Toad in a Boat

This is my latest portrait for my Diary of Faces. It is after Hans Olaf Heyerdahl’s Little Girl on the Beach. Just a crop of her face, although I’d love to try the whole painting some day.  I fell for this charming little thing while I was painting her. Heyerdahl was a Norwegian painter who lived from 1857-1913, but this child looks like she could have been photographed yesterday or at any time between then and now. She is timeless. I had a hard time with this one because acrylics just do not behave like oils, but in the end I am very happy with her.

Below is a photo of the whole spread. On the left page, I have an insert with info on Heyerdahl, the ref image, the colors I used to try to replicate it, ect. Sharing with my friends at Paint Party Friday!

Today, from my sketchbook, I have a charcoal portrait. The reference image I used was Portrait of Anişoara by Nicolae Grigorescu. He was a Romanian artist in the 19th century.  I got the eyes too small and I was covered in charcoal from head to foot when I finished, but I’m happy enough with it as long as I don’t compare it to the original.   Charcoal does make lovely soft portraits but I can’t seem to use it without getting it all over everything in sight.

See my previous post for my Diary of Faces painting this week, after another Romanian artist. A lovely little lady in red. We’ve been researching Romanian artists this week.

Week 2 in Diary of Faces looks at Romanian artists. I chose to try Head of a Girl by Nicolae Tonitza. Tonitza was a painter, engraver, lithographer, journalist and art critic. He is famous for his portraits of children and his characteristic “Tonitza eyes.” Although this one looks simpler than the one I chose for week 1, I had a lot more trouble with it. The simplicity is deceptive! Part  of my trouble was not really having the correct colors and not wanting to buy more, LOL. I only use acrylics in my journals so I don’t have many colors. I’m happy with the way it came out in the end, though. And I really like painting these directly in this old book. Sharing with my friends at Paint Party Friday. It has really grown!

I’ve got a couple of new things to show this week! The first is my first spread in my Diary of Faces. This week, we were to choose an artist (from the distant past)  from Singapore and do a portrait after one of theirs. I chose a crop of Maylay Woman by Georgette Chen. Most of us are painting in old books and if you’ve been here before you know I love to paint on the pages of old books. Click here to see the other cool thing I made with old books this week! This is the info card to go with my painting. Click to enlarge if you’d like to read it.

I also finished a 2 color watercolor on a half sheet. I used only Burnt Umber and Ultramarine blue. The choice of subject was not mine this time.

As usual, I’m sharing this with my artist friends at Paint Party Friday!

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Centsational Girl and a few of her DIY blogging buddies are hosting a Pinterest Challenge and today is show off day. You simply choose something you have pinned and stop procrastinating and get it done!  They gaveeveryone one week to get this accomplished. I had several different styles of book page wreaths pinned and knew I wanted one but hadn’t decided which style.  Here is the pin that I chose from my boards. And here is the tutorial for making it. I used a straw wreath instead of styrofoam (it was half the price) and  glued some strips of pages around it to keep it from shedding. I rolled paper flowers for 3 days but I had caught some king of bug and didn’t feel like doing anything else, anyway. This was a perfect project to work on while not feeling well. I listened to audio books and cut and glued. I used 4 different books to get a variety of color. The darkest of the pages are from a 1938 encyclopedia that I rescued from an old store that has been on my families property since my grandparents were a young couple. The owner was a family friend and lived in the store. The old building has since fallen in. I’ve heard many stories about Mr. Bell and the store so the pages have some sentimental value for my family. I really love the finished wreath! If it wasn’t for the challenge, I’d still be just thinking about someday making one instead of trying to decide where to hang my new pretty. I think it will go in the bedroom and maybe it will get a pretty bow or fabric hanger.

Shared at Fine Craft Guild Link Party  and Tranformation Thursday.

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Time for Sunday Sketches! Well, just one sketch. I went out with my ballpoint pen and sketchbook just long enough to sketch one of the flowers on my hibiscus. It was too hot to stay out any longer than that. All my other plants are just withering up in the heat but the hibiscus doesn’t mind it and keeps right on blooming.

I did a major desk cleanup a couple of days ago and decided I needed 2 things. Something to hide the huge hole in the back of the armoir desk and all the wires that go through it, and a new coaster. I stopped and covered a piece of foam core I had with some batting and the only fabric piece I had here that was large enough. Much better! My old coaster was a plastic cd case that just happened to be sitting there and got pressed into use for several years. I dumped out my bag of thrift store scrabble tiles and came up with something I liked (no offense to my Windows and Mac using friends!) and glued them to a piece of cork, then sprayed it with varnish.  I love it when I already have everything I need to finish a project.

Shared at the DIY Project Parade and Transformation Thursday and Fine Craft Guild.