Friday Face Off - Portrait Challenge.

When Nicole announced the portrait challenge, I was thinking that I would be doing well to finish a portrait in time.  However, I decided that my portrait just needed to be a face that looked reasonably good. After I did the first one, I was hooked.  Working in different media allowed me to explore some possibilities.  I have a few to show you.  

First up is a series of three created from the same face.

Acrylic Paint on good watercolor paper

Mixed media (oil pastels, colored pencils and water media)

Inktense pencils and Inktense blocks

Next up,  an older lady 

Colored pencil on very cheap watercolor paper.

And finally a male face.

Done with very inexpensive crayon on the back side of that cheap watercolor paper

There is a reason that I mention the inexpensive materials that I used for a couple of these. It is to remind you that you don't have to have expensive materials to create fun art. 

However, I will say choose your substrate (paper in this case) with care as it determines how

well the materials will work for you. 

Linking with the Portrait Challenge 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Art? for Sunday

Just for fun,  I decided to take an inexpensive piece of carving block about 2 inches square and play.  I started by drawing a circle and used that for my design basis.  Then I just played. 

When I went to stamp it, I realized that my stamp pads need replaced.   I did try using some paint but it didn't work well with this brand of carving block.   I poured some tech ink on an old stamp pad and "made do" with it. 

It is kind of a weird little design but maybe I will use it at some time. 

Linking with Sunday in the Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

My Adventure

I had not been on a vacation in several years, so it was time for a break.  My Mom has dementia and I am one of her two caregivers.  My brother, the other caregiver,  had taken vacations. It was time for me to get away.

Back in August a friend and I started planning a cruise. It was a twelve day cruise from Jacksonville, Fl to several islands in the Caribbean.  While I have been on a Caribbean cruise three other times (long ago) this time all the places we went to were new to me.  I confess that I didn't take pictures on every island. 

I had a great time.  We visited: Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Tortola BVI, St Kitts,  St Martin, St Thomas USVI, and San Juan Puerto Rico (not necessarily in that order.) 
Here are a few pictures. 

Wax applied to make batik fabric in St Kitts

Bloody Point St Kitts

Old British phone booth, St Kitts

Sunrise over the islands (arriving at St Kitts and Nevis)

Playita del Condado - San Juan

Plaza de Maestro -honoring the Puerto Rican Teacher

Cannons at the Fortress St Kitts

The Wake behind the ship was mesmerizing.

Eisenhower and me at Paseo de los Presidentes

JFK and me at Paseo de los Presidentes

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Carving a Rubber Stamp

One of the things I have used in my art quite successfully is using rubber stamps.  To keep my work original I have carved many of my own stamps.  This also avoids copyright infringement if the stamp or stamp brand is "for personal use only" and you are making items to sell.  

Here is a video that I did years ago.  My tools are a Speedball Carving set  that I bought locally at a craft store.

Sharpie Marker, black, available many places. 

Mastercarve black by Staedtler (discontinued)  You can use a Speedball SpeedyCarve block or another brand of block or a cheap rubber eraser.  

Carving a Rubber Stamp

I hope you enjoy the video and maybe try carving your own stamp.

FYI This video is listed on the Tutorial Page of my blog.  Pages are on the left hand menu. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Friday Face Off

For the first Friday Face Off of the year,  I am sharing a couple of AI creations and the start of what I hope will be my entry for the portrait challenge. 

First up is one that I like BUT it is a "failure" as an AI self portrait.  

I don't think it looks very much like me.  It is however a very interesting portrait. 

Next up is another portrait I created on Night Cafe.  I am not sure if I have ever shared this one.

I am sharing her today because she will be the basis for my entry into the Portrait Challenge. 

I have used a print out of this one to create a tracing onto watercolor paper.  

I did make some artistic changes in the tracing. 

I will likely make more changes once I start painting .

If you look closely,  you may notice that many of the angles have become curves. 

This tracing is a bit faint because I used the printout with the oil pastel tracing trick that 

Nicole shared on this post.  This happens to be the third use of the same print. In a few places 

I did have to add a bit more pastel to get a line.  For the most part it worked well. 

I am planning to paint this is acrylics, simply because it is easier to correct mistakes. Ha ha. 

Have a Happy and Creative New Year

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.