Happy 2015

Hi,
    To begin with, am just too happy that I took forward my idea of art journal layouts & managed to complete one as well.
This is my first page. Am hoping to improve over time.
Here it is :)





A step by step would be too lengthy & eventually get boring probably. . I managed to capture just a few pics of my work in progress & am including them below..
And just some points to remember which may help me in the long run. Hope it's useful to some extent for you:)
I've incorporated most of the techniques I learnt from cardmaking here..
For the bg, i started off by stamping random images, scripts & graffiti with sweet plum ink.
Applied a wash of gesso. I used the one from camlin & I must agree that it was not upto the mark. I should start using my Prima heavy gesso soon I guess :)





For the coloring part I was not able to achieve satisfying results with inks.. so I had to go for acrylic paints.
Some texturing with stencils, stamping..






The parachute was handrawn, colored & cut. Glossy accents applied over it.
The Dolphin is from a cute sticker set I have in my stash.
Wood veneer boat inked with black soot DI,heat embossed with 'wow' clear glitter.
& here comes the part I love the most about this project.
'The waves'
I drew & cut individual curves out of Watercolor paper.
I used Peacock feathers & salty ocean DI, followed by lots of water misting to create the initial layer.  Then applied more DI over it & let dry.. added some splashes of white.. & finally my favourite technique in a different aspect. . Applying gesso over the edges with palette knife to create the foam effect. I totally love how it turned out :)
That's it for the making part.
(Click here to view the front cover of my journal)

Few personal words about this layout & reason behind the elements. .
Well, 2015... I had the best start of the year so far.. went for a sailing expedition in Goa with YHAI. It was such an awesome trip that I had to capture as much of it as possible in art & what better way to start my art journal :)
I've added "the awesome moments" sentiment for the same reason :)
We went for parasailing adventure sport & that's the part I enjoyed the most, hence it formed my focal point.. & then comes the dolphin sighting, sailboat.. & a thrilling experience with waves while crossing an estuary...!
I've added "clockwork" & "measured" stencils & gold paint over it coz the time spent was limited but more precious :)
& a camera stamp in bg for the amateur photography I did & the sun rays for all the suntan we got from the trip ;)
Now that'a a lotttt of explanation :D am hoping to do more pages in future & improve myself in the process :)

Do lemme know what you think of this venture. Thanks for your patience and time.
Create.  Have fun.

Linking this to,
http://art-journal-journey.blogspot.co.at/2015/02/birds-beasts-and-humans-vogel-tiere.html?m=1

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/mondaychallenge/?p=2439


http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-add-a-little-texture/

Art journal cover

Hey everyone,
   Am so excited to share this post :) This is a project I was planning to do for months & finally got the time & patience to complete it just now. Yay here it is.!





This is the front panel of a "Create your own keepsake book" from Paper accents. It is a spiral bound 25 pages notebook with plain chipboard cover on the front & back. The paper is quite thick & sturdy, dimensions being 4.5"×6.5". Am planning to make it into my mini art journal & totally excited about it :) Be sure to check out later on if you are interested :)
Here's how I proceeded with this one.
(Sorry it maybe a looooong one.. :))

1.Inside panel

I started off with a 5.5"×3.5" panel from Brustro's watercolor paper.. using the mini ink blending tool, randomly colored using Dusty concord, peacock feathers & salty ocean.
I misted water over it & let it flow & merge to create a nice watercolor effect.





I used "Flourishes" stencil from prima & also gold & silver acrylic paint on top of the panel. I wasn't quite satisfied with the silver paint. So I used uniball signo silver gel pen in the centre. That definitely worked wonders.!






2.Name board

        I cut a 2"×1" rectangle from the same watercolor paper,  drew the border design after marking the midpoints & fussy cut it. I colored the frame & wrote my name using black pen & faux stitches using white gel pen.
I used "gathered twigs" distress ink to give some color by pressing it on acrylic block & applied using a brush like watercolor techniques.





3.Base

      I have only 6×6 paper pads. Since I had to cover that 1/2", I started off by adhering news print washi tape on one side.
I covered the whole of chipboard by a PP from the Prima "Delight" collection. I inked with vintage photo DI on the edges before adhering.
      Some embossing done with Sakura acrylic modelling paste (it was too thick so I mixed some camlin texture white paste to loosen the consistency), Flourishes & TCW "Art is" stencils.





        Did some script stamping to add more interest using Epiphany stamp set collection(gathered twigs). The keys are also from the epiphany collection but in a different set.
         I colored randomly over the relief areas with Gold, copper, metallic rust & pearl blue acrylic colors using my fingers & wet baby wipe..

4.Shaker
        I felt the inside panel was too big.so I trimmed of the edges a bit & stuck on to the base using double sided adhesive tape (covering all the edges) & then the name panel on top.
      For the shaker elements I took wood veneer shapes from the Transportation collection,(I love travel) colored them with the metallics & DI. Also added some silver, blue & yellow sequins.
    For the border,  I cut four 1/4" inch strips from the same PP & colored with peacock feathers & vintage photo DI. did some script stamping on it as well. Stuck them on the acetate sheet(OHP sheet) panel.





  My foam adhesive strip was too broad & I had a hard time cutting it so narrow.  The edges were irregular but I decided it went well with the overall look. On the outer edges, I used distress ink to cover it up.

Done. Hope you liked it.
I look forward so much to continue with my art journal idea.
(Well I did accomplish the mission. Click here to know what I've managed to create :))
Do lemme know ur comments. They mean a lot to me.
Thanks for your time.
Create. Have fun.

Linking this to,





I absolutely loved the soft colorscheme of the pic.. I went for flourishes design from all the flowery vibes in the moodboard.. I've used gold through out my project, from that awesome cake picture & the cycles totally got my travel mood back :) I've added transport wood shapes inside the shaker part...
I've stamped all those scripts as well as the keys...
Am entering for the third time in this contest, I can hardly refrain from it :D

http://www.simonsaysstampblog.com/wednesdaychallenge/simon-says-add-a-little-texture/

Charcoal portait

Hi,
This is a super delayed post of how I continued with the portrait here . I actually planned to upload it soon after that but somehow missed it.
Kindly use the above link to know how it all started :)

Materials used:
I've used
●Mont marte charcoal pencils for this work. First time am using charcoal pencils & that too straightaway in colors :D
●For blending/smudging:
      ◆Tissue paper
      ◆Synthetic brush
      ◆ paper stumps (I don't have the readymade ones yet, but handmade ones worked just fine for me)
●For toning down/erasing:
     ◆Kneadable eraser
     ◆Normal pencil Eraser





This is mostly a step by step pictorial. I'll include some tips which maybe useful & any lessons learned from my mistakes.

it's better to start & progress sketching in one direction so as to avoid smudging of other parts. Here I've started from the top left corner & moved towards the bottom right.

Drawing the hair:
There are soft, medium & hard pencils for black colour.  The soft one is darker & can be easily smudged/blended.
I started off with medium black covering the whole area for neutral tone & added soft black for darker areas & hard black for fine lines for hair strands. Highlights achieved by erasing and also white charcoal pencil (I simply luvvv that)

The appropriate darker & lighter areas give the sense of volume to the hair.





The Face:

I've used Sanguine as the neutral tone,  sepia & black for darker shades, white for highlights.





The eyes are the most challenging according to me as they form the centre of focus but occupying a very small area. A little detail gone wrong might affect the pic drastically. (personally, in this pic I feel the eyeball looks a little popped up coz I wasn't able to leave a very narrow blank space below it)




I guess it's crucial to make the lower lip border least prominent. it kinda merges with the skin & stand out only coz of the shadow below.
I really find it difficult to work with the teeth so I usually prefer pics having closed lips :D






I just followed the guidelines from my reference pic here for the other details.






Finally I used soft black lead pencils (5B,6B) to shade around the portrait & blend well to give some depth.
Done.



Here's the pic alongside the reference.


it's obvious that this is my first attempt isn't it? :D

By the way, This is Mr.Kishore Sheik Ahamed,  the wonderful designer of my website.  I sincerely hope he'll forgive all the mistakes I've committed in his portrait sketch & like it too :)

Hope you liked this. I'll be very glad if it was in any way useful. I love to hear from you so please do lemme know ur comments :) Thanks for your time. Create. Have fun.

How to draw portrait from photograph

Hello,

Firstly, Few words regarding portrait drawing from photograph reference. When you want to draw a person from a photograph,  you need to have all the features in exactly the same place and a lot of attention is required for finer details to achieve an acceptable level of realism. I find the grid method best suits this.
If you have the reference digitally, find out how to make grid here:
http://rhizwana.com/craft/2014/08/how-to-digitally-make-grid-over-photo-reference/

This is my reference photo with grid





If you have a printed reference and u don't want to mess it up with lines, construct the grid on a OHP sheet & attach it over the photo taping it on all
sides. You can photocopy a graph sheet on to the OHP sheet if u find it tedious to draw lines.
Well with that little piece of info, we'll go straight into the process.

Step 1:
Constructing the grid.

I Took an A4 size butter/trace paper. u can use any size u want but make sure your original drawing sheet and the paper are of the same size. Also any paper can be used for the grid and rough sketch.i used this because it is thinner, so i don't  have to apply too much pressure when transferring to the original sheet.
As I have already mentioned, you can directly use a graph sheet here to eliminate this step.
Use a hard lead pencil (2H) to construct the grid.
Here, I have constructed 20×14 squares for the A4 size . First draw the outermost rectangle 20×14 cm. Then make marks at one centimetre interval on all four sides. Join the opposite points & the grid is ready.









Step 2:
Drawing the face
Use the grid guidelines from your reference photograph and try to recreate the same on the sheet of paper, one square at a time. If you concentrate carefully on each square, then the final picture will turn out perfectly.








Step 3:
Shading the template

Use a soft lead pencil (I have used 5B)  to shade the back of the template sheet. It glides smoothly and the shading is uniform. The higher number, the better. Make sure you cover all the areas where the lines are present. This is especially tricky when you use a opaque paper. It's better to cover the whole sheet in such cases.





Step 4:
Transferring the image

Stick the template over the drawing sheet using tape on all four sides.  Since  both papers are of same size, it is easy to position one on top of the other & can be replaced exactly again if needed. Also, the adhesive in the tape is not touching the original sheet so any tape can be used.
Draw over the lines with the tip of an empty ballpoint pen. Make sure you go over all the lines. Fixing a starting point and proceeding in a single direction will help to avoid missing any lines. For example from top left to bottom right.
Peel off the tape after completion. U'll have a mild outline of all the required areas in your drawing sheet. Now you can proceed with sketching and adding the details with the medium of your choice. U can store the template and use it for future projects if you want to recreate the same or try out with a different medium.





I proceeded with coloured charcoal for this portrait. Click the link below if you want to take a look at the step by step process and final outcome.
http://rhizwana.com/craft/2014/11/charcoal-portait/

Create.Have fun

List of materials used:

A4 size trace paper (I used the one which comes along with OHP sheets)
A4 size drawing sheet (tulip artist drawing pad)
2H,2B,5B apsara drawing pencils
Mechanical pencil 0.5 mm for fine lines
Eraser, scale
Empty ballpoint pen
Adhesive tape



-பூங்குழலி

How to digitally make grid over photo reference

Am using the Picsart application for this purpose.
Technical details
Mobile model: Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-I9300
Android version: 4.3
Picsart version:  4.5.5

Step 1
In the homescreen of picsart app, select Draw option & then "Draw on background" in the sub menu





Step 2
Choose the background. As I want finer precision, I use the graph sheet background.





Step 3
Set measurements.  There are standard templates available.  U can use that or set measurements according to need. I wanted a 20×14 square cm area for drawing in a A4 size sheet. I did some rough calculations and then fine tuned it to 980×1435





Step 4
Select the layers option, then "photo layer" in the submenu. Add the required photo. U can also use the "add photo" menu if the grid doesn't permit u to add the wanted field area. But I always prefer photo layer as the placement will be perfect.





Step 5
Now in the layers menu, Reduce the opacity of your photo. U will be able to see the grid over the photograph.





Step 6
Use the "save image" option to save your work and you are done and all set to portrait drawing. Not just for portraits, any reference can be made this way. It is only a basic idea & there are many more methods to experiment yourselves.
Create. Have fun.





Tips n tricks: if you want to make this easier, to get a better idea about the lighting and shading, first edit your photos with sketcher/drawing effects using any application. There are many in the market. (picsart provides it too in the Effect section, but I would also recommend sketchguru) When you are satisfied with Fx, save & use that image for applying the grid.

HERE is how I continued with this if you are curious :)

-பூங்குழலி