Still No Art

Almost a month ago I wrote a post saying I was going to get back to art journaling. It hasn't worked out that way. I have been journaling, but writing only. I have been doing it on the computer with a little bit of decoration from my digital scrapbooking stash. But I can't really call that art journaling.

The class I signed up for got off to a slow start. There is more to it than the art part. I am not really interested in planners or doing a different kind of journaling than I have been doing for several years now, basically a brain dump on the page. Then, just as we were getting to the art instruction, the teacher took off for about a week because of the death of a close friend. She has since uploaded some interesting videos, but it was not until the last week that we had videos leading to a project that would be interesting to post.

So where is my project? I haven't even started it. I have thought about it. But somehow I can't get started. My art table is a mess. It has become a dumping place. I have started cleaning it off numerous times, but never seem to reach the bottom. I know I keep dumping stuff there to give myself an excuse to procrastinate.

This funk I am in has even worked its way into my reading. I keep starting mysteries, lose interest, turn to the back to read the ending, and never go back to read the middle part. Mysteries have been my books of choice since I read my first Nancy Drew at the age of 9. I sometimes read the ending of a mystery in the wee hours of the morning because I need to know the ending so I can get to sleep. But I nearly always go back to read the middle to find out how the mystery was solved. I have skipped the middle of at least a half dozen books during the last week. I read a romance to see if that would hold my interest any better. I skipped over to the end of that one, too. I am giving up on reading. I have a few old movies on DVD. I think I will watch one tonight to see how that goes.

February's 29 Faces Challenge is starting in a few more days. The last art I posted was from the September Challenge. Maybe drawing faces can get me started again. I most likely won't have time to get all 29 done, but even a few will be better than I have done in the last four months.

What Happened?

It's been a while since I blogged. Life got in the way and other responsibilities were taking up all my time for about a month. Then somehow, when things calmed down, I found I had lost all interest in journaling. I haven't done any art since back in September. That's the longest I have every gone without journaling since I started art journaling five years ago.

The fact that we were moving into the time of shorter days also contributed to my problem. We have had more than our share of dark, cloudy days with or without rain. When today started out with bright sunshine, I could feel myself lifting out of the gloomy funk I have been in for the last couple of weeks.

About a week ago, a note popped up on my computer screen, reminding me that I had registered for a year-long class right before everything fell apart. Since I have already spent my money, I am going to use this class to try to get myself back into the habit of journaling. Hopefully, I will have some work to post sometime next week.

29 Faces Challenge - Face #14

Today's face was colored with Prismacolor pencils. Graphite is quicker, but I need practice with the colored pencils. I haven't used them much in the last year, except to add shadows and details to journal pages created with mostly acrylic paint.

The downside is the extra time it will take to finish a face. But, with all the other things I need to do this week, there is no way I'll finish all 29 faces anyway. Practicing with the Prismacolors is a better use of my time. So here she is.

This face was actually sketched a couple of days before the challenge started, with the idea of using her for a journal page. You will notice the angry look...at least, I hope you do. That was my intention. The journal page is for venting about something that is making me very angry. The challenge started and the journal page was set aside.

In the meantime, I've come up with a better idea for my journal page. I decided to use this lady as part of my 29 Faces. I transferred her from my sketchbook to a piece of Stonehenge paper using the homemade carbon paper method I described in this post.

Over a period of several years, I tried all kinds of paper with the Prismacolors. They either had too much tooth or not enough, or were too thin. It was a supply list that I found on a DVD by Lee Hammond that solved my problem. She recommended using the Stonehenge paper for colored pencils.

I tried scanning, but my image was washed out. I took a photograph with artificial light. I get better results if I take photos outside in natural light, but we've had a very dark, rainy day. I did work on the image in Photoshop to make it look as close to the original image as possible. It's not perfect, but it is the best I am going to get today.

I have to get back to the things I should have been doing. Since there is nothing in progress on my art table, I might actually get something else done.

29 Faces Challenge - Faces #12 and #13

I have been looking at painted or drawn faces with realistic noses.  Besides being the ugliest part of the human face (IMO), I find it the hardest part to draw or paint. It mostly depends on the artist's skill with applying shadows and highlights.

On my latest attempt at a three-quarter female face, I made an effort to make a realistic nose. I still need a lot of practice, but I definitely think it is an improvement over Face #11.

Another male, this time with a less aggressive chin:

Enjoy your weekend.