3-4/29 Faces

I hate to start at the end, but once I post, this will be the thumbnail.
This image started as a stock photo image from a mailer I received. When I drew this and Face #4- Burt Reynolds in my sketchbook, I wanted to throw a watercolor wash, but I noticed the paper was already warped from a wash I did on the other side of the page. If I attempted it, the pigment would just pool in the valleys. So I scanned the page and isolated the pencil scratches.

See the dark waves across the paper? All the color was gonna pool there if I painted it.

I had no idea what I was doing in Photoshop. I've looked at a few Ctrl+Paint videos and sorta have the idea, but I have a LOT of practice ahead of me. I'm rather pleased with the results, but I also know it mostly works because of my understanding of value. My painting technique is pretty meh. LOL!

2/29Faces

I was watching "Better Call Saul" the other night.

I can see that I'm still a bit rusty. I'm annoyed that I can't seem to get eyes down right now, which is weird because it used to be all I did. On the other hand, the planes on the cheeks and jowls were fun to work on and I really wanted to keep rendering. It's like not paying attention to drawing, but wanting to color.

Sketchbook primed with acrylic wash, mechanical pencil, white gel pen and a whole lot of twiddling around with curves in photoshop.

I also did a little bit of gel pen correction in PShop. I kinda scribbled in the hi-lights on the top rim of the glasses and it was too thick and scribbly (and made it really contrasty), so I patched it a little to make it thinner.

29Faces in September

I've been suuuper scarce here. It's hard to keep current with posting when there's so many social media sites. But at the end of the day, I haven't actually been doing anything that I thought was worth sharing.

OTOH, it IS time for 29Faces again. I may as well try to stay on top of that here. But if you're wondering what else I've been up to, head over to my Instagram. It's way simpler for me to post quick images there.

29Faces is a challenge created by Ayala Art. A human(ish) face a day, every day for an entire month. Last night the prompt "Aretha Franklin" was given. I'm not real happy with how it came out, but I'm also trying to accept what happens, finish and move on. I didn't think I was this rusty.

 

Acrylic wash in sketchbook, colored pencil, white gel pen.

My Big Fat 29 Faces photo dump

Not only have I neglected the blog, but I've also missed a couple days when my mother got sick. She's feeling fine now, but now I have to catch up with the Faces and dayjob stuff.

And so...

 Anne Bonny from "Black Sails". Dylusions spray ink on sketchbook, sketched in pencil and inked with a Tombow fudenosuke pen.

 Face 8 was from a stock photo. My sketchbook was gel printed on and I just drew the face on top.

 Face #9 was also from stock photo. I had washed over this sketchbook page with acrylic and then I had a dabber with Copper Distress paint on it. I think I wiped the dabber on the page trying to get all of it off. Months later I drew this face on it.

 Face #10 was also a stock photo. Sketchbook, gel print, acrylic wash. Then drawn in pencil, inked with a Tombow Fude pen and I then added a little color to her face and hair with Koi watercolors. It was about here when I started to seriously wonder if i could keep this up.

 Face #11 was supposed to be Eleanor Guthrie from "Black Sails", but it really didn't come out. Which is a shame because the splatter from the Distress ink sprays are really nice here. Ah well.

Face #12 is max from "Black Sails" I rushed this and the previous face in a rush to catch up. I was really unhappy with both of them though. I use my sketchbook as a blotter for other projects, so the color is the ink from that. Penciled, then inked with Fude.

 So there I was, kinda beating up on myself for doing a coupla lousy drawings and then my mom got sick and I had to look after her for the weekend. I saw it as a sign from the universe to take a small break.Maybe recharge or reboot or something. As soon as Mom felt better, I drew Alison from "Orphan Black". Random ink on sketchbook, drawn in pencil. Recognize the circles? That's me trying to clean off a dabber.

 #14 Krystal from "Orphan Black". At first I tried drawing from a different photo, where she was kinda making a face, but it just wasn't working for me. So I changed photos and this one just clicked. Too bad it looks like she was some sort of reptilian skin condition.

I must say, I'm rather pleased with myself for having gotten this far. I'm also trying to get over my need for perfectionism, so posting a few of the drawings that are a little off is a rather big step for me. I feel like I've wasted a lot of time trying to make perfect drawings when I should just share and move on to the next thing.

And I've also just realized that as I'm typing up this post I'm kinda putting off doing my next sketch.

#8 (of 29)

Remember that drunk drawing night from earlier this month? This is the son of the fabulous lady who I was drunk drawing with.

I don't know how professional craft bloggers can make their stuff, stage perfect photos and then write posts about them AND have a life. It just astounds me. I did this sketch on Friday and I'm just blogging it now on Monday night. Did I do any more sketches? Of course not! I kept myself busy making another card.

And right now I'm assembling a project that I started three months ago. I thought I had a lot of time when I started, but now the birthday I was doing it for is coming up fast!

So I think the next goal for myself is at least one more face before day #29 comes up. I can totally do this.

29 Faces #6

Portrait of an Albanian immigrant photographed at Ellis Island. Tombow Fudenosuke soft tip pen over gelli printed color in a Canson sketchbook.

So, that's been a week and some.

I finished lettering the last volume of New Lone Wolf and Cub and then went to Rose City Comic Con. After that weekend, I was completely fried and beat. And then made a greeting card from scratch...and sent it late. Yay!

This has put me seriously behind on the Faces, but that's okay because...I HAVE NOW BEAT MY LAST CHALLENGE RECORD OF FIVE FACES. Okay, not such a big deal, but I gotta take my victories where I can get them. I've got like 4 or 5 other portraits lined up so hopefully I'll be able to get even closer to 29 faces.

29Faces September 2016 Edition, Face #1

 

 Tom Hanks in "The Ladykillers". Fudenosuke Fine Tip pen over acrylic paint that was gelli printed onto my sketchbook.

I was excited to start this challenge. I started gathering reference so I could bang out a face a day without effort. I was planning to stretch my abilities a bit and try a more cartoony, caricature style. I was gonna do ACEOs...I had such plans! But when the 30th rolled around, I didn't start. Then it was Sept 1st and I was continually distracting myself. I even laid down some marks in colored pencil and suddenly decided I had to do some bookkeeping. By 11pm, I was having a mild anxious episode and had to walk away from the computer, have a snack and watch TV. I had would myself so tight, I couldn't do anything. Later at 1am I curled up on my bed with my sketchbook open, telling myself to just get SOMEthing down and banged this out.

In the past couple months, I've been working on an artist's block that I've had for half my lifetime and I didn't realize that I could make myself physically ill trying to lunge at it. Note to self: whatever I was doing wrong at my desk, don't do that!  So holy cow, it's going to be a lot harder to break this block than I thought!

My adjusted expectation is to get through the challenge with more than 5 entries (which is how many I did earlier this year), preferably with all 29.

Faces #8 and #9

 

Compared to Face #1, I can feel myself loosening up.
I feel like I cheated a bit for this challenge because 1) Not a face a day and 2)Not so experimental. On the other hand, I'm regaining my confidence and I'm seeing now that if I just draw more often (and preferably on a consistent basis), I'll see improvement.

So wasn't really up for the Challenge, but I'm really happy that I participated!

I just finished a Thing.

It was a small thing, a panel of a jam comic, but it became the Thing That Needed Doing for about 10 months. It was rather embarrassing since other people were waiting on it. When I sat down to actually work on it, it probably took me roughly two weeks all told. I decided to do the Thing in Manga Studio and in the process learned enough to get more comfortable with the interface.

When I finished the Thing late last night, I thought I'd be really happy and feel like a great weight has been lifted. But no, I felt dread instead. I tried to shrug it off and use the momentum of finishing one thing to tackle the next art Thing on my to-do list. But it was 1am, I was getting tired and ended up staring at the monitor for another hour.

Waking up the next day didn't really help. I then realized that I was fairly pleased with the how my panel came out and was concerned that I wouldn't be able to follow it up. Oh, so THAT's what "fear of success" is! But yeah, I gotta get over it and do the next thing. Having a dozen "meh" pieces of work for the world to see is much better than having an infinite number of "maybe some days..." in my head.

So as I look it over, it's not by any stretch amazing, but it is DONE. Since there are about 5 other panels to be done, I don't want to reveal the whole thing, but here's a sample. And if I remember, I'll put up a link to the whole thing later on...