29 Faces - day 29!

It's the end of the month and the 29 faces are done! Thanks to Ayala Art for hosting this great challenge. The discipline of doing a new face each day is great for developing your skills surprisingly quickly. It has also allowed me to work out which media I prefer and which ones really aren't for me. I can have a clear out of my cupboards. 

There is usually a 29 Faces challenge in September, as well. Why don't you consider joining in?

29 faces - day 28

After a few relative duds, I've produced a face I'm happy with. This is based on a photograph because a  lot of the time I find it easier to have a reference to work from. I haven't done many profiles in this set of faces. The shading is different for a profile and I'm still learning about what works to get a reasonable 3D look.

Well, just one more face to go and the challenge will be done for this month.

29 Faces - day 27

Well, this one went south as soon as the too-long nose appeared! She became more and more catlike, so I gave her cat ears. Sometimes you just have to let the drawing go its own way. 

29 Faces - day 26

Just having problems with proportions at the moment, but each time there is at least a bit of the piece that I am satisfied with. My noses are improving at least :)

29 Faces - day 25

Well, this one seems to be puffing out his cheeks! It wasn't my intention :) Charcoal is not that forgiving, so I was committed to the large face and then I messed up the proportions with the features, but hey, it's just practice. I'm not that keen on charcoal as I find it a little scratchy, but it's fun to try things that are out of your comfort zone. There's always something to learn. 

29 Faces - day 24

Oil pastels today - I pulled them out of the drawer where they've been a little neglected. As I was hurting my finger trying to smudge them, I remembered another almost-forgotten supply: a blending stump. That was much better. 

The thing I had to remember was that you can't just go over the top of the pastels like you can with acrylics as they blend rather than covering. 

Almost there with the 29 Faces challenge now. See who else has kept up by clicking the button in the sidebar.

29 faces - day 23

This girl has such big hair! But I have determined to post all the 29 faces with no do-overs, so here she is in all her big-haired glory. And I don't like her eyebrows, but hey, it's just a drawing :)

29 Faces - day 22

This face started out with copying a photo from a magazine, but she took on a life of her own. I think the shading is a bit more subtle on this one, but it seems to work. 

Almost there now! Check out what other artists have been doing with faces this month by clicking on the 29 Faces button in the sidebar. 

29 Faces - day 21

This is a very whimsical face - the eyes are definitely too big for it to be realistic :) However, I am pleased with the mouth on this one. I'm starting to get that darker top lip and highlight on the bottom one. It's easy to know what you should do to get your face to look 3 dimensional, but actually executing it isn't always that easy. The head knowledge doesn't always move through to the fingers. . Anyway, I feel like I'm coasting down the hill now, with only 8 faces to go.

29 Faces - day 20

I was looking for a reference photo for today's face and decided to look at some classic artworks. An Italian icon caught my eye. The style was interesting, so I thought I'd give it a go. 

29 Faces - Day 19

A simple profile in pencil today. I drew a face from this same reference two years ago in this challenge, and was pleased to see, when I compared them, that this one was much more like the photograph. It's encouraging to see the improvement in transferring what my eye sees to what my hand draws.  

29 Faces - day 18

There are parts of this face that I like and other parts that really don't work for me. Surprisingly, the nose and the mouth showing teeth I'm pleased with. The photo that was a reference had the face in deep shadow. Because my page was already purple from where I'd cleaned off my brayer at some point, I went with purple for the shading. Unfortunately it makes her look like she's in some sort of half-mask. 

But tomorrow is another day and another face. I just turn the page and try again.

Check out all the faces being created this month by clicking on the 29 Faces button in the sidebar. 

29 Faces - Day 17

This face is drawn from a magazine photograph. I liked the different pose - the face tipped up. It makes the chin a completely different shape. I wanted to do a face that was made up of simple shapes and lines. The permanent pens force you to be bold with your lines and put up with any 'mistakes'. I think this is good discipline for me.

29 Faces - Day 16

I enjoyed doing yesterday's face so much that I did another one with the same technique. Only this time I filmed it as well. 

The 29 Faces challenge can be found here. It's not too late to join in the fun.

29 Faces - day 15

Those of you who visit my site regularly may have been wondering why there has been no acrylic paint in sight for the last two weeks. Well, I've been making shirts, so the faces so far have been done with dry media for the most part - no spraying or splattering - but now the shirts are finished and there's no chance of splashing them by accident, so I broke out the paint.

One of the things I realised when I did this face is that I didn't feel the need to draw the outline first. I just went straight at it with the brush. This is a huge growth step for me. I remember last time I did this challenge that I drew in all the outlines first. I guess I've become a little freer with a brush :)

29 faces - day 14

Just a quick one today - a pen and a little colour. Not my favourite one so far, but every bit of practice helps, right?

Check out some of the other faces being created for the 29 faces challenge by using the button in the sidebar. There are some great ones out there - faces produced with a single line, pencil drawings, paintings, caricatures, whimsical faces and portraits.

29 Faces - day 13

A Uniball pen doesn't allow for shading, so I've had to do a bit of cross-hatching on this one. I definitely prefer media that I can shade with, but a permanent pen does have good points. When you can't rub out your lines, you have to learn to live with them and be bold in putting them down in the first place.

What's your favourite medium?

29 Faces - day 12

For the 12th face in this month-long rendering of faces, I went back to the good old pencil. This is an HB, which felt right with the lined paper. I wanted to try a face looking up to the sun. Not sure I got enough tilt on it, but it's a new pose for me, so I'll persevere with it.

29 Faces blog can be found by clicking the button in the sidebar. There you'll find a link to see what other artists out there are doing in this challenge.

29 Faces - day 11

I'm calling this one 'The disgruntled mermaid' :) I wanted to have a go at wet hair, which led to the mermaid theme. This is another one done with Copics on gesso. However, this time I used a very pale pen to blend the colours together.

29 Faces - Day 10

Today's face is more lifelike, done from a photo. I feel like I'm starting to improve with noses, and I'm particularly pleased with the eyes on this one. Last time I joined the challenge I was learning more about shading. This time it feels as if I'm learning more about individual features. It seems that when you think you're finished, you should go a little further - more shading, deeper colours, a bit more detail. There's always something new to learn.

If you want to see what other people are up to with making faces, click the 29 Faces button in the sidebar. There are some wonderful faces out there.

29 Faces - day 9

Another day in February, another face. This one is done with Copics. I laid down a thin layer of gesso on the page as the paper is thin. I could work in a different journal, but after I started with this one for the 29 Faces challenge in 2014, it felt right to continue in it. 

So, once the layer of gesso was down, the Copics didn't go through the paper. However, it did make them more streaky, but I'm liking the effect. Usually I like to blend everything and not have hard edges, but I'm learning to let go and be more bold with the separate colours. 

What are you learning in this challenge?

29 Faces - day 8

So, I tried the same technique as yesterday - Neocolor IIs blended with gesso - but with more realistic colours. I'm liking this one much better. I'm pleased with the different pose as well. I can see progress.

Don't know what 29 Faces is all about? Click on the button in the sidebar to see all the wonderful faces being drawn, painted, coloured, shaded this month.

29 Faces - Day 7

Well, I've managed to keep up for a whole week now. This one turned out a bit too pink for my liking, though.

This is a technique from Jane Davenport's book Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces. It uses Neocolor IIs to scribble on colour for the shadows, main colour, and highlights, and then blends them with gesso applied with a brush. I should have taken a photo before the blending because it looked really garish at that point! The blending was gentler than blending the colours with water, especially on this thin paper. Think I'll give it another go with more realistic colours.

29 Faces - day 6

I thought I'd change things up a bit today and make a video with my trusty Brinno time-lapse camera. It was interesting to see how I worked. You don't really think about it while you're doing it, but it was useful to see in what order I did things and how the face progressed. I'm always fascinated to see how other people work, so seeing my own art in action was fun. 

Anyway, this face was done with Neocolor IIs, part of it then being activated with water. It always surprises me when you add the water as the colours suddenly become so much darker and brighter. This paper is not the best for watercolour, but it turned out all right.

29 Faces - day 5

Day 5 in the 29 Faces challenge and I reached a colourful page in my journal where stencils and brayers have been cleaned off. I wanted to preserve a good amount of that colour, so decided to do a face using Copic markers. Because the model in the photo I was using for reference was looking up slightly and leaning on her arm, a pose I haven't done often, I used my non-dominant hand to draw with. For some reason it shuts down that voice in my head that criticises what I'm doing, the one that says, 'You can't do this, it's too difficult.' When I use my left hand, there is no expectation that the lines will be smooth or that anything will match. Somehow this results in some surprisingly effective drawings. The permanent markers mean that I have to just go with the marks that I make. It makes me bolder, and sometimes that is what you need.

Check out the 29 Faces challenge by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

29 Faces - day 4

This is not my favourite face. I can see a lot of room for improvement :) However, each time I draw a face I learn how and how not to do it. What I've learned this time is that I need more practice with 3/4 faces.

This one was done with water-soluble graphite. I drew and then activated with water once the drawing was finished. I'm trying to just go with it and not erase any lines, so you can see where I changed the line in places. The proportions here aren't the best, and the eyes don't match. I also managed to make a blob at the edge of the mouth which I then rested my hand in and transferred to the nose. It's a good job it's only my journal!

Check out all the other participants in this challenge by clicking on the 29 Faces button in the sidebar.

29 Faces - day 3

I like to use different media when I practice drawing and painting faces. This one is done on a page where I cleaned off my brayer after doing something else. The face itself is drawn using a Golden high flow acrylic straight from the bottle. If you only open the nozzle a little, you can get some control over the flow. It's still a bit hit and miss, but that's part of the fun, right?

Check out the other 29 facers by clicking on the button in the sidebar.

29 Faces - Day 2

Day 2 and another face. This one is done with Aquatone pencils - a solid watercolour pencil. It is copied from a Jane Davenport drawing in her book Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces which I bought at the weekend. Loving it! Hopefully you'll be able to see how I put some of the things I'm learning into practice as we progress through the month. 

Don't know about 29 Faces? Check the button in the sidebar to see all the wonderful faces being drawn and painted this month.

29 Faces is here again!

February has come around again and so it's 29 Faces time. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can see what it's all about here. 

I last participated in Feb 2014, and I found the journal that I used then. There are enough pages left in it to do this year's round of creativity as well. It will be fun to see how I've progressed.

This face is done from a photo with chalky pastel pencils on sugar paper. I found that these pastels are not my favourite to use. They feel scratchy on the paper. Won't be using those again! Check out what everyone else is doing by using the link above or the button in the sidebar. Tune in tomorrow for face #2.