Weekly Face

Here is the dreary girl that I started last week, her name is Brenna. 

As always the initial sketch, getting ideas in place. 

Putting in the darkest areas using Paynes Grey

Adding colour to the coat, umbrella and boots. Once the colour was dry I added a layer of metallic glaze followed by a layer of gloss glaze. 

Now for the raindrops.. and the eyes.. 

I filled in the background with Wedgewood blue, leaving ridges in the paint. I decided it was a little dull so added a thin wash of purple over it. 

I then added some lines using the edge of a ruler dipped in violet paint, liking the raindrops. 

I then added a few more dots between the rain.. and added the splashes into the puddles. 

Now to add a little shading and outlining...

All finished.. 

I am really pleased with this one.. 

See how the metallic glaze and gloss glaze really shine.. 

Dreary Diana

My weekly face is a day early this week, it was finished so I thought I may as well blog it. I had such fun making this one, right from the start I knew that I would. But at each step I was terrified I would mess it up. I have to say i absolutely love how she turned out. 

As always a pencil outline. 

Then I broke out my acrylics. These are Daler Rowney System 3 acrylics. I started with blues,pinks and greys. 

While still wet I dabbed her skin with a paper towel to remove some paint and make it look distressed. 

Then I added more blue,pink,grey and white. 

i wasn't sure what colours I wanted the feathers, so I just blocked in some bases. I also blocked in a dark green for her eyes. 

Now to bring the eyes to life, add the eyebrows, define nose and mouth..

A little more shading..

I added lines of gesso roughly to the background. 

Then coloured the background with greens, turquoise and white.

I added a little dark grey to the bottom of the background.

Now I worked on the hair, using black and purple. I also added purple to the dress. 

Then I worked on the feathers...layering several colours on each to achieve depth. 

All finished. I am in love with my little Dreary Diana. 

Hope you like her

Darcy x

Journal with Friends.

I once again got together with 3 friends in a g+ hangout. Together we created journal pages. This time MICHELLE... was in charge. She created her page and we all followed along.


We started by adding texture to the page.

then we added gesso..

a little ink, and stamping..

now some vibrant colours..

some gorgeous TREASURE GOLD...

some acrylic ink splats, and a text stamp....and all done. 

This was such a fun evening, a page that I would never have created on my own as this is totally not my style. but it is good to experiment with different styles, you can always learn something from it. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face on Weds #3

This week I went all blue...

I started with a sketch using the grid method, this is by far my favourite way of getting things in the right place.

I then blocked in with a limited number of blues.. in fact I only used 2 blues, 1 white,1 black  and 1 purple for the whole thing.

I used Daler Rowney Acrylics.

Starting to refine and shade..

I was quite startled at what I could achieve with such a small palette. 

Final piece..

I absolutely love this face, she is so serene, and radiating light. As always it was more luck than management, and I doubt I could recreate it. 

It is interesting to note that I found the areas of light and shade much easier to work out and blend using just blue instead of a whole range of skin tones. 

if you are joining on with weekly faces then please leave a link in the comments. 

Darcy x

P.S, here are some more free templates for you from JAY'S BLOG...