Adventure #117: KJ & The Creative Challenge (Day 6!)

Dear You,

Over the past three years, my style has evolved quite a bit...

The necks on my girls have shortened, their noses have become more button-y, and their faces have gotten rounder and fuller and cuter and, well, I have to admit: a lot less expressive.  (You can see the ACEOs I was doing in the summer & fall of '05 here, if you'd like to.)

I love what my girls have become...but I want to feel comfortable again with making them show a bit more emotion (for several reasons, one being a project I have planned, which will require it). 

Which brings me to (approximately) #34877098 on my (Creative) To Do list: Practice sketching sad girls!  Surprised girls!  Thrilled girls!  Scared girls!  Angry girls!  Sleepy girls!

I wanted to be able to have them be sad/surprised/thrilled/scared/angry/sleepy/etc...but I also wanted them to still be my girls, in my style.

So, I started out by sketching out a face, the way I normally would, then, using Facial Expressions by Mark Simon for reference, changing and tweaking the eyes, brows, and mouths, erasing this and redrawing that.

I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd like this afternoon -- and definitely want to do a lot more -- but here's what I came up with:

(Possible Caption: CoCo said she couldn't help Tippy because she had a stomachache and needed to go home...but Tippy had a hard time believing her.  One part or another of CoCo was always aching, it seemed.  What a hypochondriac, Tippy thought.)

Oooh, and another thing on my (Creative) To Do list was to start actually keeping a sketchbook, and yay:  These two were both done in my never-been-used-before sketchbook.  

I must say, it's so much fun getting to actually do these things I've just wanted to do for so long.  I really don't want the 21 days to end!

See you tomorrow!

Comments

[Johanna]

Love Tippy's irritated expression & Coco really does appear to have a tummy ache so tell Tippy to back off :)

[BluebirdCrafts]

Love your work....and your blog!

[Tracy]

I'm with Tippy. I think CoCo is a little bit of a hypochondriac :)

Love the expressions so far on these drawings! Your artwork is adorable!

[Marisa]

Since I discovered your blog a few weeks ago, I've been browsing all of your older posts and it has been fun seeing how your work changes and evolves.

Great that you continue to challenge yourself as an artist and frequently step outside your box. Great expressions on your sketchy ladies. I must say, though, that I love the serene expressions on your button-nosed girls. In my mixed-up, crazy life, it is nice to see a calm and serene face!