Cay Denise

This is a quick drawing using Caran d'Ache Supracolor II pencils from a 10-pencil set.  Since there isn't a skin tone color among the 10, I chose green to work with in the shape definition and shading. It works!

Our Creative Club had such fun yesterday using melted crayons to make neat batik prints!  I had never done that before but one of our group had--and it was she who led this group get together activity.  Thank you, Karen! The crayons had to be quite hot (and fully melted) for the wax to be painted on 100% white cotton and fully penetrate the fabric (to the back side) before immersing in a short dye bath and rinsing.  In the painting process, some of the wax caked on...but no problem.  That was taken care of by ironing the print (after the dye bath and rinse) sandwiched between clean newspapers to take the extra wax off and moisture out. We used a black dye bath and it really reduced the vibrancy of my painted crayon design.  So, I've painted elements of the print with Setacolor and Lumiere fabric paints plus emphasized details that had gotten lost with a black Marvy/Uchida Fabric Marker.  Voila! This post also linked to  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com .

"Forever Beautiful" The top photo is my final piece for the Week 36 lesson led by guest artist/instructor Annie Hamman of South Africa.  Annie taught a lesson earlier in the year which was awesome, but I struggled with it, just as I did with this lesson.  But both work products are pretty amazing! This piece took three tries.  In the process photo (on the bottom), you can follow along with my comments.  Photo #1 shows my first try which was problematic from the shadow and light color application technique that was part of the lesson.  I like color, but I couldn't get it to settle down from the intensity you see.  So, I gesso'd over the face to begin again.   Photo #2 shows my second try.  The face was too round and again, the shadow and light color application was just not working the way I wanted.  So, I prepared to start afresh the same way. Photos #3 and #4 show the beginning stages of my third try which resulted in the final piece (top photo