La La La, Amazon

Before trimming the watercolor paper

Cut down to 8x10.5 so I could add into my journal. Added background

The bird was lost in the background

Added more color and some Lamy fountain pen

It is confession time. I had become increasing discouraged with the sameness of my drawing. Even though I was making, I thought, a conscious effort to change how I drew eyes, noses, and mouths, they all came out the same.

There is a magical device called a tracing light box. Due to the current trend in animation and SciFi generated art, light boxes abound in all price ranges. And sizes. The light box is plugged into electric, powering a light. You place the image you want to trace first on the surface, then a piece of paper. Today's lights are so powerful, you are able to trace onto 140 lb watercolor paper, or mixed media. The first girl with the black hair is on Strathmore 140 lb. water color paper. The second girl is on Strathmore Mixed Media. Both girls were painted with Artist Loft watercolors in many layers.

The original artist for the first girl is Christie Sobolewski, GulfSprite. I did this for personal use only, no intention of selling it or putting it on Instagram. I copied the image for the sole purpose of learning more about creating faces. I will try this shape of face again without tracing, until I produce satisfactory images.

I don't know the original artist for the second girl. She is off of Pinterest. Again, I tried this without tracing and it was a hot mess. Just by tracing the nose and mouth, I learned what I have been doing wrong. Maybe not wrong, just stuck in a rut, repeating myself over and over.

So. I tore out a bunch of women in photographs from Vanity Fair magazine. Because the light is so powerful, you see both sides of a magazine page and it's impossible to trace. Then Cathy gave me the brilliant idea of copying the magazine page first, using that to trace. I am now after three quarter faces, and profiles. My biggest challenge that I have tried to draw on my own for years. I truly feel this will help me.

If you are interested in this latest toy, I purchased the Small Fish Ultra Thin A4 LED Light Tracing Box from Amazon Prime.  $17.95. It comes with a USB cord, which you insert into your own wall plug with USB port. I am using an old Samsung phone charger plug. 

I will add this: when you don't worry about drawing the perfect image, your mind leaps to what and how to paint. It is still creating art, deciding colors, shading, focal points. I may tire of this and put it away for months. But at this moment in time, it is giving me a boost that I needed.
Linda