Monday, September 17, 2012

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!

9 comments:

Tiritilli said...

I love these!

laurie said...

your girls look a fun bunch to hang out with! i also really enjoy violette's book with all its colorful inspiration.

Introverted Art said...

I love your girls!!!!! Especially the one with the cute red curly hair :)

lee said...

I love your girls, you did a fantastic job, i have etaken alisha sketch classes and learned alot

Karen Isaacson said...

I love vampire girl!

Janet said...

All your girl's faces are so cute! Violette is always an inspiration.

Carin Winkelman said...

Lovely! Very colorful.

Parabolic Muse said...

Good stuff! Love the colors. The faces could cheer people up, and vampire girl is groovy

Unknown said...

تتميز شركة التنظيف بقدرتها على تقديم جميع خدمات التنظيف الشاملة التي تلبي إحتياجات العميل بشكل كبير، وشركة المدينة للخدمات المنزلية هي أفضل شركة بالمملكة العربية السعودية متخصصة في تقديم الخدمات الآتية :
شركة تنظيف بالرياض
شركة نقل عفش بالدمام
شركة غسيل شقق بالمدينة المنورة
ويمكنكم التواصل مع الشركة للإستفادة من الخصومات والعروض المقدمة بمناسبة إقتراب شهر رمضان المبارك.