JANUARY ABOUT FACES

 In the January doldrums, sometimes I go back to a skill as a good way to start practice for the new year. I've always drawn and painted faces. With acrylic paint, I can experiment more and correct mistakes by layering paint and using texture. 

BLUE EYES by Martha Slavin
gesso, acrylic paint, torn paper napkins, graphite pencil

To capture texture in these pieces, I use gesso as a ground underneath acrylic paint. I glue down pieces of paper using matt medium. For my first layer of paint, I often brush on random strokes of aqua and yellow ochre. I add more pieces of paper and stencil texture to the dry surface. In some paintings, I water down the gesso and paint a thin coat over the top and then wipe most of it off with a paper towel. On BLUE EYES I drew outlines and text with a graphite pencil. On FEMALE, I used black gesso to outline the faces and added white highlights.

FEMALE by Martha Slavin
gesso, strips of paper, acrylic paint, stencils
FEMALE is now on view at the online Las Laguna Gallery exhibit

For HIDDEN WITHIN, I sprayed watercolor ink on thin pieces of paper, I also used the ink stopper from the bottle to draw lines and add dots. I glued these all together with matt medium, added a face, and then stenciled through doilies for more texture. My last step was the doily frame around the face.

HIDDEN WITHIN by Martha Slavin
Torn paper, stencils, splattered watercolor ink, doilies

These two paintings show how much change can result because of layering. I was dissatisfied with the first attempt, so I used a different palette of colors on top of the dry surface. I used stencils to add pattern and texture, and drew with regular drawing pencils to highlight the features of the face. Maybe I will do another version on top!

Draft #1

Finished or not?

   

Here are some of the materials I used to paint these faces:

Check out the latest online exhibit, Human Faces & Figures, at the Las Laguna Gallery in Laguna, California. Since it is online they are able to showcase many more pieces than they could display in their gallery. The artwork is presented in alphabetical order so you have to scroll through a lot until you get to mine, FEMALE. Click on each image to see the entire work.

 https://www.laslagunaartgallery.com