emo faces: crusade #32

Having finally finished the exhausting Lesson 3 in my Decorated Page workshop, I needed a break, a distraction, before beginning a very comprehensive Lesson 4.



As serendipity would have it, I checked out Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team to see what the current crusade was. You can read about it here: Crusade #32 - Knock Yourself Off.

Turns out this was something that fit perfectly into a solution for another little problem I was having. I'd done a set of atc's for an emotive faces swap at my Paper Traders yahoo group, but I didn't like them and they just sat there as the deadline grew closer.

The first set of cards had been done by finding faces of models in magazines, scanning them in, desaturating the color out, printing them and then altering them with paints and pens.

Here are each of the 5 cards I made back in June (I named each model), next to the printed image I started each card with. First up is Ursula:
Ursula, desaturated original
Ursula, painted

Next, we have Rayma:
Rayma, desaturated original

Rayma, painted

Next I present Stacy:
Stacy, desaturated original
Stacy, painted

Okay, the painted Ursula, Rayma and Stacy were the best ones. These next two I had problems because I tried painting their skin. I discovered that I shouldn't have done that, so I had to try to make lemonade out of lemons, as you will see.

So, here is Rika, who I ended up making into a Geisha wannabe:
Rika, desaturated original
Rika, painted, the Geisha Wannabe

And here is Emily, who I should rename Jackobea, because she appears to be a Michael Jackson wannabe (Note - you may notice the original is that Padma chick from Top Chef):
Emily, desaturated original
Emily, painted - the MJ Wannabe

So, anyway...I made this set and wasn't happy with the last two, so I put them aside, waiting for... what-I-do-not-know.

It was then that I read the new Crusade #32, and another idea came to me -- to do them over and *knock myself off*. I decided to go back to those original magazine pages and this time use some tracing paper parchment, trace the major lines of the faces in pencil, outline in Pitt Pen, fill in with colored pencils. and adhere to the back of adhesive cardstock.

Here is the new set I made for Crusade #32, along with the original color pages from the magazines that I traced (Ursula was in black n white in the magazine).

Here's Ursula:
Ursula, magazine original
Ursula, trace-sketched

And Rayma:
Rayma, magazine original
Rayma, trace-sketched

And Stacy:
Stacy, magazine original
Stacy, trace-sketched

And Rika, this time NOT a Geisha but a woman of color:
Ria, magazine original
Rika, trace-sketched

And finally, Emily (who is no longer trying to emulate MJ):
Emily, magazine original
Emily, trace-sketched

SOoooooo, what do you think? I'd love to know, who is your favorite, and what process do you think is more interesting or artistic?

It's a funny thing how even with tracing, these are every bit my own creations. Notice how each are different...it's like I've created 10 different women with 5 different names!

I ended up liking my *knock offs* so well that it made me take another look at my painted set and now I like them all, even the skin-challenged Rika and Emily. Funny how that worked. But if I know Michelle's genius, she had it planned all along.... *winkwink*

Until next time,