New Face Project

Hi everyone, my face a week project sure was hard work.. finding the time to do a face I am happy with was getting frustrating..so I am changing. Taking away the pressure of one each week. 

It has been suggested for a while now that I work too small, and should move onto larger surfaces. this in itself is so scary, a bigger surface means mistakes are bigger too!!!

But I took the plunge and bought a sketchbook that is now DOUBLE the size of my old one...

Should you be interested, this is the one I bought.. The pages are 8.3 by 11.7 inches.

I use mostly Derwent pencils.. 

So, what have I challenged myself with?? Well recently I went off camping with the PaperArtsy team/family to V fest Chelmsford, to watch a ton of bands.. (I had never heard of most of them) We had a great time and it got me thinking about how I could create a great keepsake for myself of the weekend. 

so I made a list of all the bands and comedians that i saw over the 2 days. Turns out to be 19.. gulp.. I did think to do a collage type sketch from each day, but even on this larger paper to fit 10 heads on there would have made them tiny..

So I am challenging myself to draw a face from each band/person/act.. on bigger paper.... and they will get done as and when I have time. 

The first band we saw on day 1, was Kodaline. I didn't know much about them, had only heard them briefly before that weekend. They were ok. Not really my kind of music, but I would happily listen and sing along if I heard them now.

Here is their website  KODALINE  WEBSITE

Here is their youtube channel  KODALINE YOUTUBE

The guy I chose to draw is Steve Garrigan...

My favourite starting point..

Here it is part way through..

Here he is finished... 

I took quite a few other photos, if you would like to see them all, then watch this little slideshow. 

(Note the music in the video is not Kodaline)

Weekly Face

This week I am using markers, they are super quick, and who doesn't love a bit of colouring in. The face outline has been drawn by the very talented Jay. It is a nice simple outline, no fiddly bits, perfect for markers. 

The outline is first done with a fineliner. 

The face is done with Blush and Pastel Pink.

I used a combination of new limited edition pens and original promarkers for the hair. 

Here she is finished and cut out. 

The background is acrylic paints and stamping. 

 With the girl glued on as the focal image. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face

10 minute face.. 

Page is painted with a very light layer of white acrylic. Sketch in pencil.

The half face is coloured with Letraset Aquamarkers. 

Then prisma pencils over the top for extra shading. 

Caran d'Ache Fibralo pens added, then water added and the drips allowed to flow. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face

.. or at least the start of one. I was too busy yesterday to sit down and draw, today I have had the time but it has been so warm... too warm. Drawing is hard for me, it takes a great deal of concentration, and i was really struggling to concentrate in the heat. 

so here is the start of a face and I will show more as it progresses. 

I hope you are managing to keep cool. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face

A fun, painty quick face this week, that you can all have a go at.

First take some bright but darker shades of paint, and using a scraper, cover your page.

Now do a little background stamping, just use a geometric shape of some sort.

Add some lighter shades of paint, using a brayer and bottle caps. 

Rough out your face, ad paint in the outlines using white and a fine brush, or you could use a white sharpie pen. Then white out all the background. if you are not confident at drawing a face then cut one from a magazine and draw around it. Cut each section of face out and draw in the main outlines.

Go around your white shapes with a black pen.

You could leave it as in the photo above, but I added some crosshatching and a border. 

Have fun.

Darcy x

Weekly Face

This is Jax. I recently put out a call for people to send me photos of themselves so that I could practise more. Jax very kindly got her hubby to take some photos of her which she emailed. I loved one of her in a hat, so decided to go with that one. 

As always the initial outlines. 

I wasn't confident with producing the texture/fabric of the hat, so I began with that.

and then I moved onto the darkest darks, which were mostly in the hair. 

 I then started on my favourite part, the eyes.

then some of the shading.

here I shaded the ear and added more hair.

more work on the eyes. 

working across the face, left to right to avoid smudging. 

and all done.. 

Darcy x

Weekly Face

This is Pixie.. 

Initital sketch of outlines. 

Starting with the eyes. 

Adding a little shading. 

More shading. 

Unhappy with the eyes, so started to redefine them. 

I changed them 3-4 times till I was happy with them. 

I was much happier with the balance now, and all that was left to do was the hair. 

As Pixie is blonde there were very few dark bits to pick out in order for the highlights to stand out. 

All done. The flowers in the headdress are of course more detailed in real life, however I wasn't practising flowers, so I just gave a suggestion of flowers. 

On the whole I am pleased with this face, I am most pleased that I was able to change/save the eyes and bring them to a point where I was happy with them. I still have a lot to learn, especially about hair. 

Darcy x

Drippy Face {with Ink and dog Stamps and Fibralo Pens}

I started by drawing a set of 50's style glasses in the top half of the page. 

I then scribbled onto a flexi block with fibralo pens and picked up the ink with a small brush to paint the eyes. 

After colouring the glasses  I decided I wanted the area inside the glasses to be stamped, so I cut some rough masks from scrap paper. 

I then stamped with Mini 23.

and I used the number background plate to stamp around the outside of the glasses. 

Now the fun bit, I began adding colour with fibralo pens at the top, adding water and allowing them to drip down the page. 

Adding more colour with drips and splats. 

I then stamped the title with JoFY 21  using archival ink. 

and coloured in with fibralo pens, they really are perfect for colouring lettering. 

There are also metallic pens available within the Fibralo range, here I added gold pen directly to the stamp. This is perfectly safe as the ink is water based and will  not harm your stamps. 

Finished page.. 

The pens are available from PaperArtsy HERE...

Darcy x