29 Faces Art Challenge Face #29

As promised, here it is . . .  

Face #29

. . . from my 8-year-old daughter. I just love the shawl and brooch that she thought up herself!

And here are a few photo montages of all our work.

From my son (age 10):

And from my daughter:

and my work:

29 Faces Art Challenge #26-28

I can't even begin to explain how much I have enjoyed the 29 Faces Art Challenge from Ayala Art! It has given me inspiration to practice drawing faces way more often than I would have without a "goal" to work toward. And my children have enjoyed it as well!

Face #26

Watercolor, watercolor pencils, oil pastel and acrylic.

Face #27

I drew this one mainly for the facial expression. I am trying to get better at conveying different emotions in my drawings.

Face #28

This is from my 10-year-old son, when told he could draw an animal face. : )

Face #29? 

My daughter is still working on this one. Hopefully, I can post it over the weekend!

29 Faces Art Challenge #24 & 25

Making progress on the 29 Faces Art Challenge!

Face #24
Another "guess who?"

I drew this one for Asmic from Amazing and Amusing and her husband. Our two families have a standing joke with sending one another faces of this particular person or pictures of us in front of statues of him.

For better or for worse, the shadow of this man has loomed over almost every city that I have lived in as an adult. And in one city, he literally loomed over us.: ) Growing up, my parents equated him with Satan. And I distinctly remember the irony I felt years later when watching old Soviet movies from the 50's and 60's with Russian friends where he and his followers were the "good guys". 

Anyway, I tried to capture both the harshness and colorfulness of his life with this quick portrait. 

Face #25

Inspired by a book I found in the library called "Zeichnen Lab", this is a silly animal portrait. I painted a watercolor blob and then drew the first animal that came to mind. 

29 Faces Art Challenge #20-23

Well, the clock is ticking on our 29 Faces Art Challenge. We have until next Friday to complete all of our faces. Will we make it? I don't know, but we'll sure have had a lot of fun trying!!

Face #20

Guess who?  Although men's faces are usually difficult for me to draw, this one was relatively easy. Could it be that the reason is because I've seen this face for most of my life? (Only in pictures, of course!)

Face #21

I told you I'd return to Nefertiti at some point.: )  I like this one much better than my previous attempt, but maybe I'm just more comfortable with this style.

Here is my 10-year-old son's work:

Face #22

Ironman, I believe.

Face #23 

And a knight!

I'm also sharing on Sunday Sketches at Blue Chair Diary Illustrations!

29 Faces Art Challenge # 14 - 19

Here we are back again with the 29 Faces Art Challenge from Ayala Art! As I predicted, our posting slowed down after the winter school holidays, but we've been drawing nevertheless. In fact, I think we might even have more than 29 faces at the end of February.: )

Face #14

"Mystery" - I have no idea what she is looking at, but it makes her smile. Watercolor and chalk pastel. 

Face #15

Ayala encourages us to draw anything with a "face", so I chose to draw an owl. Like the picture above, it is watercolor with chalk pastel.

Face #16

My children and I attended an art exhibit called "Manga Mucha Mystery" that explored how the Art Nouveau artist Alphonse Mucha influenced Manga and pop culture. My kids got to attend a Manga workshop, and I sat with friends sketching the pictures in the exhibition. You can see the Manga influence in this portrait I did below. I used a picture and changed the woman's features enough to make it original.: ) I used watercolor and watercolor pencils.

Face #17

A Manga drawing. I thought up the interesting headdress after some of studying Mucha's pictures. 

Face #18 

My 10-year-old son is back with the following portraits of Dad and Mom.: )

Face #19

I'm also posting this on Sunday Sketches. I just discovered Alexandra's blog. She is an amazing self-taught artist with an inspiring life story. It reminds me to pay even closer attention to the children in my care. Hope you will check out her blog and work!

29 Faces Art Challenge Faces #10-13

Yesterday, my kids and I visited a museum near the Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace). We took a stroll on the palace grounds and dropped into the bookshop to browse. There I was reminded of one of the fascinating women who lived in this palace, Queen Luise of Prussia. 

Face # 10 

I love allowing myself to be inspired by Berlin's history, so I decided to sketch Luise this morning. I painted her as sort of a transparent ghost-like figure with the Schloss and the East German TV Tower in the background. These architechtural components represent the old and the new and I pose the question of what Luise herself might have thought of Berlin today. Would she have found it intriguing and exciting as I do, or would she find the changes difficult? 

To make the background, I gessoed the paper with a palette knife. Then, I pressed B/W pictures of the palace and TV Tower into the gesso and cut through the still wet paint with with the palette knife, giving it a distressed look. Afterwards, I painted the surface yellow.

For Luise's face, I used charcoal and chalk pastels.

Faces #11 & 12

My daughter, age 8, did both of these studies. Although the man looks a lot like it could be her Dad, she says they are both fantasy faces. 

Face #12

My son, age 10, painted Cyclops from the X-men. I love the foreshortened hand swinging for a punch. : )

Visit all the 29 Faces artists here!

29 Faces Art Challenge Faces #6-9

Continuing the 29 Faces Art Challenge hosted by Ayala Art, here are the latest:

Face #6

I live in the city where the famed Bust of Nefertiti makes its home, and I have a bit of an obsession with her. The bust is one of the most beautiful works of art I have ever seen, and makes me want to really know what the woman in real life was like. She has such a serene, but mysterious look on her face. Completely in control, but somehow benevolent . . .

That having been said, I am not satisfied with this piece. I don't feel that I made the two mediums, acrylic paint and oil pastel, work well together. Also, I don't feel that I "said" anything new about her. But I am showing this piece anyway, because I feel it is important to be able to give ourselves the permission not to like a finished work.

Nefertiti is a subject that I often return to - I've done studies of her with everything from charcoal to collage- and I am sure that I will return again to her during this art challenge.:)

Face #7

This is my 8-year-old daughter's "pioneer girl", as she calls her. She finds Little House on the Prairie and pretty much anything that happened in the 19th century fascinating, but this is the first time I can remember her drawing something in this genre.

Faces #8-9

My 10-year-old son's obsession is with Marvel comics. That explains the two faces below.: )

Thanks again for all of the comments and encouragement! Constructive criticism is also welcome!

29 Faces Art Challenge Faces # 3-5

My two children and I participating in Ayala Art's 29 Faces Art Challenge. My kids have jumped in with gusto, drawing so many faces that I can't possibly put them all on the blog. So far, it's been a good exercise for me not only in coming up with new projects, but also in letting go of some of my perfectionism. 

Here are today's offerings:

Face #3

For this one, I stained my background with the morning's leftover coffee. Then, I sketched the face with a terracotta Conte crayon pencil. Next, I added some color with watercolor, and finally I drew in the details with chalk pastels. 

I find it difficult to draw men in general, and I noticed some of the other participants voiced this as well.  I wonder why that is?

If you know our family in real life, you might have an inkling who this man might be.:)  It captures his essence, although I think there is something Dostoyevsky-esque in the portrait as well. 

Face #4 

This manga-like drawing is from my 10-year-old son. He did this with gouache and chalk pastels. 

Face #5

My 8-year-old daughter drew this face from her imagination. She actually draws faces quite often, and has of late been fascinated with people wearing glasses.

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged us and taken the time to comment! This might be the most fun link-up I have ever participated in!

29 Faces Art Challenge Faces # 1 & 2

When I look through my sketch books, there seem to be two things that I unconsciously draw most often: trees and faces.

In my search to find inspiration for sketching, I came across the "29 Faces Art Challenge" hosted by Ayala Art. In honor of leap year, you are challenged to draw 29 faces during the month of February. The rules are simple: you draw any kind of face or facial feature, be it animal or human, and with any type of medium. Exactly the kind of challenge that I need.: )  While I have no illusions that I will actually be able to draw 29 faces, I'll have fun trying and stretch myself in the process.

Face # 1

For those interested in the creative process, I'll share how I ended up with this lovely lady. This is a mixed media work with watercolor, charcoal and chalk pastels. I seem unable to work with just one medium.: ) 

First, I started with a watercolor wash of red and yellow. Then, I add some sea salt in various places to create a crystal sort of effect.

Then, I sketched a woman from an internet photo, which I modified to avoid any potential copyright issues.

Next, I transferred the basic outline of my sketch into my spiral-bound sketchbook using a simple technique that I will share in a later post. I then began to fill in face, neck and shoulders with a brown watercolor wash. I added skin tones, hair and details with a charcoal pencil and chalk pastels. 

My 10-year-old son, who participated in "Sketchy Sunday" with me, also got excited about the project and made a quick self-portrait. It was awesome to see him looking in the mirror at himself and then sketching. Maybe between the two of us, we'll get 29 faces!

Face #2