Making a Portrait Journey!

Welcome to Magpieheaven - Followers and Friends. The other day I popped over to my crafty friend, Mo's blog to discover that she had been having fun making faces - if you know what I mean! She was linking up to Kim Dellow's Art it Friday who has been 'bitten by the Portrait Bug'. Both Kim and Mo had discovered how liberating it is, and how wonderfully you can express yourself by creating portraits! I drew faces all the time I was at school, doodling weird and crazy characters all over my notebooks when I should have been taking notes on crop rotation! I didn't worry too much about how technically 'right' those faces were, I just loved letting my pen move across the paper creating characters. Last summer I took a class in doll making with Mary Jane Chadbourne and that inspired me  to draw again and to use my hand-drawn faces on mixed media creations. I love stories and story-telling and I've found creating my own faces has stimulated my imagination afresh and sent it off in all kinds of new directions.

What kind of journey has my portrait odyssey been? Things happen rather like this. I draw a face either that captures my imagination in a book, or that seems to be hiding in my imagination. I don't agonize too much over it, just let it come. I like to work with a soft sketching pencil and build up layers with Inktense water-colour pencils, sometimes Pan Pastels and then add definition and some doodling with a very fine black pen. My friend, Lyn Tivenan recently gave me the lovely gift of some of her art and an extra fine Pilot pen, which I used on this sketch.

I then scan my sketches into the computer. I am building up a collection of faces, which I can re-size and then print out and use on different projects. Like an actor, one face can play many roles and tell many different stories. This most recent sketch suggests an eco-warrior to me; but some day she might be re-cast as a Nature Spirit; a princess from another planet or even a carnival reveller!

I'm thinking of using her on one of my peg dolls! But she might find her way onto a card like this little character has done more than once. Here she is working as a clown/magician conjuring a lively spring-time rabbit!

I love to try image transfer with my sketches too. I was recently gifted this beautiful Sandra Evertson heart, which I've photographed with some of the masterboards I've been creating for birthday cards.

I wanted to use it to celebrate the Spring and to have a spring-time goddess at its centre. Now that I look at her, I imagine she might be a young nobleman's bride and the heart a gift from her to him on their betrothal. I printed out a tiny image and covered it with a layer of PaperArtsy Satin Glaze. I then placed it face down on some cream coloured linen and painted over the back with more of the Glaze, making sure to avoid air bubbles. When it was quite dry, I gently rubbed away the paper on the back of the image with a damp cloth to reveal a little fabric image.

 I was then able to fix my sketch with some more of the Satin Glaze and seal it with this too. Before adding my image, I covered the heart with  some torn tissue with Grunge Paste stencilling on it to create texture and when this was dry, sprayed with diluted, very watery Fresco Acrylic paints in Wisteria,  Blue China, Hey Pesto and Smurf. I also painted some areas with Prima soft gel medium and pressed tiny beads in. The leaf is a painted charm with a little Treasure Gold gilding paste on it and there are two painted resin flowers and a pearl.

 You can see a little more of the texture created using gilding, gels and Prima Copper Crackle Paste. I liked the texture that the fabric gave, as if the little face were made of canvas. It reminds me of Renaissance artefacts and I now want to experiment more: I should like to decorate more and possibly attach them to boxes or place them within niches.

Thank You so much for dropping by Magpieheaven today to watch me make faces! Enjoy your week and try to go on a portrait journey yourself. You still have time to join Kim here.