Jazz Baby Finished

I just finished applying the beeswax to my painting and I LOVE the effect! It adds a dreamy, gauzy look to the piece and definitely gives it more depth. I admit I was afraid to work with the wax, thinking it would mess up all the hard work but I'll definitely be using it in more of my art. If you click on each photo, you'll get a better look at the texture.

In Suzi's technique you don't need a small crock pot to melt your wax in. You just take the bar of wax and a small quilting iron, hold the iron to the wax right over where you want to drip it, and then smooth the drips out with the iron. That way, you control where the wax goes and how much of it you want to add. So easy!

I especially like how it made her face look so soft and dreamy. Beautiful effect. That was one benefit of really applying a thick coat of colored pencils. That wax base blended perfectly with the hot wax when added! Here is another view that shows more of the texture and detail with the wax:

Just for comparison, I put up this "before" photo that I posted yesterday. If you compare the two, you'll be able to see the difference. So fun!

Now I'm gearing up to do more of these with some faces I've got prepared. I'm also looking forward to Suzi's new class called, "The Goddess and the Poet" which starts July 15. This class teaches more lifelike portrait drawing. We will add a little poetry to the mix and see what happens. Stay tuned...

Jazz Baby

Here is my first Petite Dolls painting from Suzi Blu's class. She's all finished except for the beeswax. I wanted to get a photo of her before and after beeswax. I'm a little nervous about doing the wax; I've never used it before. But I'll give it a whirl tonight. You can click on each photo to get a larger view.

Here is a close-up of the painting before I added the pearl mica flakes to her hair. All of the closeups with the mica flakes in the hair make it look like glitter and it's not. Anyway, this was the best photo of the background detail.

Here is a closeup (sorry about the blur) of the mica flakes and more of the background. The music note to the right of her doesn't show up very well on the camera but it is raised above the wood. I used molding paste and then painted over it. Looks a lot better in person. I also wanted to show the irridescence of her pants. That doesn't show up too well in most of the photos either, but it does in this last photo:

After I get the beeswax on, I'll post one more photo of the complete look.

The idea behind the Petite Dolls paintings is they are supposed to be your dolls that have been placed onto a "shabby" background. That means lots of layers, lots of paint, collage, etc. Then you add some BOOM (gold leaf, glitter, mica flakes, etc.) all of which I've added here. That's a Petite Doll painting -- Suzi Blu style. I think I captured the look pretty well.

Since this was a Bluesy, jazzy style of doll I wanted the colors to be darker and deeper. I mentioned before that I had chosen the colors scheme of: olive, purple, gold, black and white. The olive doesn't show up in this final version but it is subtle in the background. There are a lot of layers to this piece and every once in a while you get a hint of the olive color.

Wish me luck with the beeswax. You are just supposed to drip it here and there. I won't cover her hair because of the mica flakes but most of the rest of it will at least receive a drip or two.

Dancin' Dottie

Today I feel just like Dancin' Dottie up there. Cha-cha-cha, Ooh-la-la! ;) Hubby cut some plywood for me last night and today I'm laying down the first layers of collage for my Petite Dolls paintings. I have about three dolls I'm working with right now but I've only settled on a color palette for one of them so far.

The jazz girl doll (see previous posts) is the first one I'll be working on today. I settled on the palette of black/cream, purple, olive and gold. I have this awesome book called, The New Big Book of Color, by David Carter. It is mainly for graphic designers and is full of examples of different color palettes and how they work in different layouts. He even breaks it out into "moods" that you want to create. For this painting I wanted a more sophisticated color scheme just because of the jazzy style. The perfect palette was the one I just described.

I think I can intuitively put colors together okay but this book is a great help. I was stumped on color choices for the paintings but now I'll be able to browse through the book and see if my ideas will work. Yay!

Also new: have discovered a cool new artist: Kat MacLeod (awesome figure/fashion drawing with a mod twist). She is definitely an inspiration and I hope to get more ideas by studying her work.

I think it's funny how you can come across something you see on a website and then be so inspired by it that you just keep searching, searching, searching and narrowing your search until you end up with all the info you need to take off from there. I'm talking specifically about the little girl in this collage. She was from a piece of French wrapping paper that was put up on Helga Strauss' blog at Artchix Studio. I loved her face and the little outfit (I changed the colors for this piece). I just had to make a little collage with her in it! She reminded me of the little Japanese girl that Suzi Blu had on a piece of wrapping paper she used in her collage.

So I Googled (is that a verb now?) "Japanese wrapping paper" and "Japanese dolls" and "Japanese dolls on paper", etc. I got such a wealth of images and info! These little cuties will definitely be showing up in my art soon, along with my own little twist of course. Those little faces are perfect inspiration for petite dolls and other works that can blossom from there.

They also remind me of the Kawaii style of art which is kind of funky, cute art that incorporates characters like these along with other elements. I remember when I first saw Kawaii art I didn't really get it. Funny how all of a sudden your tastes or likes can change! Now I totally get it and I think I can twist it into something more to my liking.

Anyway, that's what's going on today. Hopefully the Gesso is dry on the wood by now and I can start the painting, inking and layering. Stay tuned for results...

First Attempts At Shading

So we've moved on to Lesson 2: Shading the face with colored pencils. I never really understood the whole color pencil thing. Now I get it! You BLEND them! Duh!! Anyway, these are my first attempts at trying to give the face some depth. This first girl is the one I'll probably use for my project (the suspenders girl). I'll probably do another face or two of hers before I get it exactly like I like it. I kept the original in the sketchbook and just hold it up to a window and trace the face onto a new page of sketch paper to practice my shading. That way you always have your original intact.

This next one was just a practice face I made up. She was actually the first one I tried. Not bad but need to watch the videos again to see how Suzi did the hair.

These will be adhered to a wood support and then painted on here and there to jazz them up a little. I'll definitely use paint to bring out the first girl's blonde hair. Plus the wood support will already be collaged by the time we adhere the doll. So, still a lot to learn before we get to that point.

That's all for today. Just wanted to show first attempts. :)

BOO! Just For Fun

Here's my creepy, sad-eyes girl. She's a little on the ghoulish side but would be great for Halloween. I like the Tim Burton style of art and this is sort of along those lines. She's sad, yes, but she has her dolly to keep her company. Hr dolly is pretty happy, though! Hubby said she's too sad. I said, Duh! That's the point!! Anyway, thought I'd put her up today. She's one of my favorites and I'm going to use her in the class, too. I'll have a pretty doll and a ... uh, her. ;)
Loving the class. One thing I learned: the lessons run two weeks at a time. That's good! I have a whole week to work on more faces and settle on what doll I'll use in the workshop. She is putting up a critique video sometime today. That's all for today. Back to sketching...

Les Petit Doll: Suspender Style!!

OK, this is the last one I'm posting tonight. I've been drawing all night while the TV has been on. I like her a lot but I also like the one I just posted before. Not sure which one I'll submit for tomorrow. Anyway, can you tell I'm loving this class? ;)

One More Les Petit Doll

Here is another doll I just finished. I really like her. Her shoes don't show up completely but she's all there. We have to have an outline to submit by tomorrow. If I don't come up with anything else I like as well as this one, I'll submit her.

Drawing Les Petit Dolls

OK, here's what I've been up to. I found out about this awesome drawing class being taught by one of my favorite artists: SuziBlu (see side panel). It's teaching you how to draw dolls. You all know I LOVE anything to do with dolls and I've been wanting to figure out a way to paint them...well, here it is. She teaches you to draw her kind of dolls: Les Petit Dolls. They are kind of whimsical, kind of primitive, big eyes, exaggerated features, just what I love!

I just found out about the class Wednesday. It started Monday so I was only a few days behind. The first lesson is drawing, drawing, drawing, practicing, practicing, practicing, faces and bodies. By Saturday we have to have a sketch of our doll posted for the critique. Right now I've been drawing like crazy trying to come up with something I want to use as my doll for the remainder of the course. I've got three sketch books going and have posted some of my favorite pages. I love the little girl at the top. The paper she's drawn on is kind of a funky texture so I had to increase the contrast so it would show up. Same as with the second photo. These are my two favorites so far. I've got to settle on a face soon because I have to give her a body and clothes and post her by tomorrow. So the first two are my favorites and then they are listed in random order:

One of the things Suzi emphasizes is DO NOT DRAW THE SAME FACE over and over. She wants to see different faces on each doll sketch. She shows you how to vary your faces so there's no excuse for the same face each time.

Some of her dolls have completely round faces, some have more angular faces. I'm trying to mix it up and see which I like the best. I have a ton of ideas for body poses and clothes so I'm narrowing the faces down this afternoon. I'll sketch the body and her outfit tonight.

This last one is an example of what she calls a more stylized face. It has exaggerated lines for the nose and usually is used with more elaborate costuming.

So I've been a busy little sketch artist. Have I ever drawn in my life? NO! I usually just doodle. But I love faces and dolls so I think I can do this. I just draw page after page of eyes and then start to add the rest of the features. When I have my finished sketch, I'll post it.

Eventually, after you've got a workable draft, then you begin the process of painting a background onto a wood support. Then you add your doll, paint her and add some 3-D embellishments. It's a five week course that seems to move pretty fast. So, off I go.

This is all tying in to my series I'm working on but I'm not going to tell you any more than that for right now! Also, I'm sewing down the finishing touches on the woven collage and will post that soon as well.