Self-Portrait and a Verse

The prompt last week for 

The Documented Life Project~ The Journal

was a self-portrait.  The guest artist was

Pam Carriker, who did a painting with

graphite, white and black paint. 

 I decided to try the monochromatic

technique she demonstrated.  I think

it does resemble me, but people tell

me they think of me as usually smiling.

  However,  it is difficult to maintain

 a smile while you're painting yourself, 

so that's why the serious expression. 

Would you recognize me in a dark alley?

I do recommend practicing self-portraits...

you can work from a photo or a mirror

(as I did) and it really doesn't matter if

the drawing ends up looking like you.

Getting practice drawing faces is

the main idea, and you are always

available to model!

I came across a beautiful image

of an antique sampler on Pinterest,

and decided to write down the

verse in one of my journals, along

with some of the motifs on the sampler.

I'm afraid life as a 'lady' in 1727 was

very restricted. I am not quite sure what

the phrase "modes of France" means,

other than British and American 

conservative Christian homes thought 

of French society as the height of

decadence and indulgence...?

I love the old angels on samplers 

and graveyard stones,

but I did 'pretty her up' a bit...

Linking up with T Tuesday

over at Altered Book Lover...

sipping my coffee and recycling

an image of a tea cup for my

beverage this morning.

Draw Yourself.

Self-portrait 2013.

Sharpie pen on the last page of

my mixed media journal.  No pencil sketching,

just pen direct to paper.  I think the eyes are a bit

too close together, and I'm pretty sure I left out

some wrinkles!

A page in my Smash journal, above, Madonna & Flowers.
I showed the original drawing in this post.
 I've added watercolor.

The Madonna was inspired from an illustration
 in a book that I bought at our library sale:

 'Art Treasures in Russia', c. 1970.

The Madonna was drawn on a scrap
 of watercolor paper, then glued into the
Smash journal. I drew the flower (inspired

by a Picasso) and other motifs, which I used from the 

magazine clippings on the facing page.

The facing page in the Smash journal.

A profusion of flowers cut from a 

Stella McCartney advertisement. A craft paper

envelope on the bottom of the page. (I slipped an

article about one of Picasso's ex's inside-Francoise Gilot 

interviewed at 90 yrs of age) I glued magazine images of

ceramic tiles on the envelope flap. You can
see that I used those ceramic tile motifs

 on the page with the Madonna.

The bottom drawings -inspired by Art Nouveau designs

 published by Dover-were again done with the Sharpie

pen and then watercolored.

Little bits and snippets can come together

in an interesting way...

Linking to
Paint Party Friday and
Art Journal Every Day at Balzer Designs

Retrospective: FACES

2009, collage on recycled cardboard, above.
Scraps of painted papers & cardstock,
hand-carved stamping, acrylic paint,
Sharpie drawing over pieced collage.

2009, Collage on recycled cardboard, above.
Cardboard cut into profile shape and collaged.
Watercolors, scrapbook papers,
hand-carved stamps, magazine words,
negative & positive shapes utilized.

2009 crayon drawing
glued into my art journal--
I colored right along with
a 3-year old...

12.26.08 Blue Faces
a "use up the paint on the palette"
painting, in acrylic

2009 pen drawing
of African mask,
in my art journal.

2008 "Botanical" collage.
Magazine images, drawing of
female face in Sharpie, columnar paper.

2008 "Flower & Face"
acrylic paint, painted cardstock, fabric,
sticker, hand-carved stamps,
magazine image, in my
art journal.

2008 "found poetry"
and drawing in art journal...
'strata of rocks' theme resurfaces...

2008 pen sketch
after DaVinci...
"Why does the eye see a thing
more clearly in dreams
than the imagination when awake?"

2007 pencil drawing in
my art journal--
self-portrait in reading glasses.

2004 watercolor in my art journal--
Muslim woman's face.

Playing with collage and paint,
2004 art journal page.

2003 matte acrylic painting from
a magazine photograph of
a Mayan sculpture & glyphs--
in my art journal.

My 2003 drawing from a magazine photo
of a Mayan artifact that was
carved from bone.

"In painting or anything, you cannot have hate. If you have hate, you destroy the picture and yourself. You can have hunger, you can have thirst, you can have great feeling for texture, you can be sensitive to touch, you can be sensitive to color, but for the head you've got to be sensitive to love. Otherwise it will not work...Now, that love won't change the shape, but it will add something...this radiates out from the person...it's in the air between myself and the object I'm looking at."
- Ivan Albright, painter