I started this page using a beautiful envelope sent to me by artist Shawn Parks-Penn. It's so rich! I love it. I veered away from drawing another self portrait, because I found a photograph of a lovely
Navajo woman. The link is to the article where I found the photo, and is about several Native American women who are working to preserve their heritage. This drawing ends up not looking just like her, but it gave me a place to start.
I started with the measurements I've learned from websites and books about dividing up the head for features, and then I used acrylic paints to block in some shadows and highlights. This worked pretty well. Before I was sketching in features right away, but of course lost them when I painted and had to do them all over again after painting.
Next I added her features. I added some whites back into her eyes with a white Sharpie water based pen, and also used it to highlight her lips and the feather and beads. A little bit of final shading was added to her neck and jaw using a water soluble graphite pencil. I think I managed to keep her serious expression.
I paint this on a summer page on a week I went to the lake. The Native Americans in that area are Potawatomi Tribe, not Navajo, but it still seemed the best place to place her in my planner. I'll post a bit more when I finish up that week's pages.
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