A Fantasy Inspired Art Journal Spread (9.12.2016)

 I had the day off of work today, and because of that, I had the time to complete a couple of faces for 29 Faces! I haven't done more than one face since the second day of the challenge, where I did two sketches in a style similar to the one shown above. I later expanded on one of those sketches later.

However, today only one of my faces is a sketch. This was done while sitting and listening to music - I hadn't been doing much of anything except for browsing the internet. The second I started thinking about it, I got the immediate urge to sketch. I had recently uncovered a set of Prismacolor Premier sketching pencils, so I decided to use them instead of my typical Derwent. I'm pretty happy with the results (I used an HB and a 4B).

This little girl feels pretty determined, which was the intention. I also used the opportunity to experiment with the folds of her clothing a little bit.

My second face was actually created for several challenges. It was done in a composition book, and it's mixed media, as pretty much all of my faces tend to be, unless I force myself to stay in one medium. 

The first challenge that inspired this piece was Mixed Media World's "magical/fantasy" challenge. Likely because I had been creating a lot of faces recently, this was the first thing that came to mind. I combined it with the Mix-It-Monthly challenge "inspired by trees". The third and final challenge this was created for was the More Mixed Media Challenge, "anything goes + optional brown".

The result is something that I'm incredibly proud of.

The majority of the time spent on this piece (I think it took several hours, but I wasn't exactly keeping track) was spent on the face itself. I started out with a background on this particular spread (though with my cardboard series, I haven't been doing anything of the kind), and stayed in colors that sort of screamed fantasy to me (deep browns, reds and greens in particular). I'm glad that I spent so so much time on the face itself, since I'm incredibly happy with the way the page as a whole turned out.

• On the left, you can see some better details of the face. I especially love the way the antlers/tree branches blend into the hair. I also adore the colors. Dark reds mixed with brown is a color palette I'm going to have to explore more often. 
• I spent a lot of time on this figure's shirt, trying to get it to feel right. Sometimes I've been known to just put a t-shirt on a character and call it a day, but I really needed to get this one right. Anything too modern would just throw off the entire feel of the spread. Also, I've been trying to get better at clothing, so this was a good chance to do just that.
• In the right hand photo, you can see the quote that I ended up putting on the page. This was a stamp that I hadn't used at all - that's something else I've been attempting to do, pulling things out of my stash that I've never used and actually doing something with them. Plus, I just love this quote.
• Also in the second photo, you can see one of my favorite tiny little details, done with another stamp I haven't gotten any use out of. I put little leaf clusters on the tree branches, just for an extra little detail. I adore the result.

I don't know why I've been straying towards warmer colors lately (maybe it's just because autumn is coming and I have it subconsciously on the mind!) but I love the results I've been getting out of it.

Thank you all for taking the time to visit, and I hope you enjoyed seeing my work!

Two Faces + A Canvas Pair (9.2.2016)

At least during September, I want to attempt to be more frequent with my posting - daily if possible. I'm not going to make any promises, because I have been extremely busy lately, but I'll do my best.

I figured I would start this post off strong with some sketches I did for 29 Faces. These are faces 3/29, and they came together fairly easily. I use Derwent Graphic Pencils for the majority of my graphite sketches, and this was no exception. In this case, I used an HB for the base sketches, then added details and shading with a 3B.

• The girl on the left is somewhat of a variation of yesterday's face, but a version that I envision to have orange hair. Honestly, I just loved the hairstyle so much that I felt like I needed to play around with it some more.
• On the right was an idea I started conceptualizing yesterday as well. Underneath yesterday's portrait, there was a failed attempt at an oil pastel face. The texture of the background didn't blend well with the oil pastels (I wasn't thinking), and it ended in disaster. However, the girl I had been playing with ended up with some rather free-flowing lines around her eyes that reminded me of a mask. That was what I was trying to recreate here. Part of me thinks that she could be a superhero.

Now we arrive at the "I don't know what I think" portion of the post. I've been wanting to create a set of canvases for a good long while now, but I sort of think that I rushed these a bit. I'm not a huge fan, and I tried to push myself to use warm colors when I'm more of a cool color kind of person.

These were done for part of the 30 in 30 challenge, which is another one of the main reasons I'm going to be trying to blog more often.

 Part of me just thinks that they're underdeveloped. I started adding details like words and giant ink circles when the background wasn't yet ready for it. However, I took a bit of a different direction than I'm used to and I'm more conflicted about it than anything. I don't hate them, I don't love them, I'm somewhere in the middle.

Who knows, maybe somewhere along the way I'll decide to add more onto them, and I'll fix them up to a point where I love them. If I do, you'll all be the first to know!

Thank you for joining me today, and I look forward to seeing you next time.