Sunday, October 25, 2015

Moving From Reality to Whimsy

If you've followed my blog, you know that I love to create faces.
I start with an oval or squarish shape and draw, erase, draw, erase, etc,
until I'm satisfied with the outcome. I let the personality and details emerge as they will
and look at the drawing upside down or in a mirror to see if anything is grossly uneven.
And usually I'll let a day or two go by before looking at it again, at which time I can see
more clearly what I want to add, subtract or correct. It's a process!

I apologize for such murky photos, which I edited as best I could, but it is a cloudy day!

I made this sketch recently and finished it today. No one in particular, just an earnest looking girl...


Then I decided to get whimsical and went for a more illustrative look. I like 
this look because it's less serious and I can see her surrounded by flowers and butterflies.


Next I went on to a look I've been playing with lately - this lady has a longer face and
 eyes that reming me of those in paintings by the artist Modigliani. I can see her and her
children in a storybook! 


Here are some of their neighbors - they look like gentle people, don't they?



And all of these remind me of this lady, whom I created a while ago, as well as of my daughter Kate's face, as she is always in the back of my mind!


I think I'm on to something I like! What do you think?
Meanwhile I've been working on a few pictures for our Arts Collaborative's 
Fall show this Thursday night. I'll share them with you soon!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!


5 comments:

Libby Fife said...

I think you are on to something also! Looks like it would be a nice neighborhood to live in with all of those gentle looking people:)

fromyourmindseye.com said...

I am just waiting for the book about the lives of these interesting people. You have it in you Judy!

Shell said...

Yes, I think you are on to something. A book or an illustrated book with stories?

Simone said...

I love all your sketches Judy! They are equally good whether you have used pencils or textiles. x :-)

Anne Butera said...

You do faces so well, Judy! You imbue your people with such personality! Thank you for sharing your process. And I'm glad to know you do a lot of erasing. I've been mostly sketching with pens lately, which means if something's wonky it's going to stay a bit wonky, which is fun, too, but makes me wonder how other artists get such non-wonky sketches in their sketchbooks! (Not that I should be comparing!).

Definitely keep sketching and sharing your sketches with us! And you need to do your storybook!