Beautiful Faces

I got some new books this week! I'm always excited about that. The "Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces" by Jane Davenport, is about drawing faces from your imagination. I've been having fun learning to draw faces, and I usually look at a picture of someone to draw from, but sometimes, when I'm making a journal page or including a figure in a drawing, I don't need it to look like anyone particular, and I like the idea of creating someone from my imagination.

 The first exercise is to draw a lot of little faces quickly, and I found that to be quite fun! Sometimes this is all I need in a quick sketch where I want to include a person in a scene.

Here are my little girls. They really are little too, because they are drawn in a pocket Moleskine.

Bible Journaling

The Bible pages are still fairly thin, so sometimes I get a little bleed through, or just a little ghosting. I'm not worried about it because:

I can always collage in another drawing or scripture on the back side. for this one, I used some washi tape, then pasted a scrap of an old map on that. Used a highlighter to write out "Faith" and outlined with a Pitt pen. The white dots are Sharpie waterbased pen.

This is another page I did last week while praying for some friends and their twins who were born early:

I didn't know how to draw a baby, so I found an embroidery pattern and drew my baby following it as an example. The embroidery pattern didn't have both arms showing and was a bit different, but I wanted him in this position, reaching up. I was inspired by this verse, and then when I showed it to his parents his mom told me that she memorized that very verse the day she went into labor! I still get chills when I think about that.

Traveling....

Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.   ~Joshua 1:9

A few years ago, I got divorced after almost 30 years of marriage. I sometimes went on trips by myself or with the kids when I was married, but found that I felt leery of traveling by myself after the divorce...like I was truly out there on my own, without a safety net. But of course my net is God, and also the good sense and skills he gave me. So, I'm continuing to travel when I can....trying to be brave like the verse says.
That is me, and my dog, and the little camper I hope to have one day. Part of what makes this fun and meaningful for me is to personalize it....with sketches of things from my home and life and dreams.

Now I have traveled many miles in my car to the lake, to see Jeff in Arkansas, to my cousin's house in Florida. I've even traveled by plane a few times. Many times I'm by myself, and other times I'm with a friend or one of my sisters, or my mother.  I'm making progress!

Lady Sunflower

This is face #14/100. I drew her from memory of a photo in a magazine. The sunflowers popped up behind her because they are blooming all over my yard. I bought some Prismacolor pencils and I'm experimenting with them. In the past I've mostly used watercolor pencils and usually added water, so using these is a bit different. Fun though..they are quite smooth.

These are some of the sunflowers in my yard. The birds planted these by dropping seeds!

Stickers...simple page..and a source

Not every page has to be complicated. I got these great stickers in the mail today. They are from Kelly's Art Journaling, and you can get them at her Etsy shop. So I had to make a page...I just used the sticker, some washi tape, and my highlighter and 3 colored pencils.

Bible Journaling

Hebrews 12:1. This verse applies to much more than actual running, but right now, I'm training to try and run a 5k sometime this fall. I've never been a runner, and we will see if I can. I'm following the Couch to 5K program. If you are interested in doing this someday, their app makes it much easier to keep track of how long you run/walk. Right now, I'm just in the second week, so it's not too hard so far!

Frida Kahlo...another face to draw...

Last night I tried the famous face of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Frida had polio as a child and also suffered pain from a terrible injury in a bus crash at the age of 18, and also much emotional pain in her life. Many of her self portraits deal with this pain. You can read more about her by googling her or by following this link.

She has a very strong facial structure that I didn't catch here, but I like her eyes and eyebrows and her hair. Maybe I will try her a little down the road towards my goal of 100 faces. Frida is my 13th face.

Shake -n- Shine!

Another sketch in my Bible. I'm also going to try and incorporate things around me such as the salt shaker, which is like one my grandmother had. It reminds me of her every day. This is Matthew 5:13-16.

This is also the middle of the Route 66 tourist season. I'm working on some buttons and magnets that I will hopefully be able to show you tomorrow. I've got a little button factory going on!

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Today I tried out some new pens. They are Pilot gel pens, and I love the colors. I probably won't use them over text again....I can read it still, but not as easily. Guess I'll get a new batch of highlighters for when I want to venture into the text. I fully intend to use this Bible for a long while, so I don't want to make the text unreadable.

For those who are concerned about my drawing in the Bible, please know that I have several Bibles that I use. I highlight in all of them, but this is the only one i draw in. I bought this Bible specifically for this purpose because it is designed with larger margins for notes or drawings. Drawing helps me process what I read, and I'm finding that people who see these are reminded of the source of the word because it's actually drawn on the page. This is something I do with prayer, and as worship.

I'm also working on a new Route 66 sketch. Seems like I have a never ending list of those to do, but I'm making progress!

Bible Journaling....along Route 66!

 Yep, I'm at the shop, which is on Route 66, and working on reading/journaling in my Bible, and some Route 66 sketches. These pages are done with mostly highlighters and things I have at the shop.

 

 The ink from the journaling on the other side showed through a bit, so I used some washi tape to kind of wallpaper the margin...then a bag from the shop to journal on.

I've also been drawing some sketches for a little project that I have coming up. It's all about Route 66, and here you have the Cozy Dogs from Springfield, as well as Funks Grove Maple Sirup.