Changes in 2018

So yeah, it's been a while since I posted here. I'm debating whether to delete the blog and start over. We have an ANCIENT computer that makes it practically impossible to log on and that's another reason for the lack of posts. 

I've been mainly posting my art on Instagram under the name Magpiestudiodesigns. I'm working on getting an Etsy shop put together and selling some cards/prints of my work. Right now shopping for a suitable place that will print giclee prints. 

I did finish the 100 Faces project (120 portraits!). Still continuing with the theme under the hashtag #my2018wonkyportaits on Instagram. The photos above are examples of my latest posts. I have been doing some work with the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil in the ProCreate app. I usually import my hand drawn sketches and tweak them digitally. That's easier for me than trying to draw straight on the iPad. So that's what's keeping me busy these days: learning more about ProCreate and hopefully getting a new computer this weekend. 

If I change blogs or begin a new one from scratch I'll post the link here. 

Wonky Portraits Continued

I'm up to number 30/100 in my wonky portrait series. Been having computer issues so I haven't been able to update as often as I'd like. A new computer is on the horizon! Here are a few more of my favorites. It took an entire evening (in front of the TV) to ink in this hair. Similar to another portrait with intricate line work I did on the last post. It's very relaxing though to make tiny marks and form the hair. She is my favorite in this group. Here are a few more:

This is Miss Attitude! Ha! I just finished a class on Carla Sonheim's site with Lynne Whipple called Making Faces. We did a lot of exercises where you just let go and mixed it up. Those turned out to be the best faces! Like this one. It was a contour drawing where you look at the paper only a couple of times while you draw from a reference photo. It makes for wonky proportions and uneven features. That's what I was going for and she appeared. Doesn't she look thrilled?  :)

She was another experiment in letting go (something hard for me to do!). We were to once again draw from a reference and not look at our paper more than a couple times. Then we were to add cross hatching (x's) on the face where shadows would be. Makes for an interesting take . I added washi tape for her "dress". I love the wonky lines. And of course the hair.  ;)

This is too funny. The model in the reference photo was a female. I hardly looked at my paper at all while drawing her. So I ended up with this guy! Ha! I did the exercise again with the same model and it looks more like a female, so I'll call that one the twin to this guy. Anyway The hair and the jacket were all very tiny ink lines. The jacket took a few hours. But I like the result (looks like fabric, I think). So he is twin #1. When I finish his twin sister, I'll post her as well. She actually has the look I was going for when I chose the model. You never know what you'll end up with when you don't control your drawing. That's the point of the whole exercise!  :)

Hopefully this computer will last a little longer until we can get out and find a decent new one. I want to use it as long as I can but it's life is definitely limited!

Sketching Chucks

I couldn't resist sketching my favorite pair of Chuck Taylor's! These are my Warhol Chucks. :)

In keeping with my sketchbook practice I switched it up a bit and decided to try and draw these. It took a LONG time but I'm happy with it. This is ink, graphite and colored pencil. 

In my 100 Wonky Portrait project I am up to number 13. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

So I've been busy sketching away every day! I'm really hoping I can make it 100 days straight. Fingers crossed. Will post more from my wonky portraits next time.

Pixie

This mischievous little creature showed up in my sketchbook last night. She just made me smile. I've been known to cause a little mischief myself so I could totally identify with her. Maybe she's a small part of me, who knows... I rather like her! She's cheered me up a bit. After I sketched and shaded her I scanned the page into Photoshop and added a few digital elements.

Today kicks off 30 Days of Creativity. I try to work in my sketchbook every evening. Sometimes nothing comes of it but other times I am surprised at the ideas for paintings that jump out from the page. So I won't post what I do everyday but periodically I'll check in with what I'm working on. I think it's a great idea and love to see people getting excited about art! How cool is that!

Eyes On Fire

I haven't done any sketching for a long while. I have had my sketchbook and my drawing board sitting right beside me for months, glaring at me, daring me to pick them up. Hmm... Finally, yesterday I did it. I thought I'd try sketching a model from a magazine (one of my favorite things). So I got the basic things drawn in my sketchbook and then colored her in with colored pencils.

After I scanned her into Photoshop then I had fun putting her into this piece. I "painted" her some more with Photoshop and added other elements from the Stark digital kit that I mentioned from the previous post. I was listening to my iPod while working on this and "Eyes on Fire" by Blue Foundation started playing. This verse stuck with me:

Eyes on fire

Your spine is ablaze

Felling any foe with my gaze

And just in time

In the right place

Steadily emerging with grace

I especially like the first and last lines: Eyes on fire... steadily emerging with grace. And there was my lady!

I worked on this piece all morning. I guess I was pretty engrossed with it. And since the ear buds were blaring I couldn't hear if hubby was saying anything from downstairs. I noticed my phone lit up beside me on the desk. I had a text message. It was hubby: "I'm having soup...are you going to eat today?" LOL! Pretty sad when you have to text each other to talk!

Funny how you know you enjoy something and yet you don't do it. I forgot how fun it is to just play with sketching faces. I'm not perfect but I like to do it. I like to exaggerate certain features, giving them my own twist. Then I like to place the figures I draw in a really cool background and give them a story.

Now my pencils, drawing board and sketchbook aren't glaring at me anymore. We seem to be getting along just fine!

From One Comes Many

Yes, I'm still painting portraits in Misty Mawn's class. This first photo shows a painting where I combined three media: a base layer of Dr. Ph. Martin's inks, followed by a layer of acrylics and then finished off with Shiva Paintstiks. Who knew you could use all three together? Misty has some awesome results in her class. I am loving it more and more as I just dive in and play!

All of the different pieces I have on today's post came from this original graphite sketch:

After I finished that sketch, I loved it. I'll admit it. There was just something about this girl that I had to explore further. I wanted to put her in different colors and backgrounds and moods. I'm still not finished with her.

So, I started by painting her (top photo). Then I scanned her into Photoshop and decided to put her in some digital pieces. Here I scanned the painting and placed it onto a CitraSolv background. I call this one, "Sad Eyes". The CitraSolv background had a little area on it that looked like a tear when I placed the image onto it:

On this next piece I scanned the graphite sketch and placed it onto another CitraSolv background. This time, there was a faint face that remained on the paper after the CitraSolv treatment. I thought it looked like a spirit; maybe an angel. Then I started to think about the song, "She Talks To Angels" by The Black Crowes. It's a sad song but that's how I've been feeling lately while dealing with Isabella's sickness. So I muted the colors in the background, colored her eyes and lips very faintly and came up with my version of, "She Talks To Angels".

And for a completely different mood I used the same scan of the sketch and just placed it onto another CitraSolv background. This time with a more upbeat message. I call this one, "Dreamer of Dreams".

So out of one sketch, there came many different pieces. I love that! And I love all of the techniques I'm learning from Misty in her class.

And I want to thank all of you who have offered your well wishes for Isabella! She is improving every day. We are hopeful that she'll make a full recovery. She's home now and I think that my little talk with a few angels may have helped. ;)

Total Immersion

This is a digital piece I made that shows how I'm feeling lately: head swimming with so many ideas! I'm drowning in ideas! They're trapped in my head...I've been scribbling them all down furiously so I won't forget any but I find myself wanting to dive in head-first and do them all at once.

Then I remember my word for this year: finish! Finish the current project. I love that piece and I've got to reign myself in and focus. Maybe that should be my other word: focus! So I take a deep breath and return to the project at hand. The fabric feels good to work with, the sewing machine hums along and my mind keeps swimming.

I'm practicing my sketching again in the evenings. When hubby and I sit together and visit about our day I have my sketchbook open and I either doodle or attempt to sketch a face. Thanks to my good friend Jackie, I've signed up for Misty Mawn's awesome portrait workshop. This is the first week and I'm very excited about it. Last night I sketched this lady (I haven't finished all of the shading yet). She definitely has an attitude. I don't know where she came from but she just burst onto the page:

What I would like to learn to do is paint these sketches. That is one thing that Misty's class will cover and I am so looking forward to that lesson! I can "paint" my lady digitally, though:

I seem to be in a purple phase right now. It could have something to do with the Citrasolv backgrounds I created (see previous post). This piece has one of those backgrounds. I love the "bubbles" that the CitraSolv produces when it does it's magic! Of course then I have to add tons of layers to the piece, but you can see at the very bottom how the base page looks. Scanning those pages into Photoshop has really given my digital art a boost! They have an effect I don't think I could ever produce with paint. Yummy. I love, love, love, them.

Since all of those ideas for future projects are safely written down in my project notebook, I'm content knowing I'll get to them as soon as I finish this current project. I promise!

Credits for the top digital image: model by Latte Queen at Deviantart.com and the birdcage by cfstock at Deviantart.com.

Exploring Possibilities

This is one of my favorite sketches so far. I found the model for this one in a fashion mag. I often use fashion models as the base for my sketches. I'm not real good at producing a face completely out of my imagination. I'm still having issues drawing the nose, as you can see. And drawing at an angle gives me fits but I keep practicing. I'm also trying to give them more emotion. I think she looks like she's exploring possibilities.

I'm certainly doing that. I'm enjoying the abstract painting. It really is fun! The whole idea of painting with no image is very freeing. You paint your emotion. Good stuff. I put on some music that reflects my mood for that particular moment and then go with it.

I am finding the artist tube paints very nice to work with. They don't dry out as fast as the Golden fluid paints. And my new best friend is Titanium White. I have gone through three tubes of it so far. Between using it for practicing with my knifework and then using it in my paintings it doesn't last long. I found you can order a gallon of it online and that's what I did. In the long run it will be cheaper. The next painting we will be doing in class will be larger: 18 x 36. That will be a blast! Hopefully Jared will have it up soon!

Another cool thing I learned about was painting with skewers. Who would have thought! My painting buddy, Kimmie, sent me a YouTube video showing how to paint Jackson Pollock style using skewers. You have to have liquid paint, of course, to be able to fling the paint but it looks so cool! You can vary your marks, drips, etc. I'll have to work that into something...maybe just painted backgrounds to scan for digital works.

Like I said, exploring the possibilities...

Rebel Spirit

When I sketched this gal I noticed right away that she had an attitude. I liked the rebel spirit I saw in her so I placed her in an appropriate atmosphere. Btw, part of the background is from the mega-talented Christine Honsinger (Fidlette Designs) at ScrapArtist.com. This is from her black and white collage series. I added a bunch of brushes and lots of color, a cool font, etc. but the background was a great starting point!

So it's with this attitude that I'll start my painting with Jared Knight's videos today (see previous post). I've done a couple of preliminary warm-ups while following along on his videos. Now I'm ready to try one "for real". I finally have all the supplies I need (can you believe I was out of black paint!) and I'm ready to go. I don't have any preconceived expectations, I just want to experience the freedom of the abstract design. I acknowledge to myself that I'm a beginner and I will only learn by doing. So I'm off to do just that.

Oh, I wanted to say THANK YOU to Michele for her comment. Check out her awesome artwork on her blog, "The Cat's Pajamas (see sidebar for link). I'm glad to hear that others are "struggling" with some of the indecision issues I mentioned in the last post. Your comments were most welcome and I absolutely love your collages!

OK, off to paint...

Rendezvous

This is my latest sketch. I told myself I wouldn't make any more until I painted the ones I have mounted on wood first. But my Muse didn't listen and I started this one yesterday. So now there are three mounted on wood waiting to be painted.

I like this color palette. I can't take credit for the poppies (aren't they gorgeous?) I got them from Scrapbook Flair.com from their Labor Day kit. There are some awesome digital scrapbook kits out there that make gorgeous backgrounds for digital art. I don't scrapbook but I love the papers, embellishments, etc. that they have. This paper was just the plain peach color with the poppies. I had to add some overlays and brushes but I loved the soft color of the peach and the contrast with the poppies.

I wasn't sure what to do with her after I looked at the raw sketch. I just stared at her for awhile and I thought she looked like she was waiting on something...or someone. A secret meeting? A rendezvous, that was it. Scanning the sketches into Photoshop does open up a lot of possibilities. We'll see where she goes when the real painting begins.

I also told myself I wouldn't sign up for any more classes until I finished the ones I am taking. Wrong again. Suzi Blu has a new Petite Dolls workshop starting Saturday: Petite Marie (Antoinette). I wasn't going to sign up for it at first but then I saw Suzi's painting. Now I have to do it. My obsession with faces and fashion keeps growing. I had so many ideas of things I want to try with these paintings that I woke up twice last night to write them in my bedside notebook so I wouldn't forget them.

Ooh, speaking of classes. Suzi also has a Petite workshop coming that has something to do with Tarot. I'm already planning for that one without even seeing what she's going to do. And I think there's one that has to do with the circus. And then there's the Goddess & Poet 2 in December. I may as well just get a permanent spot in her little school! Plus, Monica's class should have the next lesson up today or tomorrow. I hope it will be about the mouth. I seem to keep drawing the same mouth; I want to learn different looks. So I'm looking forward to that lesson.

I did finish the art pin and I really liked it. I'll post it next time. Now I need to try and get some sleep. But I do have my notebook right beside me just in case...

Rose-Colored Glasses

This is the latest face I've been working with. I scanned the sketch into Photoshop and started "painting" with the mouse again. I'm getting the hang of it better, but still not where I want to be. Once I get the opacity down I hope to be able to blend better.

In Monica Zuniga's drawing class we are working on noses this week. This is a rough one but I have all week to practice them. :) Then we are to try to sketch what we've learned so far by combining the eyes and noses. I did this sketch and filled in the mouth and hair from what I've learned in Suzi Blu's classes. Monica is such a fabulous teacher! Both she and Suzi are number one with me. ;)

I know she doesn't exactly have glasses but I think you get the idea. By the way, the rose is a temporary tatoo! Suzi showed us how to add those to our art. (Who would have thought to do that!) So cool!

I've got this sketch mounted to wood right now and am playing with the composition with other things I want to add. I'll post the finished piece when it's ready. I also mounted another sketch to wood (a very rough one) and now I've got two different themes going.

But right now I have to finish an art pin I promised to make for a swap. I've never made a pin before; jewelry is NOT my specialty but I love it so! I'm really trying to put something nice together. If it isn't too horrible I'll post that as well. It has to be completed by tonight so I can get it in the mail tomorrow. That's me: always work under pressure!

Magenta Muse

Still experimenting with the faces I'm drawing in Suzi Blu's Goddess and Poet workshop. I really liked this face but I couldn't seem to draw any suitable hair for her. So I didn't give her any! She's been sitting in the sketchbook for awhile waiting for something to happen.

I just began another experiment (this time in Photoshop): painting my sketches! Duh! The paint brushes are called that for a reason. You paint with them! I've never used the paint brush tool to actually paint something; I usually use it to bring in something I'm using in a layer mask. But I was in Barnes & Noble the other day browsing through digital art magazines and kept reading about how the artists would scan in their work and actually paint it in Photoshop. Then they would add all of these cool effects but I was more intrigued with the painting. It's not so easy with a mouse but I gave it a try.

This is why I love Photoshop: The photo below is what I started out with (scanned from my sketchbook with a few adjustments so you can see it better):

The finished piece at the top of the page is just my playing with painting her eyes, lips, face, etc. All of the elements in this piece, except for the font, hair and face came from the Somewhere Beyond collection at Scrap Artist.com. Love them for their cool elements!

I had this photo of these gorgeous flowers called love lies bleeding in my files and I thought how cool they would be as hair. Voila! Now I'm thinking I need (want) one of those Wacom tablets to help me paint better (no pesky mouse to maneuver!). Hubby will have to be convinced first, though. He's already promised to get me the new version of Photoshop so a Wacom may be pushing it. ;)

As for the actual sketch, I am thinking about adhering her to wood and working on her along with the first goddess sketch that I've put on wood. Next week's lesson will be dealing with our wood portraits. Right now she's still in the sketchbook. And I'll always have her in the computer if I ever want to give her a new look. We'll see what happens.