I'm behind by a day yet again with it now being Saturday, not Friday. Oh
well, better late than never I guess. For this week's Friday Face Off, I did
some work on my weekly journal spread which involved finishing up the
giraffe sketch I did a couple of weeks back plus another portrait. This Week
24 spread is not finished yet but getting there. I'm thinking of adding a
couple more portraits in the blank area.
A close up
Brad and I have been watching Stranger Things
together. I re-watched the first 3 seasons with him because he hadn't watched
them yet so we are now on Season 4. Eleven is drawn with graphite pencils. I
decided to ink the giraffe sketch. I signed up to the
Creativity Matters Podcast
on Instagram and we receive weekly prompts for illustrating our week.
To see what other FFO participants have done
for this week, click
HERE.
It's been a very busy week so I'm running late
with the art challenges this week but only by a day. This week for
Friday Face Off, hosted by Nicole, I only managed a pencil sketch of what is to be a
watercolour portrait. That's the plan for now anyway. I might have her
finished for next week.
So this is as far as I've managed so far. She
is actually very faint in my sketchbook but I've darkened the image so you can
see the lines more easily.
I
thought you might also like to see some more of my older portraits.
The following portraits are all done freehand using ink
for an INKtober challenge I did back in 2017. I do love working directly
with ink. I've learned to love the mistakes if they can't be rectified but, most times, I manage to blend them in. I usually draw with a .005 ink liner pen which is very, very fine,
then I paint in shading and darks with liquid ink (usually Sumi ink) using a
paintbrush. Then I often use a .01 or .03 liner pen to redefine certain
lines more.The liquid ink gives you a wide variety of lights and darks
depending on how much water you add.
I also did an ink portrait of
Selena. I don't know if you've heard of her but she was a very popular singer
back in the 90's until she was callously gunned down by the woman who ran her fan club.
Such a tragedy. She was known as the Queen of Tejano music and many said she
could have been the next Gloria Estefan. There is a movie titled
Selena where Jennifer Lopez plays the role of the popular singer. A lovely movie on Selena's life and highlights the close bond she had with her family. I'd highly recommend watching it if you haven't already. If the video trailer
below doesn't work, you can watch it on YouTube HERE.
So I thought you might like to see my process
when working with ink. There is always an ugly stage in most paintings which
is why you shouldn't give up and press on until you are happy.
First the fine ink pen drawing. The ink liner pen is
fine enough where I can cover mistakes and redefine areas later. Bear in mind, the line drawing is darkened so you can see the lines more clearly.
The first pass with liquid ink and not too
attractive. You'll notice the ink bled too far into her face...
... but, not giving up, I was able to use acrylic gouache to blend it out. And then achieved an end result where I was happy with
it. I sometimes use a white ink pen for some highlights and fine white lines though not always. Sometimes I will use white gouache to block or blend areas too.
Remember to pop on over to Nicole's blog to see the work of other participants. Click HERE.
Note — I'm running a little behind catching up with everyone's blogs but I hope to remedy that over the next couple of days.
I'm running late (Aussie time, it's Friday) for
Rain's Thursday Art Date this week so it will be a post and run. I was going to let this week slide as
I haven't had much of a chance to do any art. BUT when I glanced at the theme
of 'yellow' this morning, it nudged my creativity. A 'yellow submarine'
immediately came to mind. So that's what I did. Of course, Yellow Submarine by The Beatles is playing in my head too. lol
YIKES! This little yellow sub has found itself in a
precarious position after the tide went out and now, it must wait for it to
come back in.
To see what others have done for this week's
challenge, check
HERE.
I have been a huge fan of 'tiny houses' for
years and my yellow sub reminded me of a YouTube video I watched a year or so
back where a couple in New Zealand actually created a Yellow Submarine Tiny
House. If the video below doesn't work, you can find it HERE.
