Friday 29 May 2015

It's time to Show Your Face again!

Welcome to Magpieheaven! I am really enjoying Kim Dellow's invitation over at her Art it Friday blog to 'Show Your Face'. Each week Kim gives us the chance to link up the faces we have been sketching here. This is such a great opportunity to practise drawing faces using different media and and to challenge yourself. Anything goes, you can use stencils and stamps to decorate, as long as the face is your own work. I've always doodled faces, but Kim's wonderful blog has inspired me to be more focused on actually creating faces of my own to use on projects. Do pop across and take a look at what the very talented Kim has been up to herself as well as the artwork being shared! This week I've been using a little vintage book of quotes and sayings to sketch in. It is inscribed and dated 1918. Those of you who follow the Dragons Dream TIO, will recall that I started creating a face in this book on Wednesday.



She was created with Portfolio Pastels with a coat of PaperArtsy Satin Glaze, and I reduced the size of the image and reshaped it into circles,which I then featured on this tag. I'm planning to use my 'Purple Girl' again as part of a printer's tray assemblage of tiny dolls some time in the future. 

For now, though, I wanted to set myself the challenge of doing two further things with faces this week. First I wanted to create a male face! Secondly I wanted to try for a likeness. And - oops - I think the English teacher part of me made an appearance!





I used a wash of PaperArtsy Snowflake before adding colour with Inktense pencils and a little water on a fine brush. I was quite pleased, as my son recognized this literary celebrity of long ago! A clue to his identity is that his most famous creation made a pact with Lucifer and that he himself met rather a violent death.



Here he is multiplied! I have plans to create a peg doll of him with Helen of Troy on the other side. He is Christopher Marlowe. I wonder if he ever imagined he would be on a peg doll? I used a portrait from the time - much as I would love to have taken a time-machine back to Elizabethan England to meet him and do a lightning sketch! Finally, still in bookish mood, I created a portrait from my imagination this time. I imagine this is what Jane Eyre might have looked like.



Side by side - I can't imagine what these two would have to say to each other! For Jane's portrait, I tried using the Inktense pencils straight onto the page without any wash so the colour was more intense and the book text didn't recede into the background so much. I think I prefer putting down a wash first; but this old paper is really nice to work on and responds to the water and pencils rather like water-colour paper. I'm  looking forward to using both these faces on different projects and eager to see what the other followers of 'Show Your Face' have been creating. I do hope you will have an opportunity this weekend to create something that brings you joy! 

14 comments:

  1. ahhh! We have a Mister in the faces now! Very interesting!! heehee
    I love Jane and her man is quite handsome! xx
    (off for vaca-will try and catch up when I return 10 days from now!)

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  2. Wonderful faces,I've never drawn a male face.....maybe it's time to try :)
    Big hugs
    Donna xxx

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  3. these are wonderful portraits!! I love them done on a book page for added interest. Great job with the male-I have yet to try one myself. I also love how you resized and printed them out to use in other projects.

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  4. Bravo Julie Ann! Men are difficult, especially with facial hair! Intense eh! Also very brave! Brilliant results....love them! Xx

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  5. Love both of your faces, Julie Ann, looking forward to seeing your peg dolls xx

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  6. I love both your faces, well done for tackling a man. I am sure he will make a fabulous peg doll! I really like the use of the quotations book, for your arting!

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  7. Love your beautiful faces, Julie Ann. They are fabulous! :)

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  8. Great stuff. What a character



























    They're wonderful. You've really caught Christopher Marlowe perfectly. I knew insantly the portrait you are referring to and you've captured his youth and the softness of his features beautifully. Now there's a story. If I could whizz back in time I'd LOVE to find out what was really going on there. Imagine if he'd lived. I can't wait to see him immortalised on a peg. Love your version of Jane Eyre. I have no trouble at all picturing her like that. She makes me want to read the book all over again, though I'm knee deep in Tolstoy at the moment :oD Lx



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  9. I was already in love with your purple girl from the previous post, and then I arrive here to find Kit Marlowe to the life... he looks splendidly dashing. And how fitting that he and Jane should appear within the pages of a book.

    (Your portrait is much as I imagine her too - but I don't think she and I would get along as well as I hope Marlowe and I would - I've always found her a touch po-faced, even at the moments of highest romance. That's not to say I'm a Wuthering Heights type... I'm afraid Anne is the only Brontë I've ever had much time for - Tenant of Wildfell Hall, that's my favourite.)

    Thank you for showing your fabulous faces again - delicious.
    Alison xx

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  10. i love these faces, you have made some wonderful pieces with your drawings x

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  11. Fantastic faces! So creative and artistic! Thanks for the inspiration!

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  12. these faces are great, and I love your ideas about what you can do with them. Very creative!

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  13. There is not only beauty but depth of character which you brought to the faces and you certainly captured how I imagine her to be. As for your Purple Girl, oh the sheer brilliance of reducing the scale of the face and creating circles for this wonderful tag. It is inspirational to see you creating your own faces, something which I have wished to do but like to so many others, simply stays on the To Do List!
    It has been such fun to stop by and see your latest creations and to leave inspired by your art.
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  14. Hey up lovely! got a bit delayed doing the blog hop this week but at least I got to tell you how much a love your entry this week on Facebook :) Wonderful! I know I keep saying this but I really do love your work :) Hope you are having a good creative week and thank you for the wonderful shout out :) Kx

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