Petite Doll Mixed Media Project in my DLP Journal

So, the girl below is based loosely on the things I learned in a Suzi Blu course called Petite Doll. Don't like my completed version, but I learned lots.

DLP Week 35 Challenge: Draw, paint, doodle a face. Done. Took forever to do it, as it was completely out of my comfort zone, and my expectations were too high!

I started with a sketch of my daughter in a sun-hat. 

4 things I wanted to capture in this project:

--NINE freckles on her nose

--her gorgeous long, flowing blonde hair

--her happy child-like expression

--her brilliant green, soulful eyes

There's so much I want to learn yet about creating dimension with color. Tried to add lots of yellows to her hair. Not crazy about the sharp black lines I added...

I used a color scheme I haven't used before: baby blue, orangey-yellow and a warm purple. I really really like it! It all started with the Gelli-print I used for the background of the girl. :)

Added more dimension to my oft-used bubble theme. I am really happy with that. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy art-ing!

♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥

Color Swatches Tutorial

Lately I have a thing for color swatches. It's a guide as to what colors you have in your stash of each art product. If it's a set you're collecting one at a time, this is perfect. Add the new color as you bring them home. Pictured below I colored in a circle for each Crayola pencil crayon I own. (I just bought a mega set of 60 pencils from Walmart.) If you want to know the steps in creating this, read on. :) 

I drew these on old book paper, punched them out, then glued them down in my Documented Life Project art journal. You could add them to any book. Maybe one dedicated to swatches would be cool!

Supplies:

- Book paper torn out of an old book (I tore mine from one of my art journals.)
- pencil crayons (or whatever medium you want swatches of. Examples: oil pastel set, watercolor pan set, watercolor pencils, Golden Acrylic fluid set, etc, etc.)
- 1 1/8" circle punch
- Sharpie marker Ultra-Fine point or any other fine-tipped pen or marker
- medium sized brush (a dollar store brand works fine)
- color wheel
- circle maker (a lid works too.)
- matte medium (I have the Liquitex brand.)
Note: If you're documenting water-based products, you'll want to use a fixative spray instead, as matte medium would make them bleed.
- glue stick
- art journal

Steps:

1. Take your circle maker or lid and draw as many circles as you have colors in your art set with the Sharpie. I drew 60.

2. Scribble another few circles around the first one.

3. Punch out your circles with the punch.

4. Glue them with a glue stick to the page of your choice. Arrange them according to the color wheel if you want. That had been my intention with mine, but I ran out of room, so it's a little disorganized. Make sure you have enough room to expand. I didn't, so they migrated to my other art journal pages, hence the mixing in of a different project I did. lol

5. Taking each pencil, color in each circle. Label color name (my favorite part) underneath the circle. I also added the name of the medium to the top of the page.

6. Take a brush and apply matte medium to the page to seal in the circles. (See Note in the supplies list. )

And you're done! :)

I created pictorial notes while reading The Book Thief, and glued the sketch paper to my art journal.


Happy Creating!
♥♥ Anna ♥♥