FFII : Week 8

Here's my interpretation of the last lesson from Effy's 8-week online class Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear. She began as a tilted head girl drawn with charcoal pencil and then softened with a blending stump - 

I love the look of her over that base text in my recycled art book. So much that I didn't want to follow the rest of the lesson and add any colour! So she sat for a couple of days until I felt what she needed : some music, a few stars (to symbolise my word of the year SHINE) and some words

Here is the page complete. Click on the photo to see larger detail.

Effy is an incredibly generous teacher and she gave us a bonus technique to finish with. I shared my try at that as part of my weekly journaling in my previous post. I forgot to take process photos unfortunately. First I traced over this photo of me to transfer with carbon paper

Then used a charcoal pencil and smudged it with a blending stump - when I sprayed with fixative though the blue carbon showed through! I had to disguise that by adding colour so she's ended up a bit more mixed media than first intended. Good learning though. A friend still recognised her as a self-portrait.

Sad to see this class end - I've spun it out as long as I could!! Thankfully I am still part of her Book of Days class and our second session starts 1st May. Enrol for the year of Book of Days, or the second session (May-July) AND Facing Forward II HERE.
See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. 

Daily Journaling Week 17

A few things going on this week affecting my response to the prompts. This week's prompt from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE : Illustrate a quote (Earth Day Bonus prompt: use recycled materials). Technique: Drawing and shading a face (mixed media)

I've also been working with the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014 : Week 17 is to Photograph or draw your favourite shoes.
You may remember that Week 16's prompt included "add photos". I took the easy option with that spread and just added some photos as part of my daily journaling. But when I'd first seen the photo prompt, I'd had a couple of ideas which I'd left in favour of the easy option. I decided to include both of those ideas this week, and I'm actually going to include all 5 prompts (above in green).
To begin was easy. It's ANZAC day in New Zealand today and I had a lovely sticker tape of poppies I wanted to include on the spread - and obviously to include all those prompts I need a flap!
1. Use recycled materials  I was hoping the red ink on this underpaper was still water-soluble, and when I ran gel medium over the top as well it all blended out and onto the page ♥

2. Add photos  I decided to spread my day blocks out to give me space for larger photos with my journaling and I decided to feature art in the middle for a change. More on the poppy further down...

3. Photograph or draw your favourite shoes.This fun prompt made me photograph the beginnings of my next fabric project in a different way :-)

4. Add photos I wanted to use a photo as a beginning of a drawing. Here I've extended the poppy idea with charcoal pencil and a blending stump. 

Sprayed with workable fixative before adding colour with watercolour pencils. The finished poppy also includes the prompt Illustrate a quote.

5. Drawing and shading a mixed media face. I've been trying to complete my Facing Forward II class lessons from Effy Wild while I have time in the holidays. Popped down some more recycled under paper, and then used Effy's method from her final bonus lesson of using a photograph as the base of my mixed media face. I forgot to take process photos and I regret that! Traced over this photo of me to transfer with carbon paper

Then used charcoal pencil and smudging - when I sprayed with fixative though the blue carbon showed through...so she's ended up a bit more mixed media than first intended! Fits the prompt though. 

Here's this week's finished spread with flap closed

and open

There's some space left for my journaling of Wed-Fri this week. Friday we go to Wellington to watch my eldest son in a basketball tournament for a couple of days, and then we're back to school on Monday! Enjoy the end of April.
You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE

FFII : Week 7.5 Bonus lesson

Hope you've had a happy Easter. I've had some lovely catch-ups with family and then got some good creative time today ♥
We are on hiatus for a month from Book of Days, and it's a chance to catch up on some other art. Effy Wild is an incredibly generous teacher and although we were promised 8 lessons for Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear, there were a couple of bonus ones. This lesson was originally presented when the outcome of the US Elections was first known #artistsforlove. You may have also seen this shared as part of Journal 52 : you can get the time lapse video HERE. This is Effy's art :

I decided I just wanted to make a single page spread 

My outline - loving her already ♥

A layer of gesso and then Effy demonstrated a method of blending a Pitt Pen big brush marker with a copic. Since I didn't have a copic of suitable colour, but I do have the big brush Pitt Pen in light flesh, I thought I would try my Tombow blending pen and it worked well. 

Sealed with clear gesso (remember you can see all of this in the time lapse video linked above) then added coloured pencil with blending stump - I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos Red-Violet

Love how the orange from the original layers shines through on her bottom lip. Adding turquoise and gold...two of my fav's.

I like to include my word for 2017 SHINE in my work. This time it's not an obvious use of the word, but it's one of the reasons I added the gold, and why I decided on the affirmation  : because I don't want to just rush through these holidays, and because aspects of my word are to Notice and to Enjoy.

Here she is complete.

See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. 

FFII : Week 7

This is my take on the seventh face from Effy's 8-week online class Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear. Effy made this particular lesson FREE - GO HERE and have a go. There is something very delicious and subversive for me about creating faces that don’t conform with societal expectations around beauty. I like fierce faces, sad faces, angry faces, and most especially WONKY faces. This method of creating a face allows me to do all of this with total ease.This is Effy's art : 

I decided to start with this photo of me - happy and exactly where I want to be. "I am who I am"

Now to convey that strength that comes from knowing exactly who I am and what I stand for. I began with black paint and loose strokes

Note it's an "expressive self-portrait" - conveying inner self rather than looking exactly like me! Her hair was painted with Goldens Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, and the background with Permanent Violet Dark fluid acrylic with a layer on top of the darker Dioxazine Purple. 

Her face was also shaded with the Dioxazine Purple and I added the Violet back in with some gold to lighten her lips. Click on any photo to see it larger for the details.

I decided that gold stars were most appropriate for my background - because of my SHINE focus, and also because of the poem I used. 

My words are from this wonderful poem by Victoria Erickson - I adore her work and this poem fits well with my word of the year SHINE.

I began to put the words on and thought I could have a few more divisions in some of the wider areas so added some curls - one of my signatures. 

I ended up having enough room to repeat the poem several times.  

I love how she turned out - you can see that she's come from Effy's lesson but she's all mine ♥ Our focus in Book of Days this month is Fierce Tenderness, and I also see that reflected here.

See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. You can still buy the Facing Forward II Class. I highly recommend it. 

FFII : Week 6

Another face to share from Effy's 8-week online class Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear. Week 6 was about making a "pulled portrait" - you find the face in your background so to start with you have no idea where you're going. Takes some faith that you're going to get there! I decided I'd start with my page upside down so I wasn't trying to be intentional about a face. Some paint scraping and some drippage

Delicious - if purple drippage is good adding orange will be even better!

Turn the page up the right way to see if anyone is emerging...

I think I can, but to be sure, I turned the page upside down again and added some stenciling near the edges to see if that would give me more of a frame to 'see' her

Back up the right way she is obvious to me - and she's got some wicked hair ♥

I feel her strength and couldn't bring myself to add colour that would tone her down, so used highlights of transparent zinc white to help her emerge fully

and a touch of gold. I need this word right now

More stencils in her hair - love the texture of layers

Here she is complete

See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. I'm not finished with this class yet. Learning so much, and loving the affirmations that emerge with each face. All the lessons are available HERE - I highly recommend this class. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE. Wishing you creative joy in February.

FFII : Week 5

Effy's 8-week online class Facing Forward II : the things we need to hear is open indefinitely. Just as well for me - this is my week 5 girl. I started with a blank piece of paper that will be glued into my art journal since this lesson is all about the doodles and for once I didn't want any background distractions.

After my initial outline, there was a bit of thinking about what I wanted to convey - looking at my art symbols dictionary helped with some of that. I am thinking about Shine (obviously) - stars and sun, growth (leaves and flowers), creativity (spirals and swirls), love (hearts), lightness (feathers) and chandeliers (sparkle). I did the doodling and forgot to take a progress photo til I had added some of the colour as well - must have been having too much fun :-)

What a difference more colour makes! I ♥ taking progress photos. This is all the initial colour done before starting on the skin : 

I changed pieces in her hair from orange to red once I added orange to the head piece. I used a mixture of Tombows and Aqua markers since I have limited colours in both. I really wanted the yellow at the top so used Inktense pencil activated with Iridescent medium for that. I also added Iridescent to the heart area because I didn't want to waste it! I have used my black Pitt pen to redefine the swirls in the yellow, the hearts, and the leaves. Thinking the rest might need different attention....
Added flesh tone here using a large PITT marker. This lesson was all about using just markers and pencils. 

Bit more uneven than I would have liked, and darker than I expected from a pen called "light flesh" - maybe it's my paper. I have enough experience now to not be concerned cos I know this is just the first layer. Once the layer of clear gesso over this had dried it was time to add pencils. Click on the photo to see pencil brand and softened effect.

Final touches

I recently bought some vellum shapes featuring lots of gold - thought she could do with a necklace form and I hadn't managed to include a feather (for lightness) in my doodles 

If you've seen anything of my blog this year, you won't be surprised by my affirmation ♥

Enjoyed this lesson more than I expected to and love the outcome. 

So fun to explore different techniques and push myself to try things I wouldn't normally do. See all the blog posts about the faces I've created in this class HERE. See my Flickr album for all my art from classes with Effy HERE.