A Year of Mary : A new voice

This week I was very surprised to discover that I haven't created a face in either of my art journals for a couple of months! I adore faces in my art journals. Effy Wild is doing "A Year of Mary" exclusively on her Patreon at the $5 (speed painting) or $10 (full length tutorial and PDF) per month levels. This year-long offering will feature twelve paintings using her ‘lip up’ face technique inspired by the poetry of Mary Oliver. It starts January 15th (so this Saturday NZ time) and I've been waiting excitedly and then remembered that she'd already shared a lesson in December on this technique... I started my face and good to have done this lesson as a test to start cos I need to do her larger next time. I tried to wipe off my Stabilo All pencil lines with a baby wipe but it didn't work, so I just waited for it to dry, drew over my lines again so I could shade them, and making it work on a single page this week. You must spray over the Stabilo with workable fixative when dry if you don't want it to move again for a less grungy look.

Colours that feel good to start - photographed in the sun so you can see the gorgeous glow of the Pebeo Iridescents (green and orange). The purple is a liquitex heavy body muted violet which was part of a special collection. Partly chosen because I know I will be adding metallic paint through a stencil over this

Painted her skin with acrylic and then a layer of clear gesso so I can use and blend my gorgeous pencils for shading

Mary Oliver's poem The Journey was the inspiration for this lesson.