ArtyFartyAnnie

 Well, the week went a bit pear-shaped, so I'm slightly behind with my challenge and decided to make this a VERY quick one, using just a black brush pen and a few simple strokes. This time our inspiration was Francoise Gilot, who was Picasso's muse and mother of his daughter Paloma, as well as being an artist in her own right. I wasn't too keen on the photo reference provided, so I worked from several pictures I found on line, and tried to imitate the style of one of Picasso's many portraits of her ... I have one more artist to go - another version of Georgia O'Keeffe - and then I think we're on to nurses. I'm going to try and get two done today to catch up. Maybe I should do more quick ones like this, it's fun to see how much you can capture very quickly.

 Day 6 of the 30 day challenge originally set by Olga Furman. I know I keep saying it, but I'm blown away by the talent and vision of these inspiring women artists. This time, I was working from a photo of Yayoi Kusama, using vivid colours of Pan Pastels to reflect her colourful style ... It's not a good photo, and I didn't get a great likeness - her nose should be shorter, her upper lip longer and her chin smaller - I can clearly see where I've gone wrong, and I may come back to her again later, there are so many inspiring images of her and her work online.  In my defence, I was working way too small, which I found very frustrating. I wanted to try out some sanded pastel paper, but it's very expensive so I thought I'd try a piece of A5 which came in a Scrawlr Box a while back, to see how I got on with it. It's lovely to work on, but it is very expensive, so I will try some alternatives first - I've heard you can apply clear gesso and sand it yourself, s...

 I'm really enjoying catching up with this challenge to make 30 portraits of 30 inspiring women in 30 days, which was originally set by Olga Furman. The collection of reference photographs is really varied and,well, challenging, and it's been so interesting to find out about each of the women, some of whom I have to admit I hadn't heard of until now.  For Day 4, I was working from a photo of Amrita Sher-Gil, using mainly graphite pencils in 2B, 4B and 7B, then adding colour to her clothes and jewellery with coloured pencils ... I found it difficult to get a good photo, because the graphite has a sheen to it, but you get the gist :o) I think I may come back to some of these and have another go at them in different media - this is definitely getting my creative cogs turning! 

Still on my mission to catch up with the Ode to Women challenge created by Olga Furman - I'm very late to the party, but still enjoying myself even if I'm dancing all alone! Here's my #4 of 30 portraits, inspired by artist Carmen Mondragon (AKA Nahui Olin), who apparently had very striking green eyes ... It's been fascinating to read about these artists - their lives, their work, their inspirations - very inspiring.  I'm not at all happy with this. In fact, I started it a couple of weeks ago and abandoned it, then went back to it a couple of times trying to improve it - it wasn't bad as a charcoal sketch, then I decided to turn it into a painting with gouache, then went back in with coloured pencils and more charcoal. Then yesterday I decided to draw a line under it and move on :o) I might have another go at her later though, do something a bit more interesting with that wonderful face and those eyes!  For #5 of my 30 portraits, I'm going to try Yayoi Kusama...

 Day 3 of the 30-day challenge set by Olga Furman. This time it's another inspiring artist, Georgia O'Keeffe ... This time I just used charcoal (black and white charcoal pencils, willow sticks and a little bit of compressed black charcoal for the really dark parts), on a mid-toned pastel paper. I really enjoyed this one, trying to get all the different tones and textures with just charcoal. I did NOT enjoy the hands though!  Maybe once I've done 30 women and 30 men, I should consider 30 hands, 30 ears, 30 eyes ....

Continuing on my mission to catch up with Olga Furman's Ode to Women Challenge to complete 30 portraits of inspiring women in 30 days. Here's my attempt at Tamara Lempicka ... It's not a great success, in that I haven't caught her likeness, also it was my first go with Pan Pastels and although I love them, I have a LOT to learn. However, this is all part of the learning process, so I'm going to embrace it and move swiftly on to the next one :o)

Recently,  Olga Furman hosted a brilliant challenge called Ode to Women - she provided photo references of 30 inspiring women from different walks of life, the idea being to complete 30 portraits in 30 days. There were five themes - Women Nurses; Women Artists; Women in Hats; Women Singers; Women in History.  Frustratingly, I missed the start and only signed up in time for the last three themes, so I've had problems tracking down the ones I missed, but I'm going to do my best to complete the challenge my way and in my own time. I also want to work on portraits of men, so I've started collected interesting male faces to work on as well - I challenge myself to complete 60 portraits in 60 days (as I have just turned 60!).  Here's the first one ... This is Frida Kahlo as a young child, done in just 6B pencil on watercolour paper.  Here's the photo I worked from ... Very interesting to see a picture of her as a child; she already had that distinctive look and a very ser...

 Good Morning Bloggy Friends and Fellow Deskers,  It's time for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday - when we show the world what's going on in our crafty spaces this week and link up over at Julia's Stamping Ground .  I've missed three now, so I'm determined to join in this week, but will have to come back later to do my snouting - Wednesdays are not behaving for me lately. Today we have a long-awaited appointment for my son with the CMHT (Community Mental Health Team). It's face-to-face and we are both now shielding, but we've been his support bubble throughout and we will of course take extra care while we're out and about. Neither of us has slept well and we're very nervous, but I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.  So, here's my desk as it is this morning. It looks like a total mess. That's because it is indeed a total mess. I left it this way after doing a live stream on Twitch TV with my son Tom on Sunday (hence the camera and ligh...

 I recently joined a free online class with the lovely Ida Anderson Lang , who showed us how to create a magical picture using mainly coloured pencils and watercolour pencils.  Ida is a wonderful teacher and gave us so many tips along the way. Here's how my version turned out ...

Week Ten of Paint Your Heart & Soul was a class with Jenny Manno, who showed us how she uses Pan Pastels to create a portrait from a reference photo.  It was fascinating to watch and so inspiring to watch Jenny working with this medium, that I decided I really NEEDED some Pan Pastels - so I had a rummage on eBay and found a "pre-owned" set of 20 colours and some tools. The vendor describes them as hardly used and they were about half the price they would be new, so I grabbed them with very little hesitation. It's still a considered purchase, but they will last me for ages and as I already enjoy using stick pastels, I can be fairly certain I'm going to LOVE using these.  Anyway, meanwhile, I had a go at the lesson using my stick pastels on a grey-blue paper - a bit fiddly as it was only A5 size. Here's how it came out ... I might have another go working from the same reference photo with the new Pan Pastels when they arrive (hopefully on Wednesday) and compare ...