Saturday, January 14, 2012

A blended face

When I first realised we were supposed to do 2 spreads or more a week for Book of days, and then looked at the book I had already prepared with only 54 spreads, I changed my journal to a book of weeks. I am going to do one spread a week but will wait until the end of the week so I can use the prompt and technique provided, as well as any techniques Effy uses in her day to day spreads that I find appealing. That way I don't feel like I am missing anything. 


 The start of my page has gesso applied a little thickly at the bottom.


 I then heated it with a heat gun while still wet to make the gesso bubble.

I have been asked how I got my face so smooth on my Lifebook page.This is the basic technique even though this one is not as blended.


 First I start with a sketch using a brown pencil becuase it will blend into the picture more than a graphite would. I then paint the face with peach coloured acrylic and use a little pink paint in the shadow areas. If I am using pencil on top I don't worry about blending the edge of the paint.



Next I add some pink pencil to darken the shadow areas. Sometime I use a flesh colour to put in more highlights. 


Next I use terracotta brown pencil to darken the shading. Sometimes I also darken it more with a purple pencil. If I want it really smooth I will use the blender pencil but I didn't do that here. The first layer of acrylic paint was not smooth this time so the brush marks show up when you add pencil. To make it smooth at the start you need to add a little more water with the paint.
 

 I added the hair colour with distress stain and painted in the eyes and lips.



More detail was added with pencils and the face was done.


The finished page. The prompt was looking forward and the challenge was to add a tag.
I have done a couple of days journalling underneath those tags. The ideas I got from Effy Wild were the face, flowers, stenciling, tags and writing. I think this way of doing the journal is going to work for me.

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