Mixer Head

Our first assignment for painting class this term was to make a face collage. We used face segments from various magazine photos to create a new image. I used the eyes from a Michael Jackson photo, the lips and chin from Halle Berry, the nose from an anonymous model and the mixer/bowl/earmuffs from an educational magazine. I found the butler body from another magazine and added the pug in place of a piece of cake.

Some students kept the different colors and styles from each strip, but I blended the segments into one face. I can see that I made the eyes, nose and lips smaller than in the collage - and I left off the mascara. I may play around with those a bit more. I reworked the face color and shading since I first posted this. I really struggled with the face colors and blending...it's a new challenge for me in paint. The acrylic paint dries so fast that blending is difficult.

Photo Collage 

I hung this painting in my office and people have asked me what it "means", or what I was trying to convey. Mostly it was just for fun, but I may have to make up something more esoteric!

This is 18x24 on canvas board in acylic.

EP

Cousins Painting Reworked

I'm taking a painting class again this fall. I took in my summer painting from the old snapshot and got some good ideas for making the background better.

I repainted the house and the window reflections. My teacher noticed the house eave in the window reflection on the original photo, so I added that. He also pointed out that all of my background house and ground textures were the same style and were too bright. They needed to be grayed down a bit, cleaned up, and shadows defined.

I retouched the figures too. I think this is getting better and almost done now. Although, seeing this on the screen, I realize that the clouds and the tip of the building corner all converge in the window reflection...I'll probably have to fix that. This is 16x20" in acrylic.

Here's the original photo:

Several Sketchbook Portraits

I've been working on drawing faces. Here are a few of my recent face
sketches. These are from photos and magazines. The "Gorilla Dog" is my friend Melissa's new dog Boo with her husband. Boo is a big Newfoundland puppy and she kind of looks like a gorilla......though I did enhance her face just a bit!

This is Baby Boo

Boo with a Gorilla Face!

The drawings below were done on thin, sketchbook paper, which wrinkled with the watercolor :(

  

Dakota Cousins

Here's my most recent painting. It's from an old photo of my husband and his three cousins when they were teenagers. I thought it was kind of cute and dweeby (is that a word??). The photo is an old Poloroid from 1969 or 70. The painting is 16" x 20" in acrylic. I haven't painted many people and find faces and heads to be a real challenge.

Here are a couple of detail shots:

Airport Sketches

We went to Las Vegas for a Moody Blues concert, which was really great! I didn't get any good photos of the band because our seats were too far away. : ( I did get a few pics of hotels and such.

Here are a few sketches I did of fellow travelers in the Portland and Las Vegas airports. This is my first time drawing people just using pens (no pencil or eraser safety net).

    

An earlier drawing from McDonalds: