Life Book...Hard Lessons

 

My next Life Book project...the lesson that took me over two weeks to complete.   This baby was hard work...so much so that I almost gave up.  (Notice my quote...)

The lesson was from the super talented Jane Davenport.  I adore her work, love her faces...oh, her eyes are divine, but I could not...for the life of me...seem to draw anything even remotely close to a "Jane" face.  I even tried to trace...for a bit of practice and it was a disaster.  It was if I had never drawn a face before!  UGH!  Frustrating!  I think that I tried five or six times before I decided to give up and try something completely different.

I'm in the middle of reading Pam Carriker's book on face drawing and I opted to follow one of her lessons for drawing my face.  Ahhhh...it was just what I needed...to completely change direction.

This project started with collage.  I added pieces of designer paper and vintage text paper to a 9"x14" piece of cold press watercolor paper.

 

Next, my face was actually drawn on a separate piece of watercolor paper and colored with a combination of gelatos and watercolor pencils (following Pam's tutorial, which was super helpful on shading)  Once the face was completed, it was cut out and attached to the collaged page.

 

(You can see my failed drawing attempts over on the left hand side...sigh...)  Once my face was attached, I hand drew the neck and shoulders.  Then...this is the really fun part...I applied gesso to the entire background, with the exception of the face, neck, shoulders, and hair.  Loved this part of the project!

  Gesso also does much to cover up all mistakes (I love gesso...)!  I used more gelatos and paper to color the neck, add shading, and give her some clothes. (Isn't the hair totally fun!)  The entire piece was lightly outlined with a Stabilo pencil for shading.  I added some lines to her hair and a whole bunch of butterflies to her head...fab headband!  I also added a tiny bit of stenciling around the entire page. And then...my sentiment on perseverance was stamped with individual letter stamps.   So happy to have this project finished!

 And guess what I did after I finished?  Bought Jane Davenport's book...yup...I'm going to learn how to draw her eyes if it's the last thing I do with art! LOL!  Here's to persevering!!