On A Whim

I recently opened up one of my bigger journals which is something I hadn't done in awhile and began to rework this. Pardon the quality. I took this at night and I couldn't get the lighting right. I think I am returning to my "I wanna do better faces thing." I started playing around and trying to add more paint, shading etc. And then this one was already nearby me on the table. Pan pastel on the face. ON a whim I set this one on top of the other. Pretty funny. Somehow even though the card stock is not laying down flat, the colors seem to work with one on top of the other.The background becomes more interesting. Neither piece is finished. Her mouth is crooked. What do you think?

Two Years Ago

I have been really busy with my normal work week, working overtime a couple of Saturdays, planning for 3 more art journaling workshops the last three Saturdays in this month.I am really tired but am excited because I've had people call me and inquire about the workshops. I've gotten some good response which feels very good. I have still managed to find time to play some. I always will have time for art because I will always make time for art as long as I can breathe and see. That's what keeps me sane, keeps me getting up in the morning to go to a job I no longer want to get up for. If I couldn't do art I would be pretty miserable. I have some new things to show you but they're kind of all in the "in progress "stage, so I'll show you this today instead. I was looking through my photo folders this evening and found something I did two years ago on this date. I think I had just gotten some new pan pastels and really had no idea how to use them. I think I was trying to figure out what else to put on the acrylic painted pages. After not seeing it for a couple of years, I rather like it. I find it so interesting to see how my art has changed over the years. As I have changed it reflects what has transpired inside me. I can tell sometimes by looking at the photograph what was going on inside my head, or in my life at that moment often by whether the table on which the art work sat was cluttered or tidied up. Whether I had a lot of internal chaos or whether I was calm. It is not so surprising but interesting. And we all know that life is often very messy. Sometimes good things come from messes. Thanks for stopping in. I hope you are well and finding joy in making messes.

Here's Looking at You

Remember all those 5am "Morning Pages" faces I've been doing for a over a year? I decided I need to do something with them so yesterday I started laying them out on a 2 x 3 piece of plywood. I like that some of them are done with pan pastels and some with water color, however, I'm not sure if I should put a spray fixative on the pan pastels ones or if I needed to have had something underneath them to begin with. I have adhered the faces for now with masking tape until I am sure of the lay out. I need to fill in the empty spaces. When I figure out what to do with the pan pastels and the fixative I will feel better when I put a sealant on top. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? I had to chuckle when I was thinking of a title of this piece. How about "Somebody's Watching You, " or All Eyes on YOu. Or "That crowd of People." Ha ha ha .I am sure you could think of a few. Thanks for visiting and stay tuned.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I'm still working on my faces in the morning. Okay, I'm not really working too hard on them lately because I'm getting bored and I keep telling myself I need to work on faces in different directions and I haven't gotten to that point yet, so frontal faces are what I keep doing. I will show you the okay ones and the crappy ones, too. Yes, a lot of crappy ones. Or I could rationalize it in that they aren't so bad for 5 a.m. I have to laugh because I think they are a reflection of me and how I might feel in the morning.... and in that sense they are true to life. Getting up out of bed in the morning when I have to go to work is not terribly enjoyable, so if I have to get up I might as well get up(sit up in bed with coffee) and do some art no matter what comes out. At least I am showing up. On another note, I saw an article on page 56 in May/June Cloth Paper Scissors on making houses out of woods scraps. I love houses in my art. I suddenly had the urge to go to the very unorganized garage and find the hand saw. I took a small piece of plywood and drew the outline of two houses and with much muttering I managed to saw out the images, breaking or at least chipping each one at the tip. No matter, I glued them with matte medium and put a paperclip on it. I then sanded them to remove splinters and then gessoed them, let them dry. Then I covered them with paper. Here they are at this point.Then next step is to sand them again and then start collaging and or painting them with painted papers. The houses by the artist in the article are darn sweet. Imagine the neighborhood you could make! I'm off to play! Thanks for coming by................................xoxo................Jo

New Faces

I wanted to share a few more of my 5am faces with Pan Pastels. I usually don't have any plan in mind. They just seem to come out of me. And I am needing to work on shading and shadows and stuff..I would hope that will come in time...... but I am having fun playing with these smooooth rich and creamy pastels. Stay tuned and thanks for popping in......................................................................Jo

New Faces

I have finished this composition notebook which holds my chicken scratch of Morning Pages(julia Cameron) and of course my ongoing pursuit of drawing faces. I am taking a break from all watercolor to pan pastel, which I am really loving, and sometimes I am trying both on the same face. Here are the results of the last few pages of that notebook. I think it's kind of funny how as I was uploading these that I noted how these women have a tendency to lean to one side.(lol) Go figure. I am enjoying playing and trying to find my style. I'm not shooting for great sketches as in Drawing 101, not yet, anyway.(lol) I would like to figure out how to do a mosaic of all the faces I've done, so I can see them all at once. I think I can do that on Flickr but I have to investigate it further.) I think these are not half bad for 5am 7 days a week. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for all your comments. I appreciate hearing from you. Please come again.......................jo

Pan Pastel Faces

After a long time of waiting, debating and arguing with my practical self and artist wanting self, I broke down and got a portrait pan pastel set. This, thinking it was magically going to help me produce some better faces. I can't say it really has, though I am enjoying them nonetheless. I like the softness, the "pastelliness." How's that for a made up word? Which reminds me of another made up word I heard. There was a man in NYC at DMV(that's Devision of Motor Vehicles for my international blog readers in case you didn't know) who was wearing a colander on his head. Apparently, he refused to remove the colander when it came time to have his picture taken. The police were called. He told the police it was for religious beliefs, that he had to wear it. He said......... "I'm a Pastafarian." Ha ha ha ha ha!! Back to the pan pastels. Perhaps I will check out the place where everyone seems to go to for help with many things. You-Tube. Here are a few of my newest faces. Perhaps I will write my Morning Pages in invisible ink so the writing doesn't show through the faces as much..........Daughter Liza stopped in for a quick visit after work. She wasn't too thrilled with her mother snapping pics of her. Her mother wasn't too thrilled at the face outcome but will keep plugging along. I find faces at different angles very hard to do. The positioning of the features are always out of whack no matter how many guidelines I have. Grrrrrrhhhh. But, I am hooked. I find having faces in my art work really changes things, no matter what they look like. Thanks for visiting here. I hope I cracked you up and that you've had a good weekend..................................................Jo.................