Fun Foam Stencils

Someone on Facebook asked about how I did the Fun Foam Stencils I mentioned in the last post, so I thought I would do a little tutorial.  Honestly, it's pretty self-explanatory but maybe it's a new idea to some or maybe I have a tip that you didn't know about...so here we go:

Supplies:

• Fun Foam (you can get this at craft stores or online, I'm pretty sure Walmart carries it as well.)
• Scissors or a craft knife/Xacto
• Self-healing mat or a surface you don't mind gouging (if you are using the craft knife) 
• Sharpie or pen

Ooh...Supplies!  Fun foam, scissors or a craft knife and cutting mat, sharpie or pen

The first thing you do (if you so desire) is draw your pattern:

You can get all fancy and use a ruler or circle templates or whatever...or you can just wing it.  I'm a fan of winging it...

Next take your knife and cut out your design:

I would tell you to be careful with the knife because it's sharp, but you should know that and, besides, I'd feel like a hypocrite..."Cut away from yourself!"  You're not the boss of me logical thinking!  *she says as she cuts herself for the fifth time*

Don't throw away the pieces you cut out; they make great stamps!

This is me giving you permission to become a hoarder...
You can glue your foam stamps to things like cardboard or clear packaging (which is awesome because you can see exactly where you're putting your stamp) but you don't have to...as long as you don't mind getting your hands dirty...
You can see that I don't cut on my lines...mostly because I'm too impatient...I draw them in (quickly) to get an idea of placement and then I go back in with the knife and fix what wasn't working for me.  But that's just me...you do it how you like to do it!

You can use your stencil with sprays and paints, just like any other stencil:

Perhaps that was kind of a given...

With sprays:

With sprays, if you reverse the stencil, you can get a really good stamped image from your left-over ink...that's right, two toys in one!  I find that the spray ink stays put a little better on the fun foam than it does on store bought plastic stencils...so you get a cleaner image when you do the stencil flip technique thingie...

With paint:

I use a make up wedge and pounce in the acrylic...it gets the paint into the pointy bits pretty well.  You can also use a brush and go in to each space, but it's kind of a pain if there are a bunch of small places.

If you're not a fan of the craft knife, you can also just use scissors and cut out a design...I know you've done this a million times in your life:

The best part of this is you have a stencil AND a mask...plus you can stamp with both of them...so hooray for multi-taskers!

Here's what we have so far:

You can see the spray in purple from the picture above.  Then the blue acrylic diamonds...you can see your shapes aren't super exact with the acrylic pouncing (or else I'm just out of practice).  Also, if you use a make up wedge to pounce your paint in, don't forget that it has paint on it and will make a cool mark...that's what the marks lined up at the bottom of the picture are.  And you can also see, sprayed in pink, the heart stencil  (on the left) and mask (on the right).  A stencil lets you put color on the inside of the design (so the design is colored), a mask lets you put color everywhere except the inside (so that all around the design is colored and the design stays white).

And remember to try stamping with your left-overs:

For the stamps, you can use an ink pad.  I got a light imprint, even with black ink...I'm not 100% sure if that's because I need to re-ink my pad or because the fun foam just doesn't take the ink well...

Or use paint with a brayer (or just dump out a paint puddle and do it that way):

I should have used a different color so that you could see it a little better in the picture, but you can (possibly) see that I  got better prints with the paint than I did the ink pad...

And if you do use your brayer to 'ink' the stamp:

Don't forget that you will get some really neat images from your brayer!  The stamp takes off the paint only where it makes contact with the brayer...so you are left with another cool pattern on your brayer that you can use!

You can use all the 'left-overs' (the ink or paint left on your stencil/mask/stamp/brayer) and start another page...some people keep an extra journal just for that purpose.  It actually is pretty helpful if you are low on time to have that left-over catcher...because you will have a background ready to go next time you want to create and don't have the time to do the whole shebang.  Plus, you are not wasting any of your *PRECIOUS* supplies!  So, it's a time and money saver...Multi-tasking at it's best...

A word of warning...it's kind of addictive to do start cutting your own stencils...this isn't even the tip of the iceberg...

Just a few other thoughts:  

Thin lines are totally doable, if a little tedious.  I used a regular size Sharpie and cut on either side of the mark it made (instead of on the line), and that's about as thin as I could cut it with the craft knife without the foam tearing or me going crazy...ok, crazier...  Also, if you are cutting thin lines, don't pop out your left-over pieces till you are done; it helps the foam be more stable (learned that one the hard way...) and easier to cut. 

 

This stuff cuts pretty easily, but if you find a place that's still attached, cut it with your knife or scissors...don't be tempted to pull it...because it will tear and you will make the sad face... (learned that the hard way too...)  You can make curves for sure, but go a little slowly for the same reason...it will tear/you will sad face...

If you make something and don't like it, think about keeping it anyway.  I cut a feather that I didn't like but was pretty small, so I kept it and just went back to it later and made another design a little bigger around the original feather (so that the original just got cut away completely) and it ended up being pretty awesome.   And if you keep cutting bigger and bigger and just end up with a big empty square, look at it like you have a frame stencil!  You can also cut up ugly stencils and make good 'background noise' stamps.

Keep in mind that if you don't leave a border with the foam around your stenciled image (like the flower in the picture above), you will have a wobbly stencil...BUT it may be worth the wobbly to have an image that seamlessly flows into the background...  Full disclosure...I find it irritating because I have to keep adjusting the stencil to get the stem space on that flower.  I will be cutting another flower like the one above but with a foam border...that way I can have the best of both worlds...

If you don't have fun foam, you can always just use paper or cardboard or a million other things...the ideas are pretty much the same.  The fun foam is nice because it's a little more sturdy than paper, so your stencils will last longer.  BUT if you use paper, you can fold it up and do paper 'snowflake' type designs (I know you did that as a kid too!)...the fun foam will fold, but because it's thickier, you can't (or it would be extremely hard to) get those intricate designs...I found you could fold the foam twice (one horizontal, one vertical) and still cut it, but again, it's not easy to get detailed designs that way...BUT you could always cut the paper and use it as a template on your fun foam and get the detailed design that way...

So, ta-da!  Tutorial over...  I hope I had some helpful info and wasn't just being Captain Obvious...  I bet there are a million other ideas out there involving fun foam stencils or cutting your own stencils...or other uses for fun foam...so if you have anything to add, I'd love to hear your ideas!

ICAD, Art Journal and Canvas Hooray!

First, a big thanks to everybody for helping me hit 3,000 page views!  You guys made me do the happy dance today!  It wasn't too long ago that I was doing the happy dance over 2,000...I am going to have to start thinking about some kind of giveaway for when I hit 5,000...it's going to creep up on me and I'll be unprepared if I'm not careful!  If anybody has any ideas on that, I'm open to suggestions...

So I got to do some artsy stuff today, and I'm super excited about it!  I'm always super excited, aren't I?  It's like I'm bipolar, but only ever visit the one pole, you know what I mean?  

Up first is my ICAD card, which I'm cheating on and doing two prompts in one card, because I messed up my order royally and now I'm just confused and scared!  Help!  Help!  

This card is 3x5 and the prompts were 'your name in block letters' and 'logo':

I think I failed at block letters...I don't think there are supposed to be curves in block letters...but I didn't research that first, and so I ended up with this.   I did get to use some of my FANTABULOUS Silks acrylic glazes to color it in...I am not one for glittery things usually, but EGADS! I love those things so much!  This whole week for ICAD is bound to be a do-over, because I just went cuckoo or something.  The 'logo' part is my stylized little red clover.  I've used it before, hit and miss, but I like it quite a lot and I think it will be my signature from now on, mostly because it keeps me from having to sign my name in my terrible 12-year-old boy handwriting...  (Who am I kidding?  Even 12-year-old boys have better handwriting than me!)

Next I did a page (or really a two-page spread) in one of my art journals:

This is not my usual thing...  The colors and the collage-y look are both out of the norm for me.  This was kind of an experiment page.  I used some muslin I had painted black (I painted the muslin forever ago, testing out some textile medium I had bought.)  On the right page, behind the stamped image (the one that is not torn) is the scrap piece of paper I used underneath the muslin when I painted it...isn't that a neat effect how the paint came through all randomly?  I think it's a pretty nifty pattern!  The stamped images were also me testing things out.  Same stamp, in different inks (some images then covered in perfect pearls) on pages from my old Spanish/English dictionary.  I colored some of the pages using alcohol inks as well to make them look more aged...they were already pretty old, but not quite as darkly antique colored as they are now.  The journaling says: "I think somewhere along the way I have been torn apart and I must spend the rest of my life piecing myself back together." 

And finally, the thing I am REALLY super excited about:

Woo Hoo!!!   My bird at sunrise painting!  He's on an 8x10 canvas.  I would just like to mention that I do NOT like working on canvases.  I know it's because I'm just not used to them, but ARG!  I much prefer my safe and easy watercolor paper!  ...but I will keep practicing on the canvases.   One day, I will probably look back at this post and say what a weenie I was for not liking to work on canvas.  As much as I disdained working on the canvas, I am so very, very happy with how the painting turned out!  And look, I even used my little red clover to sign it with!  Squeeee!  It makes me so happy!

I did the painting along with the completely awesome (and very nice) Marc Charles from Painting with Marc on YouTube.  Some darling amigas from one of the Facebook groups I am in suggested watching his first video (I made an ICAD card using what I learned in the video...you can see the result in my last post).  Now, I am HOOKED!  

Here is the video for your viewing pleasure...and listening pleasure (I LOVE his accent!  *sigh*  It's just delicious, I swear I could listen to him read the dictionary!):

He does such a great job of teaching you how to do things!  I am enamored with him and his art and his style of teaching!  He kindly accepted a Facebook friending from me, and, let me just say, he is such a sweetie pie!  So go subscribe to his channel on YouTube and go friend him (and me, of course!) on Facebook and see just how wonderful he really is!  I think I am going to end up doing all of his tutorials, so be forewarned: You will be hearing about Marc again!

So those are my major accomplishments for the day...what did you get into?

Icads 21-24

What a busy weekend I had!  (That's my lame way to say sorry I didn't post for a couple days...)  In my defense, I actually did have a seemingly action packed weekend.  

There was mailing of mail art.  There was going to Michaels craft store (twice).  There was a MONSTROUS amount of cleaning.  This is what took up the most time...egad, so much time...but the craft room looks AWESOME...and to a lesser extent, so do the kitchen and bathroom.  I mean, how awesome can they look...there's hardly any art supplies in those other rooms at all!  

And there was also art...I managed to get my ICAD cards done.  I also started an art journal page, but I'm not finished yet, so that will have to wait for another post.

So anyways, ICAD cards...  

They are all on 3x5 index cards.  I managed to somehow get confused on the prompts for each day.  I was doing the prompts in order, but I messed that up (no clue how).  I did do 4 cards in 4 days, so that counts anyway, I think.

For the first one, the prompt was 'owl'.  I tried using the video found HERE to paint my card.  The video is really cool, and I could listen to that guy talk all day long.  My girls on Facebook and I have decided I am totally going to marry him, because he has an awesome accent, he's pretty much adorable, he's clumsy (watch the video...he drops something...bwa-ha-ha...I love it!) and he likes art...  How perfect can one person be?  I don't know how my current husband will feel about this, but I'd like to think he'll understand.  Besides, he doesn't have an adorable accent at all, so his opinion is pretty much meaningless...  

Here's the card:

This video is really good.  The man (with the fabulous accent) makes you really feel like you can do what he's doing, and not in a fruit loopy, hippy dippy way (Lawd, I hate when they get all fruit loopy), but just in a nice "it's easy, just try it" way.  With that accent, I believe whatever he says...  Anyway, because I'm a rebel, I added some highlights with white to the owl and to branches especially (in the video, he just has you do the silhouette).  I like the way the branches turned out...the owl, not so much...he looks more cartoonish to me than the branches do.

Next is my ICAD for the prompt "list of pros and cons"...see, I told you, I got all out of whack.  Anyway, because lists are my mortal enemy, I decided that instead of pros and cons, I would just do a 'con' and decided to make a picture of Bonnie Parker, of Bonnie and Clyde fame:

Here's my extremely stylized version of Faye Dunaway as Bonnie Parker.  

Then I made this card, for the prompt 'lyrics or quote', using a video by Jennibellie, which you can find HERE.  Basically, the idea was to 'paint' using string of some kind.  I used embroidery floss:

Once I put down the string, it reminded me of Liza Minelli in Cabaret.  Mostly nowadays, when I think of Liza Minelli, I think of her in Arrested Developement...."I got a case of the dizzies." HAHAHA! 

Finally, I made this card for the prompt 'grocery list':

...because we all know art supplies are more important than food.  These are a few of the things I got at Michaels this weekend (minus the index cards): a set of black Microns, a set of Twinkling H2Os, 5 colors of screen printing ink for fabric, 6 different colors of Silks acrylic glazes, a couple different Sharpies, and some Mod Podge matte sealer.  I got some other things (during the second trip) which didn't make it to the 'grocery' list: some Golden soft gel medium (matte), some Adirondack acrylic paint daubers, and some new paint brushes.  Over all, a fabulous haul.  I've been good for a long time, so I went a little nuts...I'm like a binge buyer when it comes to supplies...nothing, nothing, nothing, EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE...  Shame on me!

ICAD 16 and 17 and a Bonus

I was a bit of a no-show yesterday...sorry about that!  And here I've been so good at posting at least the ICAD cards once a day...Oh well...

The reason I didn't post yesterday is that it was my first day of non-smoking.  Oh yeah...it was great.  I got one of those e-cigarettes to try to take the edge off...I don't know how well that's going to work.  Let me just say I could totally eat a cigarette right now.  I wouldn't even flinch. 

I have quit smoking before.  Literally quit, I didn't just make an attempt to quit for a day and then take it back up.  No, I quit for three or four years.  Then, I had a bit of a personal tragedy and started again.  That was about two years ago.  

The first time I quit, I quit cold turkey (after attempting the pill, which made me a psychopath)...that may be how I end up doing it this time as well...  I think this electronic thing is just making me angry.  

The sucky part is that I LIKE to smoke.  I REALLY like to smoke.  OH LAWD, HOW I LOVE TO SMOKE!!!.  

But I know that I need to quit.  I've been getting out of breath way too easily, and it is probably a combination of the smoking and the general amount of unhealthy that I possess, but I'm willing to try to quit smoking first and see how that works out...then exercise if I HAVE to.  Another good reason to quit is the stink.  I know everything I have probably smells like smoke.  I have been thinking about trying to sell some of my art online (Thanks to the encouragement from my gals on Facebook) and I can't do that if it smells like smoke.  And then there's the whole money end of it.  Yeah...I don't want to tell you how much I spend on smoking a month...you'll gasp in horror.  ...At least (AT LEAST!) $200...sometimes more.  Yeah, that's not a typo...two hundred dollars a month or more spent on smoking!  *GASP!*  I know, how ridiculous is that? Do you know how many art and craft supplies could be bought with that money?  So many...

So if everyone I know in real life could promise not to be annoying for the next week or two, that would be great.  From quitting before, I know the first two weeks were the hardest for me.  That was the time frame that I wanted to rip people's faces off.  After that I was totally ok.  I thought maybe the e-cigarette would take some of that edge away, but I think it is making it worse.  

I am trying to think of all the awesome reasons I have to quit smoking, but good grief, just talking about it makes me want a cigarette!  I promise this will not become a blog dedicated to how I quit smoking, but I may mention it off hand, just to keep me accountable.  

At any rate, I did do my ICAD cards this weekend, and here they are: 

The first one is from the 16, the prompt was "polka dots" and it's a 3x5:

This is a stamp I have.  I embossed it and then used watercolor to paint behind it.  I could get inspired to do much else on this one, I just wanted to try the idea out again.

Here's the card for today, the prompt is "definition" and it's a 3x5 as well:

This one reminds me of smoking...if you look at it sideways, it looks like your trying to light two cigarettes with one flame.  I can't look at this anymore!  *tear*

Finally, I have a bit of a 'bonus' card today.  Inspired by the lovely (and VERY nice and funny) Tracey Fletcher King and her amazing cuppa cards, and using her step by step how-she-does-it on her blog (found HERE), I made my own cuppa card!

Here's my cup, I use her for holding pens and crayons and crochet hooks, but she is very much a mug, I promise... :

Isn't she adorable?  I love stuff like this!  I got her forever ago at a thrift store for a quarter.  She's worth much more to me; I just love her!

And here's my card, a 4x6:

Not too horrible for a first try, right?  And I did like Tracey said on the blog, and used NO PENCIL, only pen...on the lettering too, which is why "promise" is colored in...because it's an 's' not a 'c' as I originally tried to write...Note to self: spell check first next time.  Overall, not terrible, but I think with practice that I could get better.  So practice is the plan!  

Thanks to Tracey Fletcher King and her awesome how-to!  I really had a lot of fun attempting this...even though I couldn't use my pencil safety net... :)

ICAD DAY 7

Another quick one today...

Today's theme's are "paisley" and the bonus them is "calligraphy".

I only did one card with the paisley theme, a 4x6:

I thought I would try to use stamps as hair, but I think I should have overlapped the stamps...maybe that would have been more hair-like in my eyes...  on the positive side, I do love these stamps (the biggest paisley one is my favorite stamp, because look at the flower...it's a red clover (at least in my eyes)!!!) and I use them so rarely it's a crime!  I used crayola 'super tips' markers to color most of it in...I do like how her bottom lip turned out...it looks pretty good.  I chalk the rest of her up as a loss...or a lesson learned...

I did several cards with the calligraphy theme.  The first 3 are 4x6, the last one is 3x5:

Actual calligraphy...or at least as close as I can get...maybe it should be 'done with an actual calligraphy pen' instead...

Again, this was done with an actual calligraphy pen.  I like the 'L' in 'Look'... 'L' is my favorite letter to draw, because it's the only one that looks right to me...

These last two were done using the tutorial found HERE.  I like how they turned out so much that I should really start using this technique in my quotes in my art journal!

"Eyes tell lies."  I think I am going to add some stuff into this one...maybe color it in too.  I like that it's stretched across the page, dividing it into two separate spaces.  I think something interesting could be done with that...

And the only 3x5 in the group...  This is the card that made me think I should use the faux calligraphy in my art journals.  I like the 'S' in 'Sweet' and pretty much the whole of 'Clover', with the exception of the curlicue on the end of the 'r'...I don't care for it so much.

My Brief Flash of Genius and ICAD day 3

A while ago, I talked about the coolness of packing tape transfers...they remain cool to me.  You can find a tutorial on them HERE.

I was having a lousy thoughts day and decided I needed to get some stuff out in my journal, just some mental yuck that I didn't want anybody to see in the end.  I just wanted to get some kind of cathartic release thing to happen.

Anyway, I was looking for an empty space in a journal to work out my frustrations on and came across a page where I had just written something random and stuck down an extra transfer I had done.  Then I had an epiphany.  A big "What if I..." epiphany.  

So  I grabbed some acrylic paint and squirted it over top of the page, moving it around with an old credit card.  And then I took a paper towel and swiped over the packing tape transfer that was on the page...SUCCESS!  The paint wiped right off.  Hooray!  So when the paint dried, I used a sharpie and started writing out some of what was in my brain and then stuck another packing tape transfer over that.  Then I repeated these steps (with different colors of paint) till everything was of my head and did one final layer of paint over the top of everything.

And here is the result:

The first transfer that was on the page was the bird one...I "put a bird on it".  Hehehe...Portlandia.

I really like the image of the dancers, it's so interesting to me...

I like how everything's facing a different direction, how you can see some of the words but as a whole they're still obscured, and how there's a different color paint showing through from every layer.  Thanks brain!

OK, I confess that having the words "And now all these things live in me." coming through  inside of the house image was on purpose...  I had written it and realized that it might fit and come through if I angled the house right, and boom!  It did!  I think that's a neat little extra touch.

So anyway, I just wanted to share that idea in case you wanted to do write something personal, but don't want anybody to be able to read it afterward.  Or even if you don't and just want some color from underneath to come through to the surface.  It was a flash of genius for me, so I had to show you guys, because they happen so rarely, and I kind of wanted some proof that they actually do happen...

It also happens to be day 3 of ICAD, with the theme of "faux stitching", and I did two again.  What can I say, I'm on a roll...

Here's the 3x5:

On the edges, there are fake stitches, and then I did the real stitches too.  It only took me till when I started doing the border around the word "real" to realize that if I punched some guide holes into the card first, I could probably get it to look more neatly done.  And, as a bonus, the needle would stop slipping and I'd quit accidentally stabbing myself with it.  The blood loss from needle stabs was minimal, but my finger was starting to get really sore!  See how ICAD helps?  Now I know, for future reference, to punch guide holes first!  You learn something new every day...  The extra dumb part was that I had punched guide holes in the faux stitches part in an effort to make the stitches look more real.  So it probably shouldn't have taken me so long to put two and two together concerning the real stitches...  But I got there eventually, and that's the important thing.

Here's the 4x6:

The quote says "I myself am entirely made of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."  Hooray for quotes that fit the technique!  I've really liked that quote since the first time I saw it, and have wanted to do some kind of real embroidery incorporating it, so now that's back in my mind.  I like the little faux stitched daisies at the bottom.  And the zigzag too...it reminds me of Charlie Brown.

So anyways, that's my creativity for the day.  I hope you can use the multi-layer packing tape transfer idea for something, or that it leads you to your own epiphany...and that you'll then share that epiphany with me, so's I can try out your idea!  We'll have an interchange of epiphanies!  And then we'll go get tacos...

The Process and the Man

I woke up this morning, sad because I had to go back to work today after the long weekend.  *insert my Lucille Ball/I Love Lucy type "WAAA!" here*  I popped over to my blogger dashboard thingie, and lo and behold, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have 2000 page views (exactly 2000 too, which was a pretty neat coincidence)!  Woo Hoo!  That's totally awesome! I just had 1000 page views just a short while ago, and now we've hit 2000!  What?!?  I am so excited!  I still didn't want to go to work today (I wanted to stay home and do celebratory dances all day long), but either way, my sad face disappeared and perma-smile took over!  Thanks everybody!

Today, I thought I might show you how I come up with my faces that I draw...the condensed version anyway.  One day, I am going to remember to take a lot of pictures during the process and get you the long version.  I tend to get caught up in the excitement and forget to take pictures, but I am going to eventually strap the camera to my forehead and remember.  At any rate, today you get the short version...

The important thing to remember here is that I am not an expert by any means.  This is my current method, and you have to find what works for you.  I'm definitely still learning myself.  But, from where I started, I'm much improved and I thought that this info might help somebody...

The short version starts with me finding a good reference picture.  Most of the time, I use my trusty Pinterest account to do this.  You can check me out on Pinterest by clicking the button in the left side bar of the blog, or by searching "Sweet Red Clover" on Pinterest.  Don't do it now, or you'll get sucked into the vortex of amazingness that is Pinterest and forget to read the rest of this post...I know this because I do that at least once a day...so wait till you're done reading, then go look at it...and enjoy the pleasure spiral that is Pinterest...  

On Pinterest, I have a board called "Photograph", which is where I put the images I've seen that really stand out to me in one way or another.  I like to use pictures that really catch my eye.  I keep this board in mind whenever I'm online, because you never know when your pin might come in handy.  I've found the best pictures on random sites that have nothing to do with art or even that particular photo...sometimes they're just ads in the side bar!  But that doesn't matter, because these are images that I can get excited about.  

I scan through my "Photograph" board until I find one that fits whatever mood I am in that day.  Sometimes I can't find an image on my board that I want to use, so I go searching on Pinterest for interesting faces till I find one.  For me, the 'interesting' part is important.  If I REALLY like the reference photo, I've got a better shot at making the piece it inspires interesting (at least in my eyes).  And interesting doesn't always mean 'pretty' either.  But that's a whole different topic in and of itself, isn't it?

Here's the picture I used as my reference this time:

Hello, handsome!  I liked this guy's sweater and his cute little ears and strong jawline...his forehead is a bit weird looking to me, which is probably the real reason I liked this picture.  I like things that are a little 'off' to me...I don't want perfect, I want interesting.

After I find the right picture, I do a simple face sketch...this is the part where I really need to remember to take pictures next time.  This is where I take a pencil and lay out the face shape.  I start with (usually) an oval, adding a line down the center vertically and three lines across horizontally.  Many people do their guidelines as half, half, and half.  I do mine half, half, and a third.  This means that I draw a line half the distance from the top of the oval to the bottom of the oval (this is where the eyes will be), half the distance from that 'eye' line to the bottom of the oval (this is where the bottom of the nose will be), and a third of the distance from that 'nose' line to the bottom of the oval (which is where the mouth will be).  Depending on the particular face, the proportions are a little different for each drawing, but I've found that half, half and a third is what I like the best in most cases.

After I draw that out, I add simple shapes for the eyes, nose and mouth.  This is just to get them where they should be, not getting them in fine detail...that comes later...  Then I adjust the outer oval, because nobody's face is a perfect oval shape...or at least nobody I've come across so far  Among other things, the guy above has a more squared off jaw, and his face dips in where his eyebrows are.  I gave my guy a hat, because he looked cold and because I couldn't see his hair, and, to be honest, hair is hard for me...I get bored with hair fast...both my own (hello ponytail!) and hair to draw.  When I get the face shape to a place I'm happy with, then I adjust the shapes of the features...adding in the details of what they really look like.  There is A LARGE AMOUNT of drawing and erasing that goes on in this stage.  So much erasing...  I've found a really good tip concerning erasing somewhere along the way, which is if you're not happy with a particular line, draw the new line, then erase the old one...I had always done this in reverse before, but leaving the old line in is a visual reminder of what I didn't like about it and helps me to not repeat the same mistake twenty times.    

Once I'm relatively happy with what I've got, I either go over it in waterproof pen or (as has been the case lately) I spray some kind of fixative on it so the pencil won't smudge.  I use hairspray because it works and I am too poor to buy fixative.  Hairspray will eventually yellow, so if that's a problem for you go buy some fancy fixative...and buy an extra can for me... 

I wish I could find the link for a video I watched on YouTube where this FABULOUS lady was doing a tutorial on how she draws faces.  If/When I find it, I'll post the link.  Anyway, she was talking about drawing and said something to the effect of: "I don't like to draw things exactly how I see them.  If you want an exact copy, why not just take a picture?  I like to put my own spin on things, put myself into the drawing."  Not her exact words, but the point is there.  I like this because a) it makes a lot of sense and b) it makes up for the fact that I am not ABLE to draw an exact copy...yet.  So, if you get frustrated that your drawing doesn't look exactly like your photo, just tell yourself that you are "putting your spin on things" and keep practicing. 

So here's what my pencil drawing looked like when I was done:

Not an exact copy by far...but my spin on the photo has been spun...

Next up is color.  I do a lot of 'fixing' with color...probably more than I should.  I think that I need to spend more time in the pencil drawing part if I want to improve further, but I digress...

I am a big fan of watercolor, because you can still see your drawing that you spent so much time on.  Acrylic and oil, which are also great, are harder in my eyes, because you are getting rid of your pencil marks...and you have no guidelines once those are gone. Watercolor is much easier to me.  And you can build color, starting out really light and slowly working to dark, which has helped me in learning more about (and  putting into practice) highlights and shading.

The most important thing I've learned concerning color is to use a light hand.  You can always add more, it's not so easy to take it away.  The second most important thing (especially with watercolors it seems) is to start with lighter colors then go to darker colors and it's for the same reason...you can build up with your light colors and that might be enough to get you where you want to be, whereas if you threw that dark color in, it's hard to take it back...

So, after much explanation in getting to this point, here is my man:

The journaling got cut off a little, but it reads: "I had so much more to say to you.  What do I do now?"

So, clearly, I don't know everything.  *insert your shocked gasp here*  But I thought you might like to hear how I do my faces.  I've learned a lot by watching other people, and by being willing to practice over and over and over and over (and over and over...), and I'm always searching for ways to do better.  

It is a complete understatement to say that I love making these faces.  Perhaps it's because I'm looking for a personal connection, and so drawing something with eyes and ears and a mouth is my way of finding that.  I can 'say' things to these drawings that I can't say to live people.  I can make them tell me what I need to hear...which kind of makes me sound like a crazy person, I know.  What I mean is that when I'm done with a drawing, I get this mental clarity...I figure out what I've been thinking about deep in my mind that I might not have gotten to understand otherwise.  I don't usually start out with anything particular in my head, other than wanting to draw.  Even if I do begin with something in mind, where I end up could be a totally different place.

For instance, the man I shared today.  In the beginning, I just wanted to see if I could draw a man...this guy is my first attempt at a man since I really started trying to draw in earnest.  But the more I drew, the more he became something else.  See that reddish hair?  I grabbed up the red before I even knew what I was doing.  And once that got on the page, two distinct things came into my head.  There are things that have gotten taken away from me, and I wasn't ready to lose them; I wasn't done with them.  And I've been looking for ways to get them back, even though it's impossible.  And I can't seem to shake them, despite the fact that I know it's over and nothing can change.  So what do I do now?  I guess that's my big cosmic question to the universe...what do I do now?  And maybe someday, I'll be drawing another face, and the answer will come out on the page.  Until that happens, I guess I'll just keep drawing face and listening to what they have to say.

The Little Black Book or An Almost Tutorial

I just wanted to share a little project that I did Saturday night.  I wanted to do something creative, but didn't have my usual journal page mojo going.  My mojo was eluding me all weekend actually, like a big jerk...  Usually, when this happens, I can look through my buckets of random supplies and find SOMETHING that gets me all worked up.  Or I go look at my Pinterest boards and get inspired.  Or, as a last resort, I tell myself if I don't think of something I'll have to start cleaning...that's usually a no-fail  way to get my brain working...anything is better than cleaning.

But, alas, even the threat of cleaning did nothing for me this time.  So I made good on my personal threat and started cleaning.  

I was going through the stacks of junk on my desk and came across a pocket calender similar to this one (I had two, because I like to hoard things with the thought that one day I will use them for something.):

Cheapie little pocket calender...you can pick them up for a dollar just about anywhere...

Between the find of this provocative little calendar, and the large amount of small scraps of patterned paper that were roaming about everywhere, my little brain devised a plan.  

Because the pages of the calendar were very thin, I glued two pages together and let them dry...afterwards I realized that I probably would have been ok not taking this step and just having more pages, but it was too late to unglue at that point...

Anyway, after the glue dried, I just took my random bits of patterned paper and started gluing them down all willy nilly and in the end, here's what I came up with:

At this point, I feel the need to mention that A) I should have cleaned my desk, because if anybody looks in the background of these pictures, they're going to think I NEVER clean...and that's not true, I just use spray ink and glue instead of lemon pledge...don't judge... B) you will probably notice how messy and uneven the edges of the pages are...which is true, but this is just my little scrappy book that will get tossed into the bottom of my purse for creativity on the go (at least that's the plan at this point) and will get beat up, and ripped and torn and bent anyway, so I'm ok with messy/uneven edges (if you're not and you make you own, go ahead and trim those babies down...it's ok, I give you the green light...) and C) you may have also noticed that some of the pages are less...cohesive(?) than other pages...I'm planning on fixing that with a color wash or some other sort of easy background technique that will probably involve gesso to make it meld together...or maybe not...random isn't so bad in my eyes.

I also wanted to make quick mention of my cover for this little monstrosity.  I went with a solid color black card stock, and not because that was the only piece of scrap paper I had that was big enough to recover the book with...although that was a big part of it...  I like to save the outside of my journals as the very last thing I decorate.  That way when you're in the midst of doing fabulous messy art journaly things, you're not worried about screwing up whatever awesome artwork you've done on the covers...because you haven't done anything to it yet...  I say save that for the end, so if you get a big blob of accidental paint on it, you can work that into your cover art and say it was your plan all along to do it that way...  That's right!  Lie!  Lie like a dog!  Oh, and just for your amusement, here is a picture of my boring black cover:

I hope this little almost tutorial thing was interesting to read.  Really fast, before I go, I want to mention before I forget that over the weekend, I had a neat milestone thing happen for my blog, I hit 1,000 page views...it was actually like 1,012 when I saw it...and that feels pretty neat!  So thanks everybody who comes to see me and my artsy stuff...you made me do the happy dance this weekend!