29 Faces-Conclusion

There are so many things I want to learn/try/explore about drawing faces. I have no desire to make realistic renderings, it’s just not me. 

But every challenge month I look forward to trying something new. What I find most interesting is how it takes on a life of its own. 

I had no idea it would lead me down the road of collage but I love that it did! 

I would never have come up with this series on my own if not encouraged by Martha and her 29 Face challenge or the wonderfully supportive comments from my fellow participants and blog friends. 

So I want to thank you ALL!

He Looked at Life Through Rose Colored Glasses

I can' decide.....with  or without the reflection in his glasses......? What do you think?

with reflection......

without reflection......

Punny Monday

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat says to the other, 'You stay here, I'll go on a head.'

Peanutized

I came across this site on Facebook and just couldn’t resist! 
I did mine and Husband did his own, then I combined them in Photoshop. 
I call it ‘At The Winter Dance’! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Go ahead and try it! You know you want to!  

(Post your results on Facebook if you can. I'd love to see your characters!)

Throwback Thursday

Parents as wedding attendants. It must have been a wedding....he's wearing TAILS! 

(I know it wasn't their wedding.)

WOTWW/29 Faces

More faces....I'm partial to the Quincannon Quintuplets! 

Mrs. Swan

Beverly Swan was a friend of my mother’s. Well, sort of a friend. She was BigBro’s best friend’s mother so a friend by circumstance.

Both my father and Mrs. Swan’s husband took the train to work every day so she and my mother would take turns driving and picking them up from the station. After dropping them off in the mornings Mrs. Swan would stop by our house for coffee. It got to be so often my mother had to come up with a way to politely discourage her. My mother told her, ‘I have chores to do Beverly, so when you see the shades drawn that means I’m busy. When the shades are up feel free to drop in.’

Our living room was dark most mornings!

When she did come for a visit she and my mother would sit at the kitchen table and chat amicably. Sometimes I would sit with them. I was fascinated by her lipstick. She wore BRIGHT RED lipstick that would rub off on her two front buck teeth. I couldn’t stop looking at them!

To keep me quiet and occupied at the table my mother would give me a snack. One of my favorites was pistachio nuts. I liked to crack them open, amass a little pile and then eat them all at once. But when Mrs. Swan was there I didn’t get the chance. As fast as I could crack them she would reach over and gobble them up!

I was annoyed but couldn’t say anything…..be polite to your elders and all that.

I wish I had a good ending for this tale but I don’t. I just learned not to eat pistachios when Mrs. Swan was around!

Punny Monday

Einstein developed a theory about space, and it was about time too.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

My mother took her grand-mothering duties very seriously. She showered her grandkids with anything and everything they wanted. (A practice I often had to ‘discuss ‘with her. Can you say excessive?)

The boys were seriously into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when they were small. Whenever a new character was to be released you’d find my mother standing front and center at the door of Toys ‘R’ Us when they opened and she’d be the first one in the store.

She bought them every ninja turtle related product in there was.

That is, until she tried to find the ‘April’ character.

The toy company decided to make April in limited quantities so they’d be more collectible (so they said when my mother called corporate headquarters to complain about the scarcity.)

That being the case my mother thought there was only one course of action.

She found out what day the trucks made their deliveries to the store, how long it took the employees to unload and stock the shelves and made sure she was there at the appointed time.

But when she checked the shelves, still no April!

Undeterred, she found a young employee and began a pleasant conversation with him mentioning the fact that she couldn’t find two April characters for her grandsons.

She then slipped a twenty dollar bill into his hand and whispered, “Make it happen.”

He disappeared into the back of the store and soon returned with two small boxes tucked under his smock.

Grandmothers! Not above bribing store personnel for the love of their grandchildren!

Throwback Thursday

Silhouettes: Me and BigBro

I remember having these done. A woman with a pair of manicure scissors, black paper and two minutes later DONE! I still find it impressive. 

WOYWW

Because it makes me smile! 

(forgive the reflection....hurried photography....)

I’ve Been Thinkin’……..

Years ago I bought myself one of those fancy schmancy sewing machines with an embroidery attachment.

I made all sorts of things for friends and family. My sister-in-law asked me how I did it so I showed her.

Looking over my shoulder she said, “Oh! So you don’t do anything, the machine does it all for you!”

Not the most tactful comment, but true.

I get that same vibe about my digital art.

Oh, the program does it for you.

Except it doesn’t.

I don’t push a button and watch the program/app race around the screen laying down the lines.

I do it.

The app doesn’t choose the colors, their placement, the thickness of line, or shading.

It doesn’t decide the composition.

It doesn’t do anything except give me the tools to draw what I want.

How is that different than an artist working in any other medium?

The only difference I can see is it gives me the opportunity to ‘erase’.

I’ve seen artists paint over what they don’t like in a piece.

I’ve seen them decoupage over parts of their works to cover something that displeased them.

I’ve seen them alter the size to ‘remove’ what they perceive as boo boo’s.

They wipe away paint where they don’t want it.

Watercolor artists ‘lift’ off their blunders.

Artists using markers use a colorless blender to fix their misstep …..

So why is it wrong that I can erase something I don’t like?

They say the different tools in an App or program do the work for me.

That the different ‘brushes’ make it too easy.

I don’t see it that way. I see it for what it is. A toolbox at my disposal to create with.

(A nice clean one where I don’t have to get my hands dirty, which plays right into my OCD wheelhouse!)

How is a digital brush that makes a nice fuzzy blob any different than that brush you’ve got that is so old and splayed out it gives you the same looking fuzzy blob?

I’ve noticed when I mention a piece I’ve done is digital there seems to be an unspoken judgment that it doesn’t really count. Whether or not the art I create on my Tablet (digitally) is REALLY art.

Maybe I’m being defensive and oversensitive.

I’d like to hear your opinions.

Punny Monday

I heard that Oxygen and Magnesium got together and I was like....”OMg”

Practice Makes Perfect

When my parents were first married they lived in the city where knowing how to drive wasn’t essential, but after they moved to the ‘burbs it became a necessity.

So they bought a car.

My mother thought the best way to learn how to drive was to just dive in and do it.

My father handed her the keys and told her to go practice in the driveway.

After a short time she went inside to tell my father she had a little ‘mishap’ while practicing.

She had been backing into the garage and hit the brick retaining wall crumpling the right rear fender.

Without even looking up from his newspaper my father said, “Keep trying, you obviously need more practice’.

The next day when the insurance adjuster came to access the damage he said he didn’t understand how she had dented BOTH fenders while backing into the garage.

Throwback Thursday

My paternal grandmother, father and aunt.

WOYWW

Well, more accurately, what's hanging OVER my work desk. Used envelopes (from the myriad of bills I get....!) water colored and sealed, waiting to become covers for journals.

29 Faces

I’ve been having so much fun cutting and pasting and collaging faces I thought maybe you’d like to play too!

I made downloadable PDF’s for you, designed to fit on a 8.5 X 11 piece of paper.

Use your favorite paper and print out as many as you like!

Then grab your scissors and glue sticks and have at it!

I’d love to see what you come up with so post them in the 29 Faces Facebook group.

Most of all have fun!

Punny Monday

When you’re down by the sea and an eel bites your knee, that’s a Moray!

Unprepared

Throwback Thursday

BigBro's wedding (and just for reference that's Aunt Eleanor on the left...with the hair!)

29 Faces

And so it begins, again........
#1/29

Trying to get the hang of the watercolor app Auryn Ink. 

(I lightened it digitally from the original .)

(link to challenge on sidebar > )

& #2/29

Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Ritchie

I think this is the definitive story to describe my aunt and uncle.

Once upon a time I had an Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Ritchie. Aunt Eleanor was very straight laced and dour. On the other hand, Uncle Ritchie was a real cut-up.

One day, when I was a about fifteen, I was hanging out in my room when the phone rang. (I was lucky enough to have an extension in my room.) I picked it up, “Hello?” 

On the other end of the line a man’s voice sneered, “Hey baby, whatcha doin’?”

I was taken aback for a second, then started laughing and said, “You’ve GOT to be kidding!” before hanging up.

I ran downstairs to tell my parents what had just happened. As I was recounting the conversation with the ‘pervert’ the phone rang again.

My mother said, “Let me handle this!”

She picked up the phone but before she could even say hello, the voice at the other end started yelling at her about what a rude, discourteous and stupid person I was!

How DARE I hang up!

Don’t you realize we’re going to have to PAY for that (long distance) call????

It was Aunt Eleanor.

And THAT is the perfect illustration of my aunt and uncle!