Friday 23 October 2015

Show Your Face on Friday, Pierrot

Hello Followers and Friends, welcome to Magpieheaven! I can't believe how quickly the days have flown by and it's time once again for Kim Dellow's fabulous 'Show Your Face on Friday'. This is the blog spot that has really kept me hooked on faces since I first linked up what seems like ages ago. Do please check it out here, if you want to be inspired by Kim and all the fantastic artists who join her each week; and why not create a face yourself, link up and join in the fun? I was going to create something completely different this week, but for a reason that will - I hope - become clear later today, I created two more little sketches in a similar style to last week.This is where I began!
I blended washes of PaperArtsy paints in Teresa Green, Blue Oyster and Nougat in my mixed media sketch book. I then took my 6B pencil, tortillian and Graphik marker and started to create a portrait of a pierrot. I really like to use the soft 6B pencil with the tortillian to create shadow around the eyes with a little fine lining for definition. Coincidentally, Kim has been sharing some shading tips this week and talking about light and shade. I was reading an artist talking about this very thing last week, as she discussed exploring the dark and the light spaces between what we think we see!
I love images of pierrots on ATCs and many of the first rubber stamps I bought when I began crafting featured pierrot images. It might have been seeing pierrot prints in my great grandma's house as a small child that sparked this fascination with the white-faced, tender-hearted zany. I wanted to see if I could transfer the vintage pierrot look to Tim Burton's style.
I enjoyed drawing over the painted background and using some Inktense pencils to create a touch of extra colour. I finished off with a layer of white Pan Pastel, which I sprayed with fixative. I wanted to suggest the chalky, translucence of the pierrot make-up. 


Although Tim Burton's style has been the starting point with these recent sketches, I have been trying to use him as an inspiration for stylised drawings, which are not - I hope - just Tim copies but a way of helping me to step outside my comfort zone and try expressing character in a new way. This next fantasy is something of a combination of my take on Tim Burton and Frida Kahlo's deer transformed into a centaur - without the wounding!
 She bears a passing resemblance to my daughter, Matilda looking a tad uneasy to have woken in an enchanted forest, metamorphosed into this creature. Now I think there's another story waiting to be told!

 Last week I experimented with placing my portrait of 'Fairy Debs' on an ATB, which I sent the real life Debs!
It was fun to have the back and sides of the block to play with and co-ordinate with the portrait. The scan was on a plain white background, but  I coloured this, again with Inktense.
I think it looks very different with the coloured background and the textures and the text on the sides and back. 
The image below gives some idea of the size of the ATB with a magpie feather for scale. An image can look so different when it is reduced or increased in size.

Embossed copper foil sides, painted and then sanded and edges lightly touched with Treasure Gold added a little bit of fairy dust!
And then stamping over a background with a little stencilling and shaded PaperArtsy Fresco blues: Antarctic, Smurf and Inky Pool seemed to finish off the project nicely.
Thank you so much for stopping by Magpieheaven today. I hope you have a wonderful creative week and that you will create a face or faces and link up to Kim's blog. It doesn't matter what style you choose, or what media as long as the face you create is drawn by you.

19 comments:

  1. Wow! Just wonderful! A FEAST of Fabulous for us again this week. Love your Pierrot; LOVE your beautiful Fairy Debs and I'm looking forward to hearing what happens next to your beautiful Centaur. Lx

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  2. Another lovely feast for the eyes and imagination and more wonderful characters for us to ponder over. Can't wait to read what comes next!

    Love the chunky ATC too!

    Hugs
    Lesley Xx

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  3. Oh Julie Ann! You are clearly having so much fun with these faces! You will soon have enough to produce a calendar for next year! I really love all of your characters. Pierrot and Columbine used to be in one of my Mum's old books that used to be one of my favourite pages to sit and look at! Have a great weekend! Chrisx

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  4. Fantastic post, it is always a pleasure to see your creations. Hugs, Valerie

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  5. Gosh... fantastic art here today ... I am impressed by the ATB and all this gorgeous sketches..and the way you put the different mediums together to create this super look !
    Happy facing! Happy weekend Julie Ann!
    oxo
    Susi

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  6. Wonderful imaginative work. I do like the centaur!!

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  7. I had to look up what an ATB is (I first thought it was just a spelling mistake ☺). Your sketch looks great on the ATB, and I love the stamped text too. Is that on the backside? I can feel another story coming :-)

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  8. Oh wow Julie- you have done a brilliant job taking inspiration from other sources and making them yours in your own style. Fantastic art!

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  9. I struggle to get out of my "realism" and create something like your great work and imagination.

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  10. Wonderful projects, the ATC is gorgeous.

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  11. one of these days I shall play along with the faces blog. til then I'm loving your faces -- as well as everything else you make! thank you for the constant inspiration! xo

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  12. These are so much fun. Love the expressions!

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  13. Impressive work...I LOVE IT ALL....you have kept your own style even though you were inspired by Tim... Fairy Debs would fit in at my house...she is just too adorable.. and inspiring!! Also those copper foil sides are incredible...like I say...LOVE IT ALL!!

    Hugs Giggles

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  14. So glorious - I think the Burton influence was the starting point, but these now look like "you" to me... I love the Pierrot (my early love of them comes from a slightly dubious source - the Pierrot number in The Boyfriend, as done by Twiggy in the Ken Russell film!), particularly against the delicate blue-green background. The centaur is wonderful - I'm happy that Matildaur hasn't got lots of arrows sticking out of her though. And the chunky ATC is simply wonderful... what glorious gilded texture on the edges, and what a joy for Deb to have such a fantastical portrait of herself!
    Alison xx

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  15. Tim Burton's influence is evident yet strangely enough, when I view your characters, they definitely speak of Julie Ann Lee, 100%.
    The Pierrot is wonderful, there is a real sense of kindness exuding yet also a glint of the mischief, very appealing!
    Relieved that there is no harming of animals or half-animals (!) within your art, I would have a restless night's sleep if it were otherwise! Then we come to the ATC which is as special a gift as can be given. The gold embossing brings such richness and reminds me of gold embossing on beautiful covers of fairytale books.
    As always .... an absolute joy to come visit you :)
    Wishes
    Lynne

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  16. You have found nirvana with these sketches. So amazing. xox

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  17. Love your series of drawings! It is always a joy to come and see what you have created for us to see. Eye candy for the day! I love Tim Burtons art and movies. I am reminded also of Beetlejuice in the one that you did of your "son" (?) I think it was anyway. Look forward to your next creation!

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  18. Oh how wonderful fairy Debs is! I just love how you finished the canvas- beautiful!!
    And Matilda is fabulous- even if she does look a bit uneasy!
    I just can't wait for the story book to go into print!! xoxo

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  19. totally wonderful Julie Ann. Thank you for joining Show Your Face and sorry it has taken me so long to get over here to comment, I'm still playing catch up! Kx

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