, then I highly recommend Jane's book, Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. I would absolutely give it 5 out of 5 stars! And it's going to be a treasured (and well-used) book in my art book library.

Nicolas Cage Pop Art

I was looking through some old artwork last night and decided to have some digital fun with some old oil paintings. This one is based on a portrait of Nicolas Cage that I did several years ago. The original is all in blues, but I felt like changing it up.

It kind of has a Pop Art feel, and I love the reds and grays together. Not sure if Andy Warhol would approve or not, but I like it. Thanks to Nicolas for inspiring me with his face! :)

Pretty in Purple Mixed Media Girl

I was actually able to get into the studio twice over the weekend--that was a rare treat. I was working on some ideas for various paintings and projects, and I also created this new Mixed Media painting. She's my Pretty in Purple Mixed Media Girl.

Now the thing to know about me is, I'm not really a fan of purple. I don't hate it or anything, but it's just not a color that I gravitate to in the studio (or anywhere else). The only time I wore any purple shirts on a regular basis was when I was in college--because my school colors were purple and gold. But beyond that, purple has never been my thing. But if you look at the girl in the painting, she's wearing a dress of purple and mint green flowers, and that scrapbook paper is actually what inspired this painting.

I used lots of acrylics here, some stencils, paint markers, some tissue paper, and some Neocolor II crayons--all my usual suspects. I like how she turned out. I used yellow for her hair since it's a complimentary color to purple, so that always works. And I love how that makes her stand out on the canvas. And I didn't use any paintbrushes on the background paint--just a brayer and my fingers, so that was fun.

I'm not sure if she's 100% finished though. I keep looking at her and thinking maybe I need to do something more to her hair. But I'll let that percolate for awhile and then see how I feel about it in a week or two.

Roses In Her Hair

This is the second of two Mixed Media paintings I finished up from works in progress over the weekend. I think I started this in November or December, but got sidetracked with some genealogy research and never quite got back to it. I'm glad to see it finally finished. 

I was actually inspired by the roses that were in some scrapbook paper that I had in my studio. They were my starting point and I decided that they'd look lovely in a girl's hair. So I created the girl and added the flowers when she was finished. This photo is actually a bit cropped from the original, because it's a little too big for my scanner. 

I'm really pleased with how she turned out. For some reason I'm frequently inclined to paint girls with pink hair...not sure why. :)

Sparkle Fairy

It seems that I just can't get away from my Fairy Art girls. I just keep getting inspired to paint more. And I love working with various media and improving my skills with them, and with portraits in general. I love how my Sparkle Fairy came out this weekend.

I used mostly Neocolor II Crayons for this artwork this time. There is some white acrylic paint marker for details, and also some black pen and black rubber stamping as well. And also a wee bit of stenciling with distress ink was done in the background. It was a great, productive day in the studio.

Flutter Fae

Some more Fairy Art was finished in the studio over the weekend. I love how she turned out!

My Flutter Fae was created using Neocolor Crayons and Inktense blocks, a touch of acrylic paint pen and some Pitt Artist pens. She's on watercolor paper instead of canvas this time and 7x10 in size. I think I'm going to frame this one and keep her in the studio. :)

Dream Girl is California Dreaming

My amazing and wonderful friend, Lori, who was the maid of honor at my wedding way back in 1984, asked me recently to paint for her something that could she could use on the cover of her idea journal. She said I could paint whatever I wanted...but that maybe it could have flowers, or fairies, or something. I started with flowers, and almost did a fairy too. But I decided to use a fabulous figure stamp by one of my fave artists, Suzi Blu instead. And I love how it turned out.

I added all the color and embellishments with Inktense Blocks, Neocolor Crayons, a bit of acrylics, and some paint pens. There is also some stenciling in the background. I call her Dream Girl...and to me she is dreaming of flowers in lots of pretty colors. :)

Now she is California Dreaming, because California is her new home. And Lori loves her, which just proves that homemade art from the heart is always the best gift for best friends. ♥

Frozen Painting

By special request from my granddaughter, Destiny, I've created a new Acrylic Painting featuring Anna and Elsa from Frozen. I just finished it over the weekend. 

Destiny's new room has a Frozen theme, so this will fit right in. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it overall. And I think Destiny will really like it. She can hang it with her Rapunzel painting I did for recently too. :)

I started another mixed media painting over the weekend as well. So will be working on that some more this week. Then I hope to paint something for my 10 year old grandson, Dylan. I think he wants a Transformer. That should be interesting. :)

Rapunzel

I didn't do any art journal pages this week. Instead, I finished up my Rapunzel painting for my little princess, Destiny. If my granddaughter requests a painting, how can I possibly refuse? So this painting is now hanging on the wall above her bed.

And of course once I gave it to her, she requested Belle and Ariel as well. So I think there are going to be more princesses appearing in my studio in the near future. :)