Mystic Circle

I'm done with the acrylics............... at least for a few days ;-)

c'est moi...........2030

"Time and trouble may tame a wild young woman, but a wild old woman is uncontrollable by any force."~ Dorothy L. Sayers..........  today's self portrait. To be continued...................;-)))

Amazing Grace

This is Grace. She is my self portrait for today. Although she may not look very much like me...sometimes during those rare and fortunate moments, I'll catch a glimpse of her looking back at me through the mirror of my soul.

The wing, background and flesh tones have to be finessed. I just did a quick color wash here, with aquarelle crayons.

Quote for the day

"Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." 
                                      ~Theodore Seuss Geisel aka Dr. Seuss

Another self portrait

On this one I actually used paint!!!  I printed a photo of myself onto watercolor paper, but I forgot to set the ink from the printer prior to painting....so had some smearing.  I let that dry, then went over everything with Shiva oil sticks. That step saved the day. Now after it's all dry, I'll go back in and do some shading, although without the smile and frown lines I look sooooooooo much younger.  You know what.........I'm gonna leave it like this.
It's who I am, not how I look........better yet, young is how I feel!!!!!

getting to know you (sing along, for those of you old enough to remember this tune, GREG)

 A self portrait...............self explanatory...........I hope.
Well understood by my artisan friends and family. All of whom are only too familiar, in the deepest sense, that creating opens up a wellspring of every emotion known to man ~ since the beginning of time.
Below you'll find my self portrait, along with a comment from such a friend, clearly expressing....my expression, even better than I can ;)

"i love this sketch, Gloria... we all have darkness and light inside of us... taken together this is what makes us whole... and the truth is... there IS angst, struggle, frustration, fear, and sadness right alongside the optimism, brightness, and joy... and at any one time we take a snapshot of ourselves in self portrait we have an opportunity to ...  get to know all those parts of ourselves and each other that much better... what a wonderful thing!... i welcome all those parts of you... this is beautifully done... i'm very glad to be getting to know more of you... :)"

Joanne...I hope you don't mind.  It's just that we relate so well, in words, and in pictures. Thank you for that.

I could say I've been super busy and hard at work, but that would, in part, be a fib.  I have been busy, but not with work  ;)

Art is not to do with the practical side of making a living.  It’s to have a fuller human life---Henry Moore

Well after many attempts at painting Mystic, I've put it aside.  Making my own flesh tone colors using the acrylic paints ends  up looking muddy.
So instead of giving up entirely,  I went on to complete another one of Misty's assignments. This one was to sketch and paint a portrait using only monochromatic tones.  I used raw umber, titanium white, and a tiny bit of paynes gray. This was great practice, because of the amount of shading involved, having to create the effect of light and dark, and reaching for 2dimensional features - with actual paint that dries sooooooooooooo quickly.  That's where I'm getting stuck. 

Pencil on paper now seems like a piece of cake.  Eraser in hand, and you can change anything.  Acrylic paints.....not so much.   hmph
Anywayssss, not a total loss.

Mystic Circle

That's the title I'm going to give this piece.  First off.......that's how I feel about this group of artisans that I'm taking this journey with.  There is so much energy, creativity, passion and goodwill going around... I can't quite put it into words, so I'll put it into heART work.
She is my interpretation of "The head of a young girl" by William Adolph Bouguereau.  I've taken the liberty of adding a halo...to represent the spirituality of speaking through art, and the unity and new friendships established in this circle of tremendous talent.
                                      Here is the sketch.  Tomorrow I'll paint.......using acrylics.

                                                   Mystic circle

Painted Lady

I SHIVAD at the thought of using the SHIVA oil sticks and all in all........it was a darn good time. My fellow classmates are creating amazing portraitures, but our site is private, so I can't share anyone else's work, or at least...I don't think I can.
Anywhoooo.........shout out to MISTY for bringing us all together.

new assignement

The photo, provided by Misty. The sketch, done by me. Tomorrow the finished painting...done using Shiva oil sticks.  I had more oil paint on my hands than on the canvas ;-)