February 2, 2011 February 3, 2011

I seem to be obsessed with eyes and the faces that should go with them. Yesterday I found two more sets of eyes that interested me and, because of the snow and ice, I had time to work with them. Both are done in my small watermedia sketchbook and are roughly 5″ X 7″ in size. The first is my visual idea of a business man – canny, astute, cunning, reserved, questioning. I thought he deserved a monochromatic treatment because that is what he lets the world see. Also stepping into the light – perhaps realizing that profits do not make environmental degradation right. I don’t know – sounds puffed up but here he is.

The Business Man

After completing the first face I decided to challenge myself by working with color. I used my aquabrush and watercolor crayons and was amazed at the lovely, realistic skintones I could achieve with the crayons. I used a wet aquabrush to dab the end of the crayons. This works really well for certain pastel-colored effects. In this case I like the eyes and the beard…can’t say much more…just started working and here is what happened.

Bearded man

I am trying to develop my skill by putting each face in a slightly different posture. I just realized I really need to do more/something with the background but these are just sketches…oh well!

January 30, 2011 January 31, 2011

Very productive day yesterday and loads of fun. I took on my third EDM challenge. I used a purse that has been my favorite for years. It was just semi-retired when my husband got me a multi-pocket, cross body purse from the National Geographic Catalog for Christmas…organized and hands-free…wahoo! Love the new purse but I am holding onto the old one. It is from Talbot’s, very flexible and also has a few pockets. I had to think about giving it a rest because somehow it got a smudge of white paint on its black canvas side. I was sad! Here it is…

Favorite Purse - EDM #3

 

I also had time (during the Pro Bowl) to sketch a set of the beautiful columns that decorate the facade of the Alamo. I love the warm color of the stones and stucco and thought this would be a good chance to try an underwash with an ink drawing on top.

Alamo Columns

February 24, 2010 February 25, 2010

Ken was ready to leave the house today so we ran several errands. It is always good, after several days stuck indoors, to “blow the stick off” as my charming husband says.

Last night I took some time to play with my Sketch and Wash pencils again. A little sketch book is definitely not sturdy enough to do this properly but I am learning. I have heard of but had never tried the grisaille technique and I thought the pencils might provide a good tool for this. I did two small heads by drawing the face with the Sketch & Wash pencil, using clear water to create gray washes and then applying color with colored pencils.

The Wanderer

I am not sure if I like the technique and I really do not like these pencils based on my experiences to date but I am going to keep experiementing and to be fair to use different/better paper next time. I just have to decide what that is.

The Merchant