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.