April Week Two: Faces

Hello Beautiful Artists! Welcome to week Two of Self Portraits. This week I have collected several ideas on how to represent a self-portrait in different styles. Let's Go!
 
She-Art 
There are no rules that say your self-portrait has to have a face. I feel that this art is an act of rebellion. As women, our society and culture tell us that our faces are more valuable than our brains, our feelings, our talents and desires. I want a world were Marie Curie is an aspirational role model, not the Kardashian Klones.

This is the signature style of American Mixed Media artist Christy Tomlinson. Her girls are often completely faceless, with simple bodies, a bright layered background and lots of scribbley doodling detail. This video shows how she sketches the basic girl:

What I really love about this style of art is the how the words are added. The phrase is always positive and affirming and always begins with the word 'She'. I have saved a few pages of these quotes I have collected to the Driver Reviver Facebook Group for you to use in any She Art you create. The quotes are in a Word document so you can change the font and size to whatever suits you. If you are not a member of the Facebook Group, you can get a copy of it here.

If you want a really in-depth look at how Christy creates such a layered effect on a canvas, this video is worth the 25 minutes. It is essentially a promotional video for some Pink Paislee products that are no longer available, but take notice of the techniques that are used, not the products. The video doesn't show how to create the girl, Christy uses a printed die-cut girl. But the entire point of this is to use these ideas as jumping off points for your own creations. Christy also offers her own online courses in She Art girls if this style is something that sparks your imagination!

Poppets ®

The ultimate no-draw self-portrait! Collage Artist and Illustrator Claudine Hellmuth uses black and white photographs of people then uses collage to make clothes and scenes for her Poppets. If you are an accountant who dreams of being an astronaut, be inspired!

Go to this month's Pinterest Page for more examples of this style of portrait creation.

Paint Over a Photo
If you want to do a realistic self portrait, but don't have the drawing skills necessary to execute it, this is something to try:

1. Print out a photo of yourself on a piece of plain printer paper. 
2. Glue the paper to your substrate using mod podge, matte medium or a soft gel medium. Use a scraper (eg. old credit card) to get all the air bubbles out.
3. Cover the photo with an even coat of clear gesso or matte medium.
4. Paint over the photo, use thin translucent layers of colour to build up the picture.
5. It's a good idea to have another copy of the photo to refer to as you paint, so you know where to put shading and highlights.

Here is an example I did on a photo from a magazine:

Drawing Faces
Don't be scared of drawing faces, I promise that it is something that you can learn to do. I used to be able to draw bad stick figures with smiley-face, and now I can draw this:

The first videos are from Dina Wakley, showing how to sketch and colour a simple front-facing portrait.

How to Sketch a Face :

 How to Paint the Face:

Dina has authored two Art Journal idea books.

If drawing faces is something that you want to learn how to do, and you like a whimsical face style, I suggest you look at Tamara Laporte's free class Art, Heart and Healing delivered through her Ning site. The class is 100% free and gives very in-depth instruction on how to draw and shade a front facing portrait. Watch this video for more information on what is covered. This is the first online class I took when I started art journalling and helped me get over my mental block of "I can't draw".

Can't wait to see what you create this week. Remember to leave me a link in the comments section if you blog. I love visiting :)

See you in Driver Reviver!