Another new discovery....

While here in Australia I suddenly discovered the work and products of Jane Davenport. Duh, I must have been somewhere under a rock.....
She has a huge product line with American Crafts, available in Michaels stores, and her products are also widely available in the UK and elsewhere

. But.... she is from Australia and has her own online shop here and of course I could not help myself and some of her products just fell into my basket... I love her colourful style and personality. So here are a first couple of pieces, using her work as inspiration :o)

I love the looseness of her portraits, without them becoming as stylised as some of the other artists out there. The background was done with some of her watercolours (pretty similar to the Prima sets I think), I then added detail with some of her water soluable crayons (they will only become available world wide from November, but she has them in her own shop here in Oz), and some coloured pencils and pens I had here anyway.

Embracing bright colours is always hard for me, but I am trying to break out into other ways of doing art. Having said that, my next page (and my own more favoured one) was done in more monochrome colours)

I love experimenting with different styles of faces, so expect to see more..... When I am back home and have my usual supply of stamps and inks, I may add further background detail still.

The penwork was done with a Sakura Micron pen and I was glad I had taken a white gelpen with me for some highlights.

I added the sentiment digitally and am going to add this to the October challenge at AJJ Landscapes of the soul

Thank you for dropping in here like usual and have a happy weekend!

xxxxx

Playing with Portraits and some re-visits.....

Hello all and welcome. I don't know about you, but  have you seen some of the amazing portraits people are posting these days? There are several challenges out there also....
Anyway, I am not much of a challenge player, but I did decide that it was high time to try my hand at some portraits again.
Here first of all is a recent attempt:

I have been hugely impressed with the wonderful work of the talented Froebelsternchen/Susi who posts almost daily journal pages, often including super portraits. One of my all time favourites was this one.
I really admire her loose style and faces full of character.... Oh to be able to do that, mine always look stiff and bland by comparison....
Anyway, here's a quick run down of how this spread came together:

A mop up page with some additional gesso was the start.

Some background stamping and further splatters. I had no plan in mind for this spread, I was just playing really. But then I started to see the outline of a face on the left side, so that's when I made the decision to finally try my hand at a portrait again.....

So here she is, a girl's face with an attempt of wind swept hair, drawn with a 4b and Stabilo All pencil and a water brush.

The finishing touches with some autumnal elements thrown in and some lines from a favourite poem.

When I rise, let me rise joyfully like a bird

When I fall, let me fall gracefully like a leaf without regret...

Now I am not actually a newcomer to portraits, I used to do them a lot, particular when I really got into journalling way back into 2010. So today I thought it would be fun to share some of these earlier attempts. When I look at them now, they make me cringe in many ways. Endless fiddling with acrylic paints taking hours and hours (one of the reasons I probably gave up on portraits).... stiff like I said and overly stylized..... ah well, judge for yourself. All I can say is, - they are no longer me really....

Done in June 2010, an attempt at a half profile.

I called this one Ode to Motherhood, I think I created it on Mother's day, - so sentimental (always a problem of mine)

The last portrait of that period. I quite like the background on this one and the bird, which also took a long time to draw......

Anyway, there you have it, - playing with portraits, warts and all. I am going to enter the first one into Susi's challenge Art Journal Journey where the theme is Inspired by Autumn Colours.

Thanks for your visit today and indulging me into a trip down memory lane...