A little face-a-day challenge

I've been wanting to do a little face-a-day challenge for ages, but then always somehow forgot about it. But then, last week, after drawing a quick face in my sketchbook in my lunch break at work, I decided to start it there and then. At least one face a day, for about a month, until December 22, which is when N will be coming, and the last day before my 2 weeks' Christmas holiday.

What better way to use all those pens and pencils in your pencil case, really get to know those pens you've been carrying around with you and never really use. I ordered a Sailor calligraphy pen a while ago, one of those fountain pens with a bent nib, and I'm really enjoying it. It was about time I started using it! Different mediums, different styles - just playing around, filling your sketchbook pages and getting lots of practice.

And last but not least...

This week, December 1 - 7, is Crohn's and Colitis Awareness Week.
Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease are the two main forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), chronic conditions where the immune system attacks the bowels. It can have devastating effects on people's lives, and for most, it means lifelong medication and recurrent phases of pain and other effects, as well as having to cope with shame and lack of understanding attached to an invisible illness that affects the taboo digestive system. The number of people being diagnosed with IBD is rising, among them more and more children, and so far, there is no cure for it.

30 Faces in 30 Days, Week 1

I'm doing the 30 Faces in 30 Days challenge this month, and the first week is already over. Here are my first seven faces, all done in acrylics/mixed media in my big Moleskine watercolour art journal.

Theme of day 1 was Drips & Splashes.

Day 2's theme was Dream and day 3's Text. It was a busy weekend, with family visiting, long walks in the forest and in the nearby animal park, good food and conversations. But it didn't leave much time, let alone energy for painting, so especially the one on Sunday evening was a real struggle.

The theme for day 4 was Wing, for day 5 White/High Key and for day 6 Twins. There are a few bottles of Lascaux paints in some of my, at the moment, favourite colours standing around on my desk, and I stuck to them for the rest of the week.

Yesterday's theme, that is day 6, was Animal Spirit. It's going towards the end of the week, and it is getting harder to do a painting in the evening, after work, when you really just want to flop into your comfy chair and watch Neighbours for a bit. Instead it's walking through the door, throwing your bag into the corner, getting the stuff ready and start working. A quick break for dinner, and yes, an episode of Neighbours, and back into the studio. Then trying to find a place where it is still reasonably light enough to take a photo, and then editing the photo, trying to get the colours right, because it really is already too dark for taking photos. And then it's already 9pm and time for a chat with N on Skype.

I miss that there isn't any time left to do anything else. But then there are, of course, there's a lot of good things too. The fact that time is limited means that you have to work quick, which in turn means working loser. And of course doing a face every day is a great practice, and I hope that it will help me with some issues I always have when doing portraits. I don't know if I will make it to the end of the challenge, but for the moment, I certainly intend to keep going for a bit longer.

Another not quite weekly painting

After a break of some weeks, I finally did another of my "weekly" paintings. It is only No. 7, but that's okay. And I was too lazy to cut up one of the large sheets of paper into the 25x25 cm squares I used for the first six, so I just took a pad of watercolour paper.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting this over the course of the day, which reminded me that I really should do it more often. And to play and experiment much more. Get down several layers of just play before allowing it to develop into something. There was another stage between the first one above, and final one below, but I forgot to take a photo.

I don't always want to work on my big easel, especially with these small paintings, it's more comfortable at the table. But I just simply cannot work flat on the table. I've done it lots of times, and almost always with the same result. It looks alright as long as it's flat in front of me, but as soon as I hold it up, the whole thing is distorted. One solution would be to stand up while painting, but bending over it all the time doesn't do my back any good at all. So last week, I went to the art shop and got a table easel. This one is wide rather than high and can be used at a low angle too. And on top of it was cheap. It really works perfectly for me.

A perfect Sunday

Last Sunday was just the perfect day for staying at home. And what a perfect way to start the day, after a 30 min Yoga practice, with some painting and a fairy tale. There's a whole series of Grimm's fairy tales made by German television in the past few years, and I recently discovered that you can watch most of them online on their website.

My pile of 25x25 squares is slowly growing. I've already finished six of them, which is twice as much as the one-a-week I had planned to do. But then I'm sure there'll be weeks when I won't be able to paint one at all. And in the end, it doesn't really matter how many I do anyway. The point is to practice. They're like sketchbook pages. Not really finished pieces, although, of course, they can be that too. More or less finished, with sometimes just a a few charcoal sketches and nothing else.

And while I was adding some snowflakes to my paiting, outside, it was snowing too.

Unfortunately, it is already getting warmer again, and the snow is quickly melting away. And next week, the temperatures are going up even more again, well over 0 degrees. What a mad winter.

A visual library of sorts, and some snow

I can't believe we're already in the middle of January. Time seems to be both standing till and running at the same time. The beginning of a new year is always a bit of a strange time, I find. A bit quiet, a bit restless, like when you arrive in a strange town for the first time and have yet to figure out your way around. But also quite cosy, and perfect for staying at home in the warm, curl up on the sofa with a hot water bottle, a warm woolly blanket and a hot chocolate. And of course also for spending time in the studio.

I painted two more of my 25x25 squares. The first one didn't quite turn out as I wanted, but I didn't yet want to work on fixing it, so I just started another one. That's the good thing with those. You can just try something out, and then take certain elements and use them again, and again, and see what you can do with them. I imagine it like a library of ideas, images, patterns, that you can refer back to whenever you want/need some ideas. A growing library of references, hopefully. So even the ones that go wrong can still contain some useable elements, and therefore deserve a place in stacks.

I'm happy to say that by now, the snow has not only arrived in my painting, but also outside. It's only a very thin layer yet, but it's a start. Now just keep coming, snow, keep coming!

No expectations, no pressure, just fun and play

New year, new goals, dreams, intentions. One of them is to blog more often, and here we are, already a week into the new year, and I haven't posted anything until today. But I'm also keeping one of my biggest intentions in mind, that of letting go of expectations, of the pressure I tend to put myself under. In life, in my art, in everything. And instead to just do the job, as good as I can.

I want to spend a lot more time in my studio this year, and to figure out where I want to go with my art. But most of all to just paint. Without expectations. And to help me take the pressure off things, I've come up with a little project or challenge for myself. A little 25x25cm painting on paper, just to explore, experiment and learn. One a week. Of course it can be more than just one a week, and it's not the only thing I want to do, but - no pressure. Last weekend I did the first one. She turned out a lot more pink than I expected, but that's alright too. After all, the whole point of this exercise is to let go and have fun. A pure practice and learning experience.

I've been reading a lot of complaints on social media about the weather some are experiencing at the moment - cold and snow. And how they feel they are/have been born in the wrong place. Well, I certainly feel that too. But the other way round, as I am made for snow and low temperatures, but unfortunately, we're not having any of it here at the moment. Being up in the alps, going for a walk in the early morning, the crisp cold snow scrunching under your feet. The air so cold that with every inbreath, the hair in your nose slightly freeze together. The first rays of the sun appearing behind the mountaintop, transforming the thick layer of snow into a carpet of sparkling diamonds. Coming home with your cheeks red and burning from the cold, warming yourself with a big mug of steaming hot chocolate, before going out again to spend more time in the beautiful winter wonderland.

How I miss the alps. And winter. After that terrible summer (that's my definition) of 4 months of sunshine day after the day, and temperatures well above 30 degrees C, I think I deserve a proper winter now. But temperatures are still closer to 10 than to 0, and there's no snow in sight. But I haven't given up hope of Sunday walks in the snow yet. And another of my intentions for this year is to go on the one or other day trips to the mountains this year.

A portrait, and some more doodles and mandalas

I haven't done as much painting as I thought I would during my holiday-at-home so far. Either we've been away for a few days, or out for the day, or, when we did stay at home, it was usually to recover from the heat and with no energy left doing anything at all. Also, I feel a bit stuck with my two intuitive paintings that I'm working on. Probably because I haven't quite had the time to sit down and read/watch the new lessions. But that's fine too. There's no hurry to finish them, and a holiday is, after all, a time to rest, enjoy and recharge, even if you're staying at home. I did feel like painting a bit the day before yesterday, though. It was a grey and rainy day, and the first cool day after the heat of the past couple of weeks. I had bought (yet another) new sketchbook, with the intention to fill it with (mainly) acrylic portraits. Painting lots more portraits is something I've wanted to do for quite some time, but even if you enjoy something, it can be difficult to get into a habit of doing it regularly at times.

I've also continued doing the one or other mandala or doodle in my "left over paint journal". With all our little trips, I've been taking loads of photos, and drawing mandalas is a great way of filling the time while waiting for all the photos to download.

I can't believe it's already Friday. The time has passed so quickly, and now there's only the weekend left. But I don't really want to think about that yet.

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Still a work in progress - stretching those rusty muscles

It's like when you haven't done any sport at all for a while, and then start again. You've become rusty, the muscles don't know the moves anymore. It's painful at first, and it takes a while to get back into those moves again, but the more you keep going, the easier it gets and your muscles relax and begin to fall into the pattern easily. It's quite the same with painting. You get rusty, if you haven't done it for a while, and getting back into it feels strange at first, a bit unfamiliar. The paints behave kind of odd, you're not quite getting it right. It'll take a little while to get comfortable with it again, you just have to keep working on it. Little by little.

She's not finished yet, but I'm taking it little by little. I'm glad that I set myself the goal for this month to link up to Paint Party Friday every week. Because without the pressure of needing something to share, I probably would have given up on her. And I'm glad I did. Because those muscles need a lot of work and stretching for the moves to become familiar and comfortable again.

Happy Paint Party Friday!

On my easel: Portrait WIP

I've got a few projects for May, and one of them is to take part in Paint Party Friday every week this month (and hopefully afterwards too, as much as possible) to help me get my painting mojo back. I can feel it coming back, but very slowly, and so I've only got a work in progress to share today. But I'm sharing it anyway, again to motivate me to finish it by next Friday. I've still got a lot of work to do on her, but I so enjoyed painting a portrait again.

Apart from a guided visit to the Bührle Collection on Saturday, I'm looking forward to spending most of the weekend painting, and finally taking my new Polaroid SX-70 out for a walk. Just hope it won't start raining again.

Happy Paint Party Friday, wishing you an inspiring and creative weekend!

Adding colour to sketchbook portraits

I'm having lots of fun with my ink pen portraits in my sketchbooks. They're quick to do, and therefore perfect for a bit of creativity when you're really to tired to do anything else than flop on the sofa after work.

I'm trying out different ways to add some colour to the portraits. Gouache hasn't really been a favourite medium of mine, I've tried it out before, but then always went back to watercolours. But last night I thought I'd give it a try again, and I must say I'm very pleased with the result. They're more vibrant than watercolours and a good match to the bold lines of the ink brush pen.

The only drawback with the gouache is still the same as with watercolours when it comes to Moleskine sketchbooks. But as long as you don't want to create an accomplished work of watercolour/gouache art but just want to a bit of colour to your sketch, it works well enough.

The Liquitex acrylic markers on the other hand work very well on the Moleskine paper, but have some limitations when it comes to blending and transparency. But they're great for adding bold colour.

I bought some Tombow dual brush pens earlier this week, as I thought they'd be useful for adding a touch of colour quickly when you're out and about. They had some other pens, Shinhan or something there too, with a great selection of colours, but their smell was just overpowering. I'm not usually over sensual to the various smells of my art materials, but those definitely were too much. The Tombows are water based (maybe the others are alcohol based?), and don't smell at all. They're not as smooth and blending as I would have liked, you can see the individual strokes, but apart from that, they work well enough, also in a Moleskine.

I usually take photos of my work to post on my blog, but this time I tried to scan them instead. I've tried scanning before, and I was never happy with the results, and I wasn't this time either. But due to some technical problems (mainly due to Yahoo Mail being even more annoying than they have been for the past few weeks, i.e. simply refusing to let me access my account at all today), I had to use the scans for this post. The scanner never seems to get the colours right, and is having particular problems with the Moleskine paper (all images but the first are Moleskine). It doesn't seem to recognise the creamy colour of the paper but instead scans it as white, and as a result, all the other colours turn out wrong too (and in some areas didn't even catch the colour at all). I've tried to adjust them as well as possible in Photoshop, but they're still far from accurate.

What do you use for taking pictures of your work for your blog? I know that there are a lot of people who do use scanners, and if you do, I'd be more than happy to get some tips on how to successfully scan my images, as I seem to be doing something wrong.

And last but not least 

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Portraits from life, brush pens, and ready to party

Some weeks ago, I decided to quit pottery class, and instead take a portrait drawing class again, and I'm so glad I did. I had taken that class two years ago, and totally enjoyed it, and I'm totally enjoy it again now. It's not a class specifically with model (which would make the class more expensive) but our teacher sees to it that we have a model to draw about every other session. Last week, Werner sat for us again, and we tried to capture his likeness in ink. Our teacher had given us reed pens that she had cut herself to try out, and I decided to work in my portrait Moleskine journal, trying out different kinds of ink pens along with the reed pen. 

For the one below I used a grey Pentel brush pen. They come in different colours but aren't refillable, and on the Moleskine sketchbook paper, it behaved similar to watercolours - not so well.

For the bigger portrait below, I used the reed pen with India ink. It works great, and I like the idea of making your own pens, but depending on the paper, the ink can run out quickly, and you need to dip your pen into the ink bottle every few seconds, which can disrupt your line. But it worked well enough in the Moleskine. For the smaller one, I used a Pentel pocket brush, a new acquisition which I really like. The pen takes cartridges, and so can be refilled and used again and again (until you've worn out the brush, I guess), but as far as I know, the cartridges only come in black, and the ink is not completely opaque but can appear a bit faded.

After the break, Rosmarie joined Werner as model, and it was nice to have a female to draw too.  I would have liked to do a drawing of both of them together, but from where I sat, they were too far from each other, so I decided to focus on Rosmarie. Because both models are a bit more mature in age, they have much more interesting faces full of characteristic lines. Although I sometimes find it a bit difficult, to really make them look as old and wrinkly as they are, especially the women. I'm always afraid that they'll be offended, somehow (I showed her the two portraits, and she wasn't). Which is probably also the reason why the first portrait I did of her, on the left, looks much younger. The one on the right is more accurate, although I didn't quite manage to capture her lovely smile. 

Here you can also see better how "faint" the brush pen is. I've since found another brush pen, which is the same size as the Pentel one, but which can be used with a converter too, like a fountain pen, which means you have a much greater variety of colours to choose from (bottled ink), and which also can be filled with a lovely carbon ink, which dries instantly, is completely waterproof, and really is pitch black.

The portrait on the left below also started as a portrait of Rosmarie, but after two hours of intensely concentrated drawing, I just ran out of energy, and I soon knew that nothing satisfactory would come out of it, and that the best thing was to stop. I had meant to work a bit more on the sketch at home, to finish it, but then decided that I liked the unfinished one, and just added a touch of colour with a Liquitex paint marker. I had never tried them out on Moleskine paper, and I'm really pleased with the result. 

I decided to try out some more pens and paint marker and painted the portrait on the left last Friday night, on the sofa. I was watching tv, an old series from the 70s, where the camera focuses much longer on objects and faces than it does today, and I thought I might do a sketch. It turned out to be too fast for me, after all, so I just did an imaginary face, added some paint, and then added some stamped lettering too. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a party girl at all, and a perfect Friday night for me is spent on the sofa, with a sketchbook and something good on telly, a nice cup of tea and an early night, so that I can get up early on Saturday morning and spend the day in the studio. So this is probably the expression I would have on my face if someone suggested to me to go out clubbing and partying all night on a Friday night. Slight terror, frantically wrecking my brain to come up with a reasonable and accnptable excuse why I absolutely can't go out.

For the two portraits below, I used a big fat Faber-Castell pit Artist Brush Pen. It's great as you can fill in bigger areas quickly, but also has quite a fine tip. And it's nice and dark too. Both drawn from imagination, and using the paint markers for background, and some letter stamps.

Well, I might not be a party girl when it comes to going out on a Friday night (or any other night, really), but one party I definitely like to go to is the fabulous Paint Party Friday. Pop over and have a look at what everyone else has created, it's always a great inspiration.

100 portraits: #32 and #33

Two more portraits in my series of 100 portraits. I still have a long way to go, but I'm getting there. Slowly, very slowly, but I'm enjoying the process of trying out different styles and mediums. And that's the main thing, and what this my challenge is all about - trying out different things, and having fun, and getting lots of practice.

Portrait #32, N., charcoal and white pastel. I don't usually bother much about likeness when using a reference photo, it's more about getting the proportions right, and making it look like a human face. But here I wanted to get the likeness, and I'm happy to say that I did. I think it helps when you draw someone you know, instead of using images from magazines or the internet, as I usually do. Knowing someone's character, the twinkle in his eyes, the smile etc. all these things somehow help to catch the person on paper.

Portrait #33, done in pastels. For this I used a magazine reference again. No likeness to the person, but I like how she turned out. Her name's Miranda King, a headstrong young woman who wants to become an actress, and to conquer the big city's stages with her renderings of literature's heroines. And I think she might well achieve her dream.

100 portraits: #31 - (re-)discovering pastels

I've been trying out pastels for a bit here and there before, but never really quite got into it. But I felt like taking them out again the other day, and spending a bit more time with them, and I'm really beginning to like them a lot. I'm not so fond of all the dust and mess working with them involves, but they seem like a perfect medium to use for a quick, loose colour sketch in the evening, after work, when I'm too tired to get out my paints. And definitely a better alternative than spending all evening in front of the telly.

The chunky bits of pastels also mean that you have to work quite loose. At least if you're not using anything else with them. I gather there are lots of tools and techniques that allows you to work fine details with pastels too, but that's not really what I want at the moment. It's the looseness that appeals to me, having to let go of some of the control, and just adding layer over layer until I'm happy with the result. I definitely want to use them more often, along with charcoals.

So here's portrait #31, done in pastels, a quick evening sketch done in about 20 minutes. This is Katherine Blackmore, a young, intelligent, headstrong woman, living at the beginning of the 20th century, and one of the few women studying at Cambridge university. She's getting top marks in all of her exams, but because she's a woman, she won't receive a proper degree like her male colleagues. But her education will still allow her to pursue an intellectual career, and as a writer and editor, she'll fiercely fight for the rights and independence of women.

100 portraits: #29 and #30

Two more portraits done, and almost a third of my goal of 100 completed. I tried out two very different techniques with these two. For the first I used four or five different pencils, from HB to 6B, and a blending stick, to get the shading very smooth and blended. The second focuses on the shape of the head in the profile, with next to now shading at all. Both were fun to do, and a good exercise to explore different ways of drawing.

Felicity Strong (#29) and Beth Morley (#30).

100 portraits: #24 - #28

Back from a lovely long weekend in sunny (yes, sunny!!) England, I still haven't much more to show than a few more pencil portraits from earlier this month at the moment. I've done a couple of sketches on the way to England last Thursday, which I'll try and post later this week, and I'm looking forward to draw more portraits in my Moleskine sketchbook. But most of all, I'm looking forward to spending more time painting. I went shopping for some beautiful new art supplies (paints, sketchbooks, brushes, paper) while I was in England, and now I'm all ready to finally try out those oils.

Rebecca Olsen (#24) and Anna-Maria Reid (#25)

Mae Smith (#26) Ellen Parsons (#27)

Ulrika Melli (#28)

After a long journey home from the south coast, a very late night, and an early start back into the working week, I'm afraid my brain is too tired to come up with more than just a made-up name for my women.

100 portraits: #19 - #23

I haven't posted much lately, but I've not been idle. Among other things, I've continued with my pencil portraits in my Moleskine journal, and with each drawing, I'm learning. Here are the next five girls and their (imaginary) stories.

Veronika Braunhofer (#19) had a very busy day, and she's taking well deserved rest to calm down and relax. Her whole life has become more and more busy, but slowly, she's learning to refocus, to listen to her inner voice and to make some changes. Ellen North (#20) is a country girl, and her days consist of hard work on the farm from dusk til dawn. Life at the farm isn't easy at the end of the 19th century, and at night, she dreams of a better life - as the wife of the handsome son from the big manor house nearby.

Anna Norén (#21) has just decided to take a break from her studies at university, grab her backpack and go on a trip to across India. There'll be enough time for the 'serious' life, but now it's time for adventure. Maureen Lewis' (#22) has many happy memories from all her travels all over the world. She's certainly seen and done a lot, but now, she's happy to enjoy a more quiet life, and her beautiful garden, filled with blooms from all over the world.

The model for Leonarda (#23) was a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, and as with so many women (and men) of the 15th/16th century, nothing is known about her life at all.

100 portraits: #16 - #18

It's been a long time since I last drew a portrait for my 100 portraits challenge. In fact, it's been over one and a half years. But this year, I'm determined to draw more, sketch more, paint more, create more. So on Sunday morning, I sat down on my desk with a nice cup of Earl Grey, took one of my Moleskine sketchbooks, and starting drawing some portraits.

I used different reference images: a black and white photo from the 1950/60s, a drawing by John Briggs Potter from 1892, and and image of an old wood or copper engraving.

I like to give my portraits invented names and personalities. So here we have Margret Georgia Turner (#16). She's just graduated from school, it's 1960, and she's dreaming of having a career and independence instead of becoming a bored housewife like her mother, who never got the chance to fulfill her own dreams and potential. Karen Nordling (#17) also has dreams and ambitions, but living at the end of the 19th century, her only hope is to find a husband who not only can offer her a good living, but who'll also appreciate her intellect.

Maria Annunciata (#18) had the misfortune of being the youngest daughter of an Italian country squire. The squire has fallen on hard times, and he can't afford the dowries for all his girls, so Maria was put into the nearby convent. The end of her novitiate is close and soon she's expected to take her vows and take the veil for good. But she's a headstrong, ambitious girl, and she doesn't want to spend her life in a convent. In the quiet of the night she is dreaming about and planning her escape.

All I want to do is paint (except the ears, maybe...)

I have been working on getting this post published all week. Started to write it, changed it, deleted it, started again etc. etc. But there are so many thoughts spinning around in my head, that at the end, I can't put into words what I wanted to write about. There are so many things I want to do right now, most of all painting, but I never seem to have enough time, and energy, at the moment.

The weather at the moment isn't helping either. It's cold, cool, warm, humid, oppressive, changing every 5 minutes, and all of that in one day, everyday. And most of all it's raining. Again and again and again. Every single day. And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.

We had a life model again in the drawing classon Tuesday. Well, two, actually. As our model was going to be a bit late, our teacher sat for us at the beginning, so that we could get started. I really enjoy drawing life models. It's such a different experience than drawing from a photo. We were going to paint with acrylics, but 2 hours isn't really enough time for drawing and painting, and I only managed put down a first layer of the background and the dress.

I took it home and I hope to get it finished at the weekend. After having done a couple of life model drawings in the course, this will be the first time that I did a painting from a life model. It feels rather special, somehow.

But why do we have to have ears? They're a pain to draw and paint, and somehow always end up looking wrong. Portraiture would be so much easier if we all just didn't have any ears at all.... ;)

Portrait #13

We didn't do self portraits after all in my drawing class last week (and I was not unhappy about it, to be honest). Instead we worked in pairs, sitting opposite each other, and drawing each other, defining the light areas and the adding more shadows and details. My 'model' was so absorbed in her drawing that she more often than not forgot to look up, but it was still a great exercise. I loved drawing this portrait.

I'm going to miss tonight's class, unfortunately, but I hope I'll get some practising done this week, and I'm looking forward to the next class next week. One of the things I enjoy most about the class is working together with other people. It's so fascinating, and inspiring, to see how seven people, all working with the same techniques and materials, at the same time, come up with seven completely different drawings.