How the Jane Davenport book Beautiful Faces influenced my last two faces of the 29 faces challenge

Hi folks in todays post are my final pictures for the 29 faces.  As a couple of the faces have been influenced by Jane Davenport, who I discovered online, I talk a little bit about her influence on me, including my opinion of her book Beautiful Faces. If you have any questions please ask in the comments below. If you are someone who has also been influenced by Jane Davenport, I would love to hear about it in the comments.  I am also interested in any other influences others have in the world of creativity, why not share who influences you in the comments.

I have been taking part in the 29 faces art challenge which finished on 29th September.  Here are the final 4 faces I have completed for this challenge.

"let go of perfection"

ink and alcohol markers 

watercolour and prismacolor pencil

prismacolor pencil

The last 2 faces were a follow these instructions activity contained with in the Jane Davenport book Beautiful Faces. As seen here on my desk. 

I bought this book about a year ago on Amazon.  I dip in and out of it whenever I need a little boost to my creative mojo.  You may have heard that it is "bad" to copy.  Well, of course there are copyright rules and you would want to follow these.  This is a large topic and I will not be going into the details right now. Essentially, you are not allowed to reproduce another persons work without permission, whether that be art or photographs or even writing.  You might now be asking how do I find a reference to draw from.  Well the solution is to either take your own photographs or you can always go to paint my photo and find a reference photo there. For the purpose of my post today the book invites you to follow the instructions so I would like to thank Jane Davenport and her book for giving me the instructions and inspiring me to produce work that is not an exact copy but is clearly influenced by her work.  

This book has an information section and activity on pretty much all types of media known.  There are clear instructions on how to draw a face at any angle and focuses in on each of the individual features of a face.  Although the style of art in this book is primarily whimsical, there is also some instruction on what a realistic face proportions are.  It is a very good book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in drawing and painting faces, particularly whimsical faces.  

The book has not been the only influence.  I first found Jane on YouTube where she has a number of art lesson videos.  These are a great introduction to the media she is demonstrating.  The downside is to learn more you need to buy her art classes.  The only classes I have experienced so far are the classes Jane has done for Lifebook2016 ( by Willowing arts) These lessons were such an inspiration I just got out my supplies and began arting along.  Not all classes do this for me. Taking more of her  classes is on my to do list.  

Thank you for visiting.  I would love to hear what your influences are, so why not leave me a comment. 

How ink and flex markers faces helped me with artists block - #29faces2016

I have been thinking a lot about how to come up with good ideas to draw/paint. I am finding it harder to come up with new ideas to keep up with the demand of a face a day for 29 days.  I would be very interested in what you do to help keep your work fresh and interesting?  Please share in the comments.  Here is what I did. I have a cute basket full of a variety of colours and do not use them very often so decided to do some art work using them before they dry out.  This was my way of kickstarting my artistic flow.  I revisited a medium I have not used for a while and gave it a twist by using a pen to sketch rather than a pencil I could rub out.  Unfortunately I was too late for some of my markers as I had to throw out 3 pens out due to them being dry and not working :( I guess that's what happens when you neglect alcohol pens. (another good reason not to keep your good art supplies for special work only and to use when the fancy takes)  I did have the markers for at least 6 years, maybe longer, I originally bought them for colouring stamped images for making cards.  First I started with a faber castel pitt pen xs to draw the faces then used the alcohol markers, I kept the pictures sketchy as I've heard Jane Davenport say on many occasion, anything can be forgiven in a sketch. Jane has been a positive influence on my art work and can be found at her website janedavenport.com/  I am beginning to see what Jane means.  I do enjoy just going with the flow and not sketching in pencil first.  I just trust the marks I make on the paper and just go with what I have and accept my marks and make something of them.  Rather than worry about them. I have so many other projects on the go right now I needed to come up with ideas that were not going to take me more than say half an hour to do. Revisiting something I have not done for a while was something that work for me on this occasion.  I do have other ways, perhaps I can share them with you another time.  Here are the results, including a picture of my basket of alcohol markers at the end :)

Face number 23 and 24

Face number 25

a basket full of yummy markers used 

Thank you for visiting and hope you will come back again soon.  Take care T

face 22 of 29 faces - watercolour potrait

GI was about to head to bed about 9pm when I was struck with the inspiration bug and so I just had to do some painting before I went to bed.  Little did I know I would still be up at 1am in the morning, ooops.  I am rather pleased with the outcome though, so maybe it was worth staying up just that little bit later to produce this lovely watercolour painting.  What do you think?

Painted using prima watercolour (decadent pies)

You can always let me know what you think in the comments.  Is art worth staying up for sometimes?

Thank you for visiting.  Till next time.  T

29 Faces number 20 and 21

Hi folks and welcome to my blog post.  I have fallen behind slightly again from my daily posts but I have a double treat for you as I have caught up on my faces today.  Another two watercolour drip effect portraits.  I am trying new ways and trying to find my style in there too.  It is still a bit of a hit or miss but so far I have resisted the temptation to sketch first.  I may try sketching next just to see how much of a difference it makes to my paintings.  I have been trying to make these paintings as organic as I can, hence no initial sketch.  But perhaps I can still get that organic feel even with an initial sketch even if it is to place certain markers of the face.  So without further a do, here are my two faces.

I decided to use my decadent pies watercolours by prima then thought "oh the purple acrylic ink I have would look fab as her hair" So there you have it.  I quite like this girl.

For this painting I thought I would try my hand at a male face with this technique, only it did not quite go according to plan but it certainly is a step in the right direction.  I think I got too invested in making sure it looked like a male face and got too bogged down with trying to get in detail. 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my abstract exploration paintings as much as I have enjoyed painting them.  Thank you, please come back soon T   

Watercolour abstract art for 29 faces catch up - face 16, 17, 18 and 19

Unfortunately my daily posting was interrupted by having to give into my cold.  I decided the only way to get rid of it was to get to bed and rest up.  Well I did that on Friday and Saturday and so by Sunday I was feeling a lot better and more able to art.  I did a few catch up one after the other in the same style and medium.  I love working with watercolour and thoroughly enjoyed working on my Jean-Luc Picard However, I have always fancied trying my hand at a little more abstract art.  So I figured why not, "how hard can it be? Right?" Well, I can tell you it is not as easy as artists who produce fantastic work make it look.

This was the first painting, done on 'The Langton' hot pressed watercolour paper by Daler Rowney 140lbs 12"x 9" There was no pre sketching done it was totally out of my head and spontaneous.  I wanted to experiment with dripping, it always looks so good on other artists work.  I faffed about with this a fair bit and I felt I was still being a little precious with the detail.  I needed to let loose. So I tried again .................

This one I switched to bigger paper as I figured it might help me to just "let Go" and try big bold brush strokes.  I used 'The Langton' hot pressed paper 140lbs 16"x 12" again by Daler Rowney and just went for it.  I liked the overall outcome, yes I can still improve but I was beginning to really enjoy this process/style of working.  Of course the downside is I now want to purchase more watercolours lol oops 

As I felt more confident I had a thought in my head, an image of a painting I wanted to do so I attempted it.  I say attempted it as it really did not quite work out how it was in my head but then as artists do we ever get that? This is what I got instead........

Again like all the other paintings I did not start with a pre sketch. It was painted on the same type and size paper as the previous painting. I actually do think it is a fair representative of what I wanted it to look like and it covers two faces so lets me catch up with 29 faces (woohoo). I am just not sure about this one being display worthy.  I feel I have kinda messed up the eye area of the male face I was trying to hint at an eye and ended up with the darker area in the wrong bit so tried to fix and just made a mess. Also as a kiss it is not as sensual as I wanted it to look.  At least that's what is in my head, that is what I see.  So what do you see? I would be interested to find out others opinions of this very raw painting.

oh I nearly forgot to say, all paintings were done using Windsor & Newton 12 half pans travel set with graduate round size 10 brush and System 3 round size 6 both brushes by Daler Rowney

Anyway Thank you for stopping by and checking out my blog :) Have a good day/evening bye for now T x

Day 15 of 29 Faces Challenge - Watercolour portrait of Jean-Luc Picard included in the #CACFanArt

Welcome all, I am now past the half way point to this 29 faces challenge.  Today I am pleased to present my 15th Face which covers both the 29 Faces Challenge and this months #CACFanArt event. Scroll down to the link at the end of this post, if you are interested in seeing my process video.  Otherwise continue reading for the process in pictures.

I started off with a sketch of Jean-Luc Picard on 12"x 9" hot pressed watercolour paper 140lb by Daler Rowney (The Langton) 

Using a round system3 size 6 brush and Windsor & Newton travel watercolour palet I begin to add the colour.  I know with watercolour you are suppose to go from light to dark but I sometimes like to add my dark in first and graduate it out. 

Looking a little strange stage for sure lol 

starting to look a little more lifelike but there is still something missing

The eyes in my opinion really bring life to a painting. 

Adding the finishing touches 

There you have it...... the finished painting.

Thank you for stopping by, click on the video link below to view the painting process. 

Day 14 of 29 faces challenge

Today has been another day of a stuffy nose and head feeling like it has been put in a car crusher :( So unfortunately I have not got done what I planned.  So I thought it might be fun to find an old face I drew when I was at school.

I was 12 when I drew this self portrait and that was not yesterday lol 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back again.  I have a rather special face post planned for tomorrow :) T x