Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Self Portrait Challenge for Art Journaling


When I was growing up, I usually had short hair. I grew it out for a while, but it didn't look good. We didn't have the styling products in the 60's & 70's that give volume and control like we have now. Super long straight hair was popular. My sister had that. My hair was fine with a bit of wave and didn't work for that style. I had shag haircuts that actually worked for my hair. But that is NOT what I wanted. I would see models with long, luxurious hair. Artists would draw girls with long flowing hair. Hair was such a big thing that there was a song and a musical.
So, my first entry for the self-portrait challenge that Misty Mawn posted provided an opportunity to get nostalgic. As a teen, I would draw girls like this following the illustrations in sewing pattern catalogs.
This is on watercolor paper. After sketching in graphite, I drew in the lines with a Pitt sepia marker. The color was filled in with water soluble colored pencils that I gently blended with water. It's too bad that spell check didn't catch me writing "luxurious" wrong. I even looked it up before writing it, but I had to go back in & correct it after I'd penned it in wrong. Argh!
For the record, I have come to appreciate my hair and am thrilled to have a great stylist who gives me razor cuts. There are wonderful products that bring out the curl and keep down the frizz. And then there is my friend "L'Oreal" to thank, too. LOL

2 comments:

Kathryn Costa said...

I always think it is brave to make a self portrait. I love PITT pens! I don't have any sepia ones only black ones. Your self portrait is beautiful!

Fannie said...

Love the hair! Wonderful post. Thanks for sharing.