A Face in Watercolor and Pen + Inktober Day 2

I am extraordinarily happy with the way today's canvas panel turned out.

When I began the piece, all I had was a doodle of a face I had done on a scratch piece of paper with a Sharpie marker and the desire to work with watercolors. After quite a bit of working with those mediums, this piece came to fruition. It is piece (10/100) for this challenge (I'm at the 1/10 mark!!). 

I love almost everything about it - the coloring in the face itself, the sharp contrast of the doodling and the swirling, almost tattoo-esque designs. In the long run, I'm a big fan. If you're interested in buying this piece, the link is here.

• In the detail shots I took of this piece, you can see all of the work that I put into the eyes on the face. Though I have a hard time picking my favorite part, if I was required to choose, I might just pick the eyes. I love the way they turned out - solid black outlines in contrast with watercolors is a look I really need to experiment with more in the future.
• Another thing that you can see in the photos above, specifically the photo on the right, are the swirl stamps that I've been using quite a bit recently. When I was recently sorting through some of my art supplies, this stamp set caught my attention. A lot of the time it's the perfect finishing touch to a project. In this instance, I turned it into a highlight all it's own. 
• The colors of this piece are another thing that I love - I started out with some faint pinks and oranges, then added the blue and yellow highlights. The brown helps blend everything together into a pleasing color scheme. 

•  This is the final picture of this particular project I am going to share tonight, and it's one of my favorite photographs that I took. You can see the detail that went into the lips (though it's slightly cut off - there was a lot of cross hatching), as well as the letters stamped in the space between this figures eye and eyebrow. It looked a lot like eyeshadow to me, and I loved that particular aspect of the piece.
• In the above photo, you can also see a lot of the texture I was able to get into the face. This was partially due to the fact that the doodle I was working on top of was just your everyday printer paper, and partially because some of the Mod Podge I used to glue the piece down was also applied on top. At any rate, I love the way it looks.

In addition to the canvas panel, I also wanted to share this bird I drew using only ink. This was for Day 2 of Inktober (I probably won't be posting everything I do on the blog, but you can find the rest of it on my instagram). and I adore the way it turned out. Even just conceptually, it makes me happy. Overall, today has been a good day for art.

I thank you all for visiting, and I hope you enjoyed your stay! I'll see you next time, when I have more to share!

The Night Sky + A Watercolor Portrait (4/100)

I am extremely happy with the way today's canvas panel turned out. The colors turned out exactly the way I wanted them to, and circles have always been a bit of a signature motif for me. Because of that, plus the fact that the vision I had in my head actually came to life, I don't know if I could be happier. 

If you would like to purchase this piece, it can be found here.

• Now we're moving on to a few of the detail shots. In the photo on the left, you can see one of my favorite bits of this little painting - the focal point. I was at the point where the piece was almost completely finished, but it just felt like it was lacking to me. I've really been enjoying playing with this color of paint and I thought I would try it out. I could always paint over it if it didn't work. I like to think that it did.
• I used several different methods throughout this piece to attempt to tie the circles into the background, in addition to letting them stand out on their own. This included, but wasn't limited to, splattering white paint, stamping, watercolors and NuPastels. 
• There was a good bit of collage in the background, a lot of which disappears completely, but I know it's there. If you look closely, you can see a few places where words show through and some black dots that were from a piece of patterned tissue paper.

• I absolutely adore the texture in the first photo. The canvas texture shows through in some places and is completely covered in others. It's one of the things that I've really enjoyed about working on these canvases. 
• Another part of this piece in particular that I adore are the bits of dots that were stamped over the piece. I feel like it helped to tie the piece together and gave a different size of circle for interest. In the long run, I feel like this piece does exactly what I wanted it to in the first place - shows the concept of a night sky.

I also mentioned the other day that I was still extremely interested in doing faces, and just because I had started a new project, I wasn't going to let creating new characters fall by the wayside. The other night, I was feeling in a watercolor kind of mood, and this girl was born! If you follow me on Instagram (@worldofimmensum), you may have seen progress shots of this portrait in my story.

Honestly, I adore the way she turned out. She feels like she's just screaming for a story, and I think she definitely would have a sword. I've been having a ton of ideas lately based on the art pieces I've created, and that's something that I absolutely adore. It's a big part of my reason for doing art in the first place - this blog is my development place for World of Immensum. I've really been enjoying this whole journey so much, and hope all of you agree with me as well.

Again, thank you all for visiting, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Canvas Panel in Blues and Greens (2/100)

As I mentioned yesterday, I have officially decided to embark on a new journey in my little world of mixed media. This is 2/100 in my 100 day project, where I create one 4"x4" canvas panel a day for that duration of time.

This piece in particular is one that I'm quite fond of. Not only is it done in some of my favorite colors, deep blues and greens, but it just generally makes me happy to look at. I had a lot of fun with the doodling that is showcased throughout the piece. If you would like to purchase it, you can click here.

In looking at some of the finer details of this piece, a lot of it was done as stress relief. With school and work taking up a lot of my time lately, it hasn't exactly been pleasant. I had just gotten finished struggling my way through a math assignment (that I'll still have to go back to) when I decided that I needed to let off steam. Thus, this little canvas was born. 

• The bigger circle that takes up the majority of the canvas was done with a combination of acrylic paint and oil pastels - I had scraped some dark blue paint in the background, then before it was dry, I applied black Portfolio oil pastels then wet them to activate their water soluble nature. This mixed with the blue in the background, creating an affect that I am personally quite fond of.
• The doodling on top of the circle was done with a Sharpie paint marker in white. I'm still trying to get used to how the Sharpie markers work, but I just bought another on clearance for 75 cents at Target (in turquoise!) so I'm excited to play around with them more. 
• In the photo on the right, you can see another doodled element that I worked with. This was simply a shape that I freehand cut out of college ruled notebook paper and collaged down, before working on top of it with a regular Sharpie and shimmer watercolors. 

• In the left hand photo, you can see the doodled border up close, as well as the little stamped word "dreams", which serves as the title. I was experimenting with fading out the stamping for a more square title design, but I decided to ultimately just go with the single word. The other effect may make an appearance at some point in the future. 
• Another thing that is more visible in the first photograph is the stamping I did in a silver ink (which I also used on this page). This is quickly becoming a favorite element of mine to play with, simply because it's extremely subtle, but still beautiful when the angle is just right.
• Finally, in the photo on the left, you can see a bit of the detail that I played around with in the lower right hand corner of this little canvas. I attempted to imitate the dots of the doodling on the circle in a more random way, and you can also see some subtle diamond stamping (which is actually one of my favorite little bits of this painting.

Finally, before I leave you today, I wanted to a fun result of creating these canvases thus far. I typically will use drop paper to catch excess paint and stamping, as well as testing out pens, and whatever else I decide I want to experiment. These two papers are from yesterday's and today's (in that order), and I personally love the way they look. Who knows, maybe these will all become a project of their own someday!

I hope you all enjoyed viewing this piece, as I really do love the way it turned out. I'll see you all next time!

Starting a New Project + A Major Announcement

Seeing as I have officially finished 29 Faces (though as I previously stated, I will continue to do faces on a more consistent basis, as I did enjoy it so much), I thought it was about time to start a new project. This has been an idea in the works since before this post, which was a bit of an experiment with a new medium and preparation.

For the next 100 days, I will be creating a 4"x4" canvas panel. 100 days is a big commitment, but I'm super excited to see where this will lead, and I think sharing what I create is a good way to motivate myself to keep up with it!

 As of right now, I think the majority of these panels will be mixed media, as that is the thing I am most comfortable doing, but sometimes it's good to push out of your comfort zone, so we'll see where it ends up!

At any rate, enough talking about the project and onto the actual panel itself! This is (1/100), and I absolutely adore the way that it turned out.

• The big doodled flower is a piece I've been saving for a good long while now, along with a whole other sheet I did. I just used a paintbrush dipped in India ink and painted shapes and designs in order to create a piece of paper that I absolutely adored. I've been hoarding this for a while, but I've been using it quite a bit recently - it seems like it's going to have to be something I continue doing, since I do enjoy it so much!

• In these photographs you can better see what is probably my favorite part about working on canvas in general - the texture! The way the paint catches in the nooks and crannies is just so beautiful, and it definitely makes me want to play with it more. 
• There were many layers of play on this little square (at one point I thought I had went a bit overboard, since I always have trouble knowing when to stop, but I managed to reel it back), from paint to collage to stamping and stenciling.
• I also played around with using a brayer a little bit on this square - it was the very first layer that I put down, in a neon pink color. I've been trying to work my art in stages, though a lot of it just has to do with me wanting to squeeze in a little bit of art before work. However, this morning I slept a bit later than I intended, and that one simple layer was all I was able to accomplish. I was thinking about it all day, and when I remembered I had this doodled flower, it all sort of fell into place.
• The word "magic" is also something that's been floating around in my brain recently, for no real reason in particular, and it will probably end up making its way onto an art journal page in the very near future.
• I'm linking to Paint Party Friday!

As I stated in the title of this post, I also have a major announcement to make, something that I'm extraordinarily excited about!

I have officially opened an Etsy shop! And in that Etsy shop, you will be able to purchase all of the pieces I create during this 100 day challenge I have started out on. You can find today's piece available here.

This is a big step for me, and something I'm extremely excited about. In the future, I plan to expand the shop, but for now all that will be listed is these canvas panels. Thank you all so much for visiting, and I hope you all enjoyed viewing today's piece. It really means a lot that you took the time to stop by!

Inspiring a Character + 29 Faces FINISHED

There are several interesting things to me about art, and this finished page in particular says a few of those things. This page was actually worked on top of something I had already started - every now and again I find it worthwhile to look back through my journals and look for pages I haven't finished yet. I didn't have a whole lot of time tonight, so that was what I decided to do. I love the way that it turned out.

That leads me to my first point about art that I adore. Even when you're happy with the way your art looks on a consistent basis, when you think that you've developed a style, there's still more room to grow. The more you do, the more you work at it, the happier you start to become. At least, that's the way it has ended up working for me.

• The second thing that I find interesting about art is that, at least for me, the more that I do, the more ideas I seem to have. The words in this particular page illustrate this point. They read as follows. "In all my days, with all the things I've seen - there is nothing much more difficult than fixing a broken heart."
• As I was working on this page, the drips coming from the heart immediately started screaming to me that it was a broken heart. I didn't have a quote in mind, or any sort of phrase, but what I did know was that I wanted to incorporate a broken heart somehow. As I worked, and continued to build up the page, the words continued to jumble around in my brain, and eventually I managed to spit this out. It didn't come from anywhere except for my own brain, and I can imagine it coming from a wizened old man in a fairy-tale esque story. In fact, a character started to develop out of this page, and that was something I didn't intend to happen when I started it.
• The sharp contrast of the black with the bright colors is something that I love about this page, and I feel like it plays right in with the feeling of the page. Besides, it's just something that I generally enjoy. 

•  In both of the above photographs, you can see some black outlines of collage bits I cut out and glued down onto this page. I've been hoarding this scrap for a good long while now, but I've decided that I can't keep things just because I like them - that I need to start using them so that I can buy new things that I like even more. It was just a piece of copy paper that I painted a lot of doodly scribbles on with india ink, and I think it fits this page beautifully.
• Also in these photos, you can see a lot of the beautiful layering I was able to achieve with this page in particular. The color layered much better than I had even been expecting (I actually never painted the color purple onto the page, which can be seen in the first photo - the colors just mixed that way) and a lot of it I don't even remember doing, since some of it was already down when I got to this page.

• I want to finish off talking about this page with a close up of the heart itself and the drips that inspired the words. I created the heart with Prismacolor NuPastels, which I've talked about quite a bit recently as something I've been experimenting with and having a whole lot of fun. They're water-soluble, so they spread beautifully, and if you wet them enough when the page is tilted, they create beautiful, inspiring drips like these. 

That brings us to today's face I completed for 29 Faces. It's been a crazy journey, and this actually marks my 29th face. I've finished with a bit of time to spare, but I've definitely learned a lot these past 20 days. I've learned that I love painting faces, and I've awoken a love of watercolor that wasn't there before (as you can see in the sketchbook page shown above). 

After painting my ocean-inspired girl, I felt the need to give my watercolors another go. I also wanted to try out this sketchbook, which I typically use more for pencil sketches, but it has 98 lb paper. It warped a bit, but I think it's manageable, so I'll probably be doing more watercolor in this sketchbook in the future! Ultimately, I like the way this girl turned out. The coloring is perhaps a bit more brown overall than I typically tend to go for, but I'm certainly not opposed. It's definitely better than I could have done at the beginning of this month!

If I've learned anything, it's that painting people is definitely something I'm capable of if I put my mind to it, and that continuous practice is a good way to make significant improvement. Essentially that's what I plan to do this October with Inktober (as well as a top secret upcoming project that I'm super excited to share with all of you).

Thank you all for being with me through this month, I hope you've enjoyed viewing the work I've been sharing as much as I've loved creating it!

Mixing Digital and Physical + A Sketchbook Page

Today the art I focused on doing was a lot more oriented towards drawing and not so much painting, but I suppose the first piece could technically be considered mixed media.

This is definitely one of my favorite things I've finished in a good long while, and I'm happy that I even managed to come up with the concept in the first place. It's definitely something I'm going to have to explore in the future. I scanned the page from my art journal I painted yesterday into my computer to start things off.

A big thing I wanted to do was make this painting feel more finished, so I opened the scan in Photoshop and used my drawing tablet to add solid black outlines. I love the way this turned out, and the lines from the composition paper showing through add a sort of subtle touch that I love.

The second thing I have to share with you all today was a age that I finished in my sketchbook (you can see the marker lines peeking through on the opposite page from this sketch) that I absolutely adore.

When I started this page, the only real idea I had in mind was the girl in the lower left hand of the page. I didn't even realize that I was going to give her a body (which is why the one side of her body is sort of falling off of the page), but I'm glad that I did in the long run. She's a character that I'd love to give a final version eventually. 

After I had given her a little bit of work, I started to develop other concepts and felt the need to put them down as well. After it was all said and done, an hour and a half had passed and this was the result. Sometimes a little bit of pointless sketching is great stress relief, and this was one of those instances.

In the long run, today was more of a time to recover from working four days with long hours in a row. I watched a couple of movies and got nice and inspired in that regard, and the ideas are slowly but surely starting to merge and work themselves out. 

Thank you all for joining me, and I hope you're all as excited to see what the next couple of days (that I have off) will hold!

An Ocean Inspired Watercolor Face

Today's mixed media (but primarily watercolor) face is right up there with some of my favorite pieces I've done for the entire 29 Faces challenge. This is actually my 22nd face that I have completed, despite the fact that it's only the 17th of September (I'm a bit of an overachiever, if you haven't noticed), but I wanted to say that I probably will be continuing to create faces for the rest of the month, even after I hit 29. I've been having an extraordinary amount of fun with it, especially when I manage something that I love as much as this piece.

In the long run, I sort of wish that I had done this piece on a more legitimate surface, rather than a page in a composition notebook, and I don't think I'm going to give this girl any more of a background than she already has. However, I do like the lines peeking through in this piece, so in the end I suppose it all works out.

• This piece was done in a composition book art journal, as previously stated, but I did decide to prep the surface with a thin later of white acrylic paint that I scraped onto it with a palette knife. The pages were slightly shiny and I wanted /something/ for the watercolor to adhere to, rather than sitting on the surface or sinking into the paper. 
• As you can probably tell by the photographs, I incorporated a good bit of graphite into this piece. The entire idea for creating this face was to just play with watercolors. I didn't want to be too structured with it, but I didn't want to be too abstract either. I just wanted to have fun and try to curb some of the fear I have of watercolors. For the most part, I feel like I achieved that. 
• The colors of this piece are honestly one of my favorite parts. The color of her hair originally sprung from trying to incorporate some blue into the actual tones of her skin, but it just sat on top of the face and seemed like it could be shaped into a hairline. I went with it. 

•  Something you can also see in these photos was something I used on another of my favorite faces I've done, which is a gold marker by Studio G that I got at Michaels for something like $1.50. It writes smoothly on top of paint, and it adds a shine and highlight to the page that I utterly adore. Sometimes it just seems to be the perfect finishing touch.
• Almost contrasting yesterday's face (though I like today's a lot better), the blue of her hair made me feel as though she could represent water. That was why I decided to go with such a freeflowing neckline for her shirt, almost letting it fade into waves. 

In the long run, it's days like these that make me excited to do challenges like this one - if I paint enough faces, a few are going to stand out as my favorites!

Thank you all for visiting, and I hope you like this girl as much as I do.

Mixed Media Canvas Panel + Gelli Printing

 As I look back over the pieces I've done for the 29 Faces challenge, even though we're only halfway through the month, I am continuously impressed and happy with my progress.

Lately I have come to the realization that pushing myself into new directions is a key way of achieving this progress, so I have attempted to make strides in new and interesting directions. Today's face (a painted one for the first time in two days!) serves to do just that.

This piece was done on a 4"x4" canvas panel, so not only is it a size I'm unused to for paintings, I've also never done a face on a canvas panel at all. That wasn't the only way that I challenged myself, with this piece, but it was certainly part of it. A side note, the canvas panels are a bit of a sneak peek at a future project I will be taking on after September is over, so get hyped.

In taking a closer look at the piece, you can hopefully see that though the surface I was working on was small, I attempted to add layers of interest anyways. I couldn't help myself.

• In the photo on the left, you can the the tiniest hint of a collage piece that I started this square off with. If you watched the video I posted the other day, you may have seen me messing around with a photocopy of a piece of bubble wrap I thought the colors had blended beautifully on. I have several copies of it, actually, but I've been wanting to actually use it. This small surface gave me the change to do just that, and it adds a fun pop of pink.
• The butterfly is a stamped image on newspaper that has been cut out and collaged on top of the hair - fun fact, I originally attempted to stamp directly onto the canvas, but it didn't work out - so I just used my test stamp, since the light blue paint in the background worked perfectly. 
• In the right hand photograph, you can see some of the finer details and textures of this girl's face. It was definitely a challenge to work in a small size like this, especially since I was just starting to get used to using certain brushes for painting portraits. However, it worked out in the long run. 

• This is potentially the most simple part of this mixed media piece, but also potentially my favorite part. Not only did I use yellow ochre, my current favorite color, but I love the way it looks against the gray watercolor.
• Another favorite part of this little portion is the way the hair seems to blend or merge outside of the lines and into the background, as well as the tiny little bit of text stamp that is visible at the very top of the photograph. 

In the end, I think this face turned out extremely well - the bright blue, yellow and pink stand out against the gray, white and black in a way that I personally like a lot. I'll have to play with the yellow ochre and gray color combination again in the near future!

In addition to finishing the above tiny painting, I also received a Gelli plate in the mail today (I had ordered it a few days back, along with the canvas panels), and I got to play around with it and the paint I had leftover on my palette.

Let me tell you, this was a lot of fun. I think my favorites have to be the pink and brown numbers, and the yellow ochre (surprise) circles in the lower right hand corner. I really love the way those prints in particular turned out, but I'm definitely going to have to put all of these to good use in the near future!

After an extremely stressful past couple of days, it was nice to be able to just sit down with some paint and just play. The more I make art on a regular basis, the more I start to realize just how important it is to me as an individual, both to my mood and the number of creative ideas I have. 

Thank you all for visiting, I appreciate each and every one of you! I hope you all have a nice day, and I'll see you next time.

A Concept Come to Life (9.5.2016)

 Seeing as today was Labor Day and I spent most of it visiting with family, I only have a quick face to share with all of you today (I might work on some mixed media later tonight, but I have to work early tomorrow so we'll see).

This had been a concept in my mind for the past couple of days, and I decided to give it a shot. It didn't turn out quite as great as it had been in my head, but I do like the way that it turned out, even if it does look better from a distance.

Despite the fact that I like it better from a distance, I'll allow some closer photographs anyways.

• In both of the above photos, you can see the line where I erased away the skin shading a good bit to create a more defined edge. If I had a do over, I wouldn't have done any skin shading at all, and would have left the details of the face (the eyes, the eyebrows, the nose and the mouth) as the only bits of drawing and shading. However, I got a little overenthusiastic with the shading and wanting to add hair and ended up having to blend it out.
• On the left, you can see some of the finer details of the eyelashes. I don't know why I like these eyelashes in particular, but I did feel like it was one of the more interesting touches of this piece, especially in all of its simplicity.
• In the right photo, you can see what is probably my favorite parts of this entire face. I entirely adore the way the watercolor dried, even if it did smudge a bit. The line where the watercolor didn't even make it was also cool and thoroughly enjoyed. The highlights in the lips are another plus.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I don't have a whole lot to share with all of you, but I hope that you enjoyed the face that I did come up with. In the end, I like her, even if I would do her differently if I had another shot (and who knows, maybe I'll try this concept again in the future!).

Thank you all for visiting, and I hope you all had a good day. I look forward to seeing you all next time.

Watercolor Experiments (9.3.2016)

Watercolor is one of those art supplies that I've always had and always wished I was better at using, but I've never actually put the time into learning to use them. They've just always felt intimidating to me, and everyone always seemed so much better at them than me that I hardly ever tried.

But no more!

Recently, I've become intrigued by watercolors as a medium, and I was sick and tired of being intimidated by them. Over the past couple of days, I've been attempting to venture into different ways of using watercolors, and I'll be sharing some of my experiments here.

First and foremost is the photo above. To be completely fair, this piece isn't all watercolor - it's actually Sharpie and gel pens over the top of a watercolor wash. However, this was extremely soothing to experiment with and was a fun way to play around with some ideas that had been floating around in my head.

My next watercolor experiment was much more specific. This is face 4/29 of the 29 Faces challenge, and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. The hairstyle was extremely inspired by my new haircut that I got last night, and it's probably my favorite part of this piece. The color scheme is another thing that I'm particularly happy with. 

It's in the close ups that you can see this piece's unique watercolor charm. There are the sorts of things that initially drew me to watercolor in the first place, and I'm happy that I was at least partially able to recreate them.

• On the left, you can see some of the watercolor stain-like marks, especially in the ear and the corners of the eyes. The shape of shading for the nose is another one of my favorite parts of this piece - it reminds me of a comic book-esque style, of which I am definitely a fan.
• Here you can also see that I cheated just a bit - I used a Sharpie pen (which I highly recommend, by the way - I love using them for my morning pages and they are extremely pleasant and flow nicely) to add the details of the nose in a dark black. I didn't want them to run, and it seemed to be the perfect tool for the job.
• On the right, you can see a bit better detail on the lips. I like the expression that this girl in particular has, playful yet somewhat suspicious.

Last, but certainly not least, here you can see some of the finer details of the hair. Playing around with the different shades and layers of brown to create strands was extremely fun to do, and it was much simpler to add texture with watercolors than with a lot of other mediums. 

Now we make our way to the final (work in progress) watercolor experiment that I have to share with you. I saw several people doing this on different social media sites (instagram, pinterest, etc.), and I felt like it would be fun to give it a shot. 

As you can see in these photographs, not all of my blotches of color have doodles in them yet, but this is another thing that I found extremely soothing to do while watching youtube videos or just sitting and listening to music. It was almost meditative. Again, I used a Sharpie pen to make these marks. 

None of these pieces are perfect, but I hope that inspires you to do something with watercolors, especially if they're something that you've been avoiding! What are your opinions on watercolors? I look forward to hearing from you!