Expressions

Another coupla pages for my sketchbook here. I've been playing around sketching and painting faces on top of collaged backgrounds. After I'd painted these faces, I thought they showed certain expressions that combined with the backgrounds to reveal a theme.

This woman looked very sad and downcast, and the collaged newspaper clippings behind her looked like news headlines showing a brazen young woman. So I wrote "DAUGHTER MADE THE HEADLINES" & "BAD NEWS" on the page.

I really like this next one. The girl looked to me like she was holding her breath and listening for something. The background looked like dark nighttime and her face looked lit up by moonlight. So I added a werewolf or grizzly or something emerging from the dark behind her. And she whispers, "Did you hear something?" She kindof reminds me of a girlscout with that hat and sweet blouse. Poor girl better run like hell! LOL!

Another Sketchbook Page

This one is another paper mache page colored with watercolors, markers, acrylics, pen and pencil. These are a lot of fun to make.

Sketchbook Project and Sketching for Real

Here're a couple more pages for my art journal for The Setchbook Project 2011. The first shown is a paper mache page of 3 denim-clad pals smoking in the alley. (I've started using paper mache for everything - may even start patching stuff here at home with paper mache instead of Duck tape. :) ) I started this page by cutting out the body shapes in cardboard and gluing them to the page. Then I paper mache-ed over the entire page and painted, penciled, and markered over that. The facial features and clothing, etc just evolved from what I saw in the initial paint layers. I may still add some text.



The next page just kindof evolved on it's own. I'd doodled some human shapes I saw lurking in a painted surface, and I thought the expressions were of dismay and perplexity as the people looked up at something. That made me think of the Towers falling on 9-11-2001. At the time, I was also experimenting with embossing some paper using a grid-like metal cake cooling thingie. The embossed paper reminded me of many-windowed buildings... like the Towers. So it all ended up together on this page.



Then, surprise, surprise! I sat down with pencil and paper and started trying to sketch a nose that really kindof looked like... well, a nose. I've never been a sketcher or a drawer. And always wished I could. So I'm pleasantly surprised with these first attempts at sketching faces. No, they're not real good, but they're a hell of a lot better than I thought I could do. I really like doing noses and lips so far. Apparently, I like older faces with character lines and frowns. And REAL, ugly noses!

Here Goes Nothin'!

I joined The Sketchbook Project 2011. While waiting for my sketchbook to arrive, I started stressing badly over having joined. Didn't have any ideas for pages (the ones I had when I was thinking of joining had all flown the coop), couldn't believe I'd spent money on joining something I couldn't do (I'm not a sketcher or a drawer), etc. I'm just coming out of a loooooong creative block and I felt like this stupid idea of mine was gonna throw me right back into it.

Well, thank goodness I got past that. It's only a silly little sketchbook and a few measley dollars. It's supposed to be fun. So I'm just gonna fill my pages with whatever strikes my fancy at the time. My theme is "Coffee and Cigarettes" and, since playing in the sketchbook is something I do while drinking coffee and smoking, I figure anything I come up with falls into my category. :)

So here's the first spread I've made for my sketchbook.


It's mostly watercolors (watercolor crayons, which I love) with some pen, magic marker, and cut & paste. I used all my fave colors.