Feb 13th Face - A Kokeshi Doll

I needed today's face to be easy as I'm having back pains and can't sit at my computer long. She's got a face, and that's what matters. :)

I'll admit, like yesterday's project I may have spent more time on her clothes/accessories than her face; but that's just how it goes sometimes.

Update: In a lovely comment from Sri Devi of the Well Wishers Group, who happens to be a fellow GCU Artist, she asked to see some of my work from my challenges as it appears on greeting cards. I will add some of those later, but for now...here is a version of this Kokeshi Doll on a mug in my Zazzle store. :)
(Hi Sri! Thanks for coming over and posting such a sweet comment! :-D )
Kokeshi Doll and Pretty Floral Design Tea Cup by ilovecuttables
View more Kokeshi Mugs

Feb12th Face - Mardi Gras Girl!

Mardi Gras is just around the corner and I felt compelled to make a Mardi Gras Girl! It was tough, but fun. And I'll admit, I spent more time on her clothes and accessories than her face, but still...

Anyhow, check out the beaded skirt! Neat, huh? I love how it shows movement (just as you would expect beads to). :) She looks all ready to join the parade, doesn't she?

If you want to find out how I created the skirt and some of the other components of her costume, visit my 365 Day Illustration Challenge.

Feb 11th Face - Here Kitty, Kitty . . .

Today's face is an easy one because I've got a lot of other things to do this weekend. It's just a cartoon kitty. But a face is a face is a face . . . right? :)

Feb 10th Face - Hair is SO Hard to Create!

Argh! Here's the rest of the project that I started yesterday. In case you can't tell, it's supposed to be Portia de Rossi, Ellen's wife. I felt compelled to create a portrait of Portia since I created one of Ellen the other day...and then with the craziness from the One Million Moms haters...it really seemed like the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I didn't do Portia any favors with the hair that I finished today. Who knew hair would be so hard to create?! Oh well, now I know. LOL! This is all I have time for today. I'm going out of town this afternoon, but maybe I'll revisit this one at a future date.

Feb 9th Face

I wasn't planning to do another intensely difficult face like this for awhile, but I changed my mind. Here's the face, but I'm going to have to finish the hair (and maybe touch up the face some) for tomorrow's project (or the day after). And I'll reveal the identity when I post the rest of it.

Feb 8th Face - Phphphffft!!!

I created an Ellen DeGeneres face for my challenge yesterday and then today she addressed her critics from a group called One Million Moms who don't want her to be the spokesperson for JCPenney. My mouse face today is giving the 'raspberry' to the narrow-minded haters (from One Million Moms) who feel that way.

Ellen and JCPenney ROCK!!! :)

Feb 7th Face, It's Ellen!!!

I was watching Ellen DeGeneres yesterday when she had Jim Parsons on (Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory), and I thought she'd be a good subject to use as a model to draw for my 29Faces challenge. I actually started my Ellen project yesterday, but finished it today. It took soooo long. I won't be doing many face projects like this one very many times this month because it just took so much out of me to finish, but once I had started it, I knew I would finish. I'm thrilled that I did, and I'm delighted with how it turned out. It showed me what I'm capable of when I put time and effort into my art. :)

Feb 6th Face, Going Green-ish

Not really sure why she ended up in hues of blue and green, but it seems like what she wanted, and who am I to argue. :)

My Feb 5th Face is The President!

Yep, since I created a Romney image a couple days ago, I decided to create a caricature of President Obama today. It's meant to be a complimentary caricature, but I might work on it some more in the future. If you'd like to read more about it, visit my 365 Day Challenge page.

Here's a Face for Feb 4th!

Here's today's face for the 29 Faces challenge. As with previous faces, if you'd like to see how/what I did to come up with it, you can read it on my 365 Daily Challenge page.

Mitt Romney Cartoon Face

Here's my second face in the 29 Faces challenge. It's a cartoon of Mitt. :) If you're interested in how I created it, details are in my 365 Day Challenge.

29 faces

Today I saw a forum posting by Laura J Holman about a "29 faces" challenge, and since I need to improve my skills creating faces, I decided to join in on the fun. I'm already doing a daily challenge, so for the month of February, I will combine the two and use the faces for both challenges. Here is my first entry (also in my daily challenge). Since I missed yesterday, I felt I needed two faces, so I gave the image a mirror to reflect in. :)

Contest Voting!

If you read my earlier post, you'll know that I entered Ramelle's Wedding Greeter card in a contest at GCUCommunity.com. Please vote for Ramelle and me, we could each win a $10 gift. :) Ours is #5. It's very painless and quick, and I think it is anonymous. Thanks!!! :)

Mash-Up Fun!

Corrie has come up with a fun 'mash-up' idea for GCU artists to participate in via their blogs. We choose a favorite card by another artist and explain why we love it. The only bad part is that we are limited to one. So I began looking through my 'favorite' cards at GCU (I have almost 100!) and I realized that most of them are beautiful works of art OR cartoons . . . the kind of artwork or styles I'd love to be able to emulate. A few of them were stunning photographic works . . . but I'll never be a good photographer, so I'll leave those to someone else. And lastly, I have a few favorited cards that are just plain funny! Because of all my disabilities, humor is the one thing I can count on to keep me going when I've hit a rough patch in my life. I'm actually going through one of those rough patches right now, so I've decided to choose a card that is making me feel better both emotionally and physically (because laughter is the best medicine) while providing me with the ideal material to participate in this mash-up. :)

The card I've selected as my current favorite is this delightfully funny wedding greeter card by Ramelle Richardson. When I first saw it, I thought it would be hilarious to have a wedding greeter who would greet the guests while making a similar funny face at THEM. That would be one crazy-funny wedding! Then I thought about the wedding from the greeter's perspective. If I was asked to be a greeter at a wedding with this card, I would say "yes" without hesitation; because anyone who asks someone to be their greeter with this card, obviously will have a great sense of humor and will also probably have an unforgettable wedding. :)

But in addition to making me laugh whenever I look at the card, I also reminisce back to a happy time in my life when I was a bridesmaid (1978). The harmonious vintage look of the card with its '70s photo and sepia background, plus the jovial feeling it provokes, makes this an all-around perfect design in my book. :)

Speaking of Hearts . . .

I realized I haven't updated my blog since the "I Heart You" contest at GCUCommunity.com, so it's time.

Corrie Kuipers has introduced us to a fantastic new greeting card artist, Sue Shepard, and I want to carry that introduction a little further, here. :) I was bowled over with Sue's technique of turning images that look like letters and specific shapes (that she photographs) into greeting cards.

So since it's nearly Valentine's Day, I'd like to share this "Happy Heart Day" card that Sue created, so you can see her impressive and inspiring style for yourselves. :)

Welcome to GCU, Sue! :)