PPF: Faces 4, 5 and 6

Ayala is sponsoring her 29 Faces Challenge this month, so I thought I would post Faces 4, 5 and 6 today as part of Paint Party Friday. All of them are made on my ipad, using the Paper 53 app.  Each one is a distinct character, I think.

My first face today is Maura. She tries to hide her age but worries that she isn't succeeding. 
Next, meet Charlie.  You can tell what his story is just by looking at him!

Finally, here's Sybil. She's a bit of a free spirit, but mainly innocent.
You can check out other faces at this link and painterly fun at Paint Party Friday (here).

Faces 1-3: Illustrations

Ayala is sponsoring 29 Faces, a challenge to create 29 faces in any artistic format during February. Here are my first three:

I sketched and painted all three of these on my Ipad, using the Paper 53 app. I'm becoming a little more confident with it. I like this series of faces because they seem like they could be three characters in a book. I've always been fascinated by artists who do illustrations, and I've often thought that my water color blob faces work because they do seem to have so much character.  Do you think these three have a story to tell?

Playing with Paper 53 (Digital Creating)

I've been spending some time playing with the Paper 53 app on my ipad, and my favorite thing to do, so far, is to make watercolor blob faces (a technique I learned - using real water colors - in the 101 Faces class offered by Carla Sonheim). It's fairly easy, and I'm happy with the results.
My attempts at digital art journaling with the Paper app, on the other hand, was not as successful:

I'm keeping it small because I don't really like it - LOL! But I learned a lot while doing it, and I'm posting it so that, a year or so from now, I can see how far I've come! 

It's been fun to experiment and bring the skills I've learned in IRL drawing, painting and art journaling to the digital sketching world.  The eraser and rewind functions are particularly amazing, and I wish they existed in real life.

Have you tried anything new lately?

This and That . . . (sketches, freebies and a winner)

I finally had a chance to do two things I've been wanting to do for a while: have a artist's date devoted to sketching and start on Alisa Burke's Sketchbook Delight, Part 2 class, which I purchased quite a while ago. So far, the class is focusing on everyday objects and trying to capture them in a somewhat realistic manner.

It's fairly difficult, but I'm enjoying it! 
I also just received two styluses to use with the Paper 53 app for the ipad and purchased the enhanced creativity pack.  This has given me the opportunity to create digital water color pictures.   I'm facing a pretty steep learning curve with the app, but I'm willing to share my first attempt - a picture of our cat, J.J.

I admit it's pretty goofy, but I'm posting it so that later I can see how far I've come.   If you want to see some fantastic Paper 53 drawings, check out this post on Alisa Burke's blog. It's definitely something to aspire to.  These projects are part of my 2013 intention to finish some existing classes and projects.  Anyone else knocking some things off your to do list?
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There's a couple of other interesting FREE things I wanted to bring to everyone's attention:
Strathmore Paper just announced their line up of free 2013 Classes.  I took a few in 2012, with mixed results, but they're free!  You can sign up at this link.
If you've been enjoying my "dry" art journal pages, check out Kelly Kilmer's blog (here).  She shares a lot of information about doing this type of collage. 
If you're looking for some art journal inspiration, check out this free workshop (21 prompts on the topic of "get lost") offered by Artsyville.
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Finally, I've been remiss in announcing the winner from my 2013 Blog Plan and Give-Away post.  The winner is Carolyn of the Mess, Muddle and Fun blog. I am looking forward to creating a custom package to send her.  Thanks to everyone who commented and gave me feedback on my blog. It seems like eclectic diversity is what you all want; so that's what you'll keep seeing! 

Playing with "Paper"

I recently purchased the "Paper"app by 53 for the ipad. It is a sketching application that has limited options, which, paradoxically, makes it so easy to use that your creativity is allowed to flow. Since you cannot spend a lot of time making complex choices, you simply choose a drawing tool and color and begin. If you don't like a drawing, you simply put it in the trashcan. The basic app comes with one virtual drawing tool (a fountain pen), an eraser and seven colors.  I took my ipad with me to the hair salon today, and I used the basic set up to make the Gaudi-inspired heart above and this face:

It's kindof inexact and sketchy, but i like it.  I made both of these drawings using my finger, but I just ordered two styluses today (a drawing stylus and a brush stylus), which should give me more flexibility and control.  I am also going to purchase the paper creative bundle which will give me four more virtual sketching tools (a pencil, a bold marker, an ink pen and a brush), plus the ability to blend the colors to create a custom color palette.
I'm not that much of a digital artist, but I'm excited by the possibilities of "paper." It's a quick way to sketch when all I have is my ipad. 
I was inspired by Journal Girl who is doing 365 days of digital journaling, but there are lots of other videos (this is a good one) and blogs out there about "paper"  (for example, check out these 53 outstanding works of art made with  paper). Have any of you given it a try? What do you think?