Violette's Girls

I have returned to working in my sketchbook daily, which I am loving!  In the midst of my practice sketching, I received my September e-Newsletter from artist Violette Clark, called Violette's Creative Juice News.  In it, she shared a link to a free tutorial showing how she draws her signature faces, like the women featured in her book, Journal Bliss.

I really enjoyed watching her work, and grabbed my sketchbook to follow her lead:

I love the book title, Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself, by Patricia Lynn Reilly, so I incorporated these words into my picture. 

Perfect?  Absolutely not!  But I love the bold colors of her hair, eyes, and lips, and overall I thought she came out pretty well considering my total lack of experience with drawing people. 

I thought Violette's video tutorial made the whole process fun and do-able.  I went on to practice some other girls from her book, Journal Bliss.

My four-year-old sat leaning against me as I drew and used my watercolors (which was a feat in itself, as she wriggled and squirmed!), helping me make choices for hair and eye color, as well as skin tone. 

I like the hair on this one, above, the best, which I had not at all expected.  And I think the heart cheeks on this one, below, are sweet.

The one with the purple hair, below, is my vampire girl:  pale skin, cold blue lips.  A little creepy, but I like her hair quite well.

My daughter thought this one, below, looked angry about something.  I think she looks a little shy or distressed, like she's biting her lower lip. 

For each portrait, I drew first in pencil, then outlined in black Micron ink.  I went back and erased my pencil lines, and then added watercolor with my watercolor brush.  I then went back over the lines in black Micron pen again to brighten them up from the paint. 

I also used watercolor to fill in the portrait squares, as well as the frame around them, taking a cue from Alisa Burke who likes to fill in all the spaces on her sketchbook pages.  I am in the midst of taking her online course, Sketchbook Delight.  But that is news for another day's blog post!