Days 21 to 29 of the #29faceschallenge2016

I have had a few busy days and I've completely lost touch with the challenge. Fortunately, I had prepared a few faces should this had been the case.

These faces are part of a very special new project that I would like to do. I watch (too) many series and I sometimes get confused with some of the characters. So I decided to draw them and write a small blurb to remind me of who they were and what achievements they accomplished.

This used to happen to me in real life with real people that I would meet at the university or at work so I used to do some cheat sheets of my own that involved drawing people and their various quirks and writing their names next to their pictures. Believe it or not, this worked wonderfully and I never forgot a name or a face!...

So here are the rest of my 29 faces for the challenge:

Day 20 of the #29faceschallenge

Day 20 was inspired by my daughter who had just come back from school and was very excited so she told me all about her day during lunch time...

Days 18 & 19 of the #29faceschallenge

Playing catching up again!...

Cat Asleep In Bidet - A Study

My cat Furryosa loves to sleep in the bidet on her bright orange cover. She fills the space perfectly. So it obviously needed to be immortalized in my Hobonichi.

Days 16 & 17 - #29faceschallenge

#29faceschallenge - Day 13

Here is my offering for Day 13. It is oddly satisfying to see black hair on Sailor Moon! :)

Day 12 of the #29faceschallenge

This is my interpretation of Katana.

I have always wanted to do some cosplay especially since there are so many wonderful female superheroes but I sick as a seamstress and it can get quite pricey (respect to those who continuously blow me away with their own flawless interpretations of superheroes!). So instead of ruining and stressing myself trying to look like one of my heroes, I just decided to draw myself as some of my favourite characters! :)

Let's face it: who wouldn't want to have Katana's mad skills with her... katana?

Days 10 and 11 of the #29faceschallenge

Day 10 is a watercolour painting I did on the go. I really had some trouble finding the right shade for the skin and this is something I need to work on.

Day 11 was inspired by Suicide Squad that we (finally) went to see this past Saturday. I really loved it and it was tough deciding which character was the best. I had already done Harley Quinn a little while back so it was time to pick someone else.

#29faceschallenge - Day 9

I'm all caught up! Here is day 9 inspired by my afternoon at the sauna...

#29faceschallenge - Days 5 and 6

And here is my offering for days 5 and 6:

This is a friend of mine and her son. I never realised how much easier it is to draw faces of people you know and like...

#29faceschallenge - Day 4

I inspired myself from Charles Schultz with this face of the day!...

#29faceschallenge - Day 3

And here is day 3 of the 29 Faces Challenge!

Probably the last horror movie portrait I do for the challenge with Sadako from the Ring. Sadako is definitely my favourite between her and Kayako. I think she's creepier and I love her hair too... I have read somewhere that they had done a movie called Sadako vs Kayako...

I have been playing around with my brand new black half pan that I bought yesterday. I have read that this is not a popular colour to use so I was a bit reluctant to use it but I thought I would give it a go and see how it worked. I have to say it worked out really well and it's becoming my favourite one along the Payne's Grey pans...

Hobonichi Postings - Sept 2nd and 3rd

I am going to resume doing one drawing a day on my Hobonichi. Unfortunately, I probably picked the wrong month to start with as September has got the #29faceschallenge and October has Inktober... Still, if I don't do it now, I will never do it! Plus it makes me see whether I really need to get a new Hobonichi for next year to continue drawing every day or not.

I drew my first face for the 29 Faces Challenge on the September 1st page so no reposting this one. Instead, here is Sept. 2nd and Sept. 3rd.

#29faceschallenge - Day 2

For day 2, I was inspired by Ju-On: The Grudge and decided to paint Toshio. This is the first time I manage to paint someone creepy looking.

In the process, I managed to discover a love for painting with a limited amount of shades and the darker, the better. This is definitely something I'm going to explore further.

Long Time No See!

These past few weeks have been really busy for me and my family and things are slowly getting more manageable. We have gone on holiday and I took my traveller’s notebook to document our trip. We spent a few days in the Spanish island of Menorca. This was our second time there and we had an amazing time. We picked the same town and the same hotel. The people from the hotel remembered us and it was nice to see them again.

We left with suitcases full of souvenirs, our heads full of memories and my TN was full of memorabilia, stories and drawings.

Before leaving, I had bought a new regular sized TN from Lady Falcon (link to the left). This was totally an impulse buy and I have to say that I was absolutely not disappointed. The colour, the size, the material were all perfect and I have fallen in love with the regular size. I had had my doubts from the beginning (since I discovered Midori's TNs) and I am completely loving that size. Of course, I probably wouldn't use a broad tipped pen but with a regular or fine nib, it works like a charm.

I also decided to test a Micron pen. I had discovered that they were being sold in one of the few arts and crafts shops in my area and I felt it my duty to at least try them. And I love them... Now I hope and pray that they will continue to stock them. I got a 0.1 in black and I did many of my drawings free hand (as in not using the pencil first before inking). It was both scary and exhilarating. When I came back, I started painting my drawings with watercolour and there was no smudging!...

Without further ado, here are a few pictures of my travelling companion:

These two pictures were taken when my TN was freshly receive. On the second picture, you can see the TN next to its best friend, the Pencil Case. This is probably the most perfect accessory to a busy TN. It holds enough pens for on-the-go missions and it's not too big that you need to bring every single pen/pencil you own. So you basically take just the bare minimum and it doesn't weigh you down. The most exciting feature about the case is that it opens completely flat so no need to rummage around it to find that particular pen that always seems to be hidden at the bottom. Here everything is simultaneously on show so no more wasting time going on search parties!

Back from holiday looking all chubby!

As you can see, my TN is definitely not as pretty and as well decorated as most TNs. For many years, I've admired beautifully decorated and washi taped TNs (and Hobos) that I found on many sites. I kept wanting to learn to do the same on my own TNs but I never really got the hang of it. I felt frustrated because I didn't seem to have an eye for detail. Then this holiday, I just went back to basics and let my instincts rule and I love what I came up with. I managed to make it mine.

I still have quite a lot of pictures to paint and I'm probably going to post more pictures as I go along, so watch this space!

Harley Quinn

I have been a long time fan of Batman comics and I was introduced to them by my husband who is a avid fan of the masked hero. I really loved the contrast between the different Robins and Batman himself as they are such opposites. While I liked all the good guys, I didn't really have a favourite bad guy (although I did like Bane because he was so impossibly muscular). As much as I appreciated Batman's arch enemy, the Joker, it was really when I got to watch the movies and the animated series that I really got to appreciate him and Harley Quinn.

I absolutely loved how Bruce Timm drew her and I loved the energy that she had in the animated series. Now that the Suicide Squad movie is almost upon us, I have watched the trailers and I loved Margot Robbie's interpretation of Harley. She gives her a different feel to Harley from the ones I had already seen and felt when reading the books and watched the animated series. Even the way she looks is really different and reflects these differences.

A friend of mine posted the following meme, which pushed me over the edge and made me draw myself as Harley Quinn (there is nothing more empowering than this!)

#29faces Challenge: The Last Leg of the Journey!

Even though I haven't posted for the last few days and updated on my progress with the challenge, I have continued to draw and paint my daily faces and I am very pleased to say that I have completed the challenge. It has been a challenge particularly for me since faces are not my forte. I have seen myself grow in confidence and be inspired as time progressed and I am very proud of what I have achieved.

Along the way, I have met extremely talented artists and I have seen mind blowing works of art. I am truly humbled to have been a part of this vibrant community and will definitely miss it.

Without further ado, here are the last faces of the challenge:

Day 23:

I went back to the Evil Queen. This is one of my favourite characters from the Disney movies. It was really interesting drawing an older lady as the features are so much more complex than those of a younger lady.

Day 24:

Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. After drawing the complex Evil Queen, I needed to draw someone cute for a change!

Day 25:

 After watching Brave with my daughter, I just HAD to draw Merida. She is definitely one of my favourite Disney Princess. I just love how unconventional she is and how free she is. However, I felt too chicken to tackle that glorious hair of hers and I was too afraid not to do it justice so I picked a picture of her with her hair imprisoned in her headdress.

Day 26:

I had just finished to do this sketch and was not really planning on colouring it but after posting it on the group page, I decided that I hadn't done it justice so I went back and coloured it. I have to say that I'm particularly proud of the skin colour I used, especially for the cheeks. Mixing colours in watercolour is something I'm just starting to do. Because I'm too lazy to go to town and get some flesh coloured pans, I tried to use what I had in hand, and make some flesh colour of my own... This is one of the rare cases where laziness paid!

Day 27:

Back to a quick and easy sketch of Leela from Futurama. Nice and easy with bold colours (and my very own brand of purple that I mixed all on my own!)

Day 28:

This is one character I have been meaning to draw for a long time. It's Arale from the manga Dr Slump.

Day 29:

This is a completely new and original creation. I wanted to do something big for the last day and I hesitated between winging it or picking some very elaborate sketch and in the end, I winged it. One of my favourite artists is Tim Burton. I love how eternally startled his characters always are. The lines are often simple but always effective. I more or less inspired myself from someone I knew a long time ago and I put a spin on him. I am desperate to practice nebulae and this was the perfect occasion for it. It was a bit tricky staying within my lines but I did it. And I had to add a raven because I'm all about ravens. Somehow, I feel that the background should not be white and I might change it at some point. This is by far the biggest portrait I did (A3!).

So this is it for this challenge!

Catching up on the #29faces challenge!

I am way behind on updating the blog and I am missing days 20 to 22, so here they are:

Day 20:

Day 21:

Day 22: