My New Candy Dish! - Revolving Art Organizer

I have to share my newest favorite toy with all of you.  Its this revolving art organizer! Just looking at it makes me want to make something, its a carousel of candy for the artist and crafter!  I can't tell you how much easier it is to create with.  In the past, I would rustle through my supplies  to find the right color, or type of media I wanted to use.  So much time was spent pulling out pencils, pens, markers, pastels etc., then sorting them out to work on a project, leaving me less time to play!  With this great new tool, when I get inspired, all I have to do is grab my sketch pad or other substrate and create!  Love, love, love this!!!

This is my new candy dish :)

Let Them Blossom - Mixed Media On Canvas

The other day I did a tutorial on creating pretty little faces, so I thought I would share with you the piece I created using a few that I made.

It is titled "Let Them Blossom"  It's about watching and guiding our children as they grow.  You may have noticed my name is Fleurette F. Bloom well, the F in the middle stands for Flower.  Yes my parents were hippies and artists.

When I was a little girl my Father would always tell me, that I was their little flower and it was their job to help me grow.  He would say "a flower needs water, sunshine, tender loving care and protection, just like a child.  If you give them all those things then they will blossom into what they are meant to be."  So, this piece is a tribute to that sweet story my Dad would always tell me. (Thanks for being such a great Dad) :)

I added the time pieces in upper left hand corner to show, as time passes with the sun, so do the children grow.

I hope you enjoy this piece and that it inspires you to create something unique to you! :)

Click on photo to enlarge 

The captions in the piece are:

Plant the seeds

Nourish them

Protect them

Let them bloom

Watch them blossom

Create some pretty little faces! With How-To Tutorial :)

Today I created some pretty little faces to use in future mixed media pieces. A fun little sketch project that can be done almost anywhere.

What you will need:
* Plain White Paper
* Regular and Colored Pencils
* Markers (I used Copic as I love the blend-ability and variety of soft and dark colors)
* scissors
* White Gell Pen (for highlights)

Just sit relax and have fun sketching :).

Here are some I created today.
The first photo is of my basic sketches, with colored pencil. The second is with the addition of markers, that I  cut out with scissors.

These faces are great for creating all sorts of things from mixed media paintings, cards to creating doll faces and so much more!

Can't wait to create something fun with them!!!

How-To, Step By Step Sketch Tutorial

If you want to create a pretty face, you will need to keep things symmetrical.

If you want a comical face you can draw the features off kilter.

This tutorial is on drawing fanciful faces, the process for drawing a realistic face

is similar but with a few more adjustments.  

The below steps show how to create a symmetrical pretty face. 

All faces turn out best by using this same method of dividing and using guidelines as shown below.

1. Draw a circle, find the center and draw one vertical line and one horizontal to divide your face. 

2. Create an even wave through the center (this will form your eyes)

3. Draw another wave line, connecting to your first (This will essentially give you 3 eyes)

* you will later erase the center eye, this is used for correct spacing.

4. Draw a small vertical eye shape below and centered benieth the center spacing eye.

5. Draw three circles at the bottom of this shape (this will create your nose)

6. Draw three more circles a bit below your nose shape (This will create your mouth)

7. Draw circles in your two side eyes and erase the center eye.

8. Create your nose and mouth by outlining your guide circles, then erase the unneeded extra lines that helped you form these features

9. Draw in smaller circles for your pupils (you can center these or position them where you want to look.  Just be sure to position each in the same location in each eye. 

10. Draw in eyelids from one corner to the next, it looks nice when you have it cut through the pupils.  

11.  Erase your extra lines (you can see I have erased the lines on the left, but left the ones on the right

so you can see how to draw your lines through the pupil)  

12.  Draw in eyebrows. 

13. Outline your face with a black or sepia fine tip marker/pen. 

14. Erase your pencil marks (if you want a rougher look you can leave some of your pencil marks to create a folk art or look, it's just a matter of choice.

Now you have a great face to color anyway you like! :)

Here is the one above, I colored it in just a bit and I will add more color and shading  later in the finished piece.