Portrait Class Progress

I promised I would continue to update my progress in Suzi Blu's on-line class. Here are some of the projects I completed this weekend. I had drawn, colored, and painted the faces in my sketchbook. I finally got some plywood cut into 12 x 12 inch pieces and glued the faces to them. Then, I painted the backgrounds and added rub-ons, stamps, inks, glitter, tissue, etc.

Because my scanner won't scan a 12 x 12 image you can't see the whole piece. I'm not sure I'm done with these yet. I want to coat some of them with beeswax.

The second picture is a journal spread I worked in for my I Dream In Color round robin group.

The part of the class I had the most trouble with is actually spending time writing and adding my own words to my portraits. I am so comfortable expressing myself in visual images. I love adding words I have an emotional response to such as song lyrics or quotes. I am a little hesitant to put my own words on my artwork because it seems more personal. I am working on getting past that point of resistance and being bolder with my words.

I will post any new additions as I finish these up.

Adding color!

This week I added color to my graphite pencil sketches. I layered colored pencils and acrylic paint. I am trying to go with a distressed look but still show the shading to get some depth.

In my class, this is the middle step. Next, I need to work on a layered background and add
poetry. I thought I'd post these and get some feedback on this stage. I loved how the pencil drawings looked and they really changed when I added color. What do you think?