Sunday in the Art Room

 Hi Everyone!

I am very pleased with all of the self portraits that were shown on FFO challenge. We will have to do this again.  I have received a ton of emails with a lot of remarks and questions. First I want to clear something up. Baili, commented on how good I look for 60. 

Uhhh that is my first S.P. 

The second one is of me now at 73. Eekkk.

Enough of that. 

Disclaimer..... I am in no way an expert on drawing portraits. However, if I have some knowledge to help others I always will. 

 

More than several people talked to me about proportions on drawing portraits. There are SOOOO many ways to accomplish this. My Nan taught me, when I was a kid, to draw an egg shape then from the top of the head to the hair line measure 1/3, measure features in thirds. Something like this. In addition she would say, "Draw what you see."

 

The space between the eyes, is one eye size.

the outer part of the nose should line up with the corner of the eyes. The ends of the lips should line up with the middle of the eyes. The cheek bones should line up with the outside of the eyes. Something like this.

You notice that this person measures by fourths until the bottom of the nose and chin. Like I said there are so many ways to draw proportions.

There is also the square up or grid method. This always kind of confused me, and I have heard this form other artist who are dyslexic. You draw what's in the squares.

 

I want to reiterate that tracing is a perfectly acceptable form of getting started. You can see my post on this here

If you look on google you will find a plethora of information on how to get started. You just have to use what works for you. 

The measurements are the same if you are drawing a side view, or tilted head view.

 

 

There is also the circle method. Draw a circle for the top of the head and then sketch in the jaw line.

It works for profile as well. I could never do this because my circles are never correct. LOL

  

Once you have found the starting point that works for you. I encourage you to look at the structure of faces. Check medical images, oh and don't forget skulls. LOL Both of these will help you lay out bone and muscle structure. It's not like a study unless your are going for hyper realism. But to get an idea of what a face is made of so you can add tension in the face you are drawing.

When I first started drawing faces, I tried to make everything even. If this eye was round the other one had to be exact. However, it's almost impossible to sustain this. So for years I look at peoples features. No one has a perfectly symmetrical face. Unless you have some deformity you want fixed, really who wants a face like that?

OK, so there are a lot of people who do. I guess that's why plastic surgery is multi billion dollar industry. LOL 

For art though, a little normal off balance makes a drawing more interesting. 

Like this. ha ha ha

One of my practice pieces with colored pencil. 

Back when I first started drawing faces, an art teacher friend of mine, told me to draw at least one face a day for 100 days. The improvement was amazing. 

What I'm saying is draw with joy, make it fun, laugh at yourself when you make a mistake or you will give up drawing. 

If you are that person who can just free  draw, do it! Find your style. What is so wonderful about any art is that we are all individual. If I put 5 people in a room to draw the same face I will have 5 different drawings of that same face. I think that is the beauty of art. No matter what level of artist we are, there is a gift we give ourselves in every stroke we make.

I hope this has helped in some way.

Nicole 

 

FFO Self Portrait 11/28/25

 Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, Photography, drawings, paintings. There just needs to be a face in your blog post.

 

This is it! FFO first Self Portrait Challenge. I will admit this was difficult for me. Mainly because I look in the mirror and wonder who this old lady is? 

The first S.P. is a drawing from this photo. I think I was in my early 60's here.  

 

I missed the mark on likeness but wanted to show this just to let you know that likeness may not be everything if you capture the life of the sitter, or photo.

This second one is from a selfie. I told you I do not like getting my photo taken. I am just not photogenic at all. If a good photo of me appears, it is strictly luck. In this photo you can see how bad my left eye is. A gift from lupus, called ptosis and my constantly red cheeks, also lupus.

 

It started like this.

Then this 

and finally. I should have made my hair darker. I do have very dark hair with one stripe of gray in the front, and that doesn't show much.  

 

I can't wait to see who joined in for the challenge and I hope you had fun with this. 

Now for a bit of AI from my NightCafe Gallery. I thought I would do pretties today and all faces.

It's time for some features.

Violetta. Go on wonderful trips and see fabulous outfits. 

Mia, has the most beautiful art and always has a challenge going on.

Arnoldo always creative and clever art.

 

It's the end of this post and time to show me your face art.

Nicole

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

 Hi Everyone!

I can't make it to everyone's blog today, so for those of you in the US a very happy Thanksgiving. 

 

For all of my non US readers, wishing you the best day ever. 

Nicole
 

Wednesday A Little of Everything

 Hi Everyone!

It's been a busy week, with everyday having to take care of some sort of business. I have the next 6 days free and then it begins again. 

Today another reminder that this Friday the 28th is FFO Self Portrait challenge. 

Ha ha this is not me, I'm certainly not this well preserved. 

However, the challenge is optional, you may still join in FFO with any type of face. I always look forward to seeing the diversity and wonderful art that all of you present.

One of the things Mr. M. and I had to do yesterday was change our insurance. We met with a very nice woman that got both Mr. M. and I the best policy ever. When I first spoke to her on the phone she informed me that insurance company's are no longer paying the agents and that it would be $25.00 each. However, after we speaking with her she informed us that "There is no charge. Insurance companies want people on an advantage plans and they will pay the agents for that." So, we didn't have to pay anything. 

We got home early and I decided that we should have our turkey dinner. Seriously, for us, what's the difference?  It's not like we have family to share it with. My kids are on the East cost, and my brothers are spread all over the country. I did forget to take a photo though. Here is one from google.

Haa haa haa no this is NOT my table. We had a very kidney friendly dinner with turkey breast, roasted sweet potatoes, fresh string beans, and my whole cranberries I canned last year. Now we get left over turkey sandwiches. YUM!

 

I guess that's it for now. Today I'm going to finish up a colored pencil, abstract face and just take it easy today.

What are  your plans?

Make them good what ever they are.

Nicole 
 

Monster Monday

  Today is Monster Monday. AI art that I have created using NightCafe It's fun, it's free and it allows some interesting creative time.

Before the monsters, just a reminder. 

FFO self portrait is this Friday. It is optional, I expect to see all my regulars. 😅

Now for some monsters.

 

Here are two that I got credit for in some challenges. 

 

Now for some pretties.

 

  

Hope you enjoyed Monster Monday and have a good week 

Nicole 

Sunday in the Art Room

 Hi Everyone!

Before I get to the art I wanted to show you a gift I received from Louise over at Standing into Danger After seeing one of her posts with Milkweed plants, I told her I have been trying to get plants or seeds with no luck. Well she went out and harvested seeds for me. This is the beautiful card she sent with it and I placed some of the seeds down on the card. Thank you Louise.

We will see how they grow next year.

Now for some art.

Below is taken from the Guardian. 

On my last FFO I mentioned that one of Frida Kahol's art pieces was being sold.

That it would break a record of not only female artists but Latina artists. Well, it did. The painting sold for $54.7 million. 

Kahlo vibrantly and unsparingly depicted herself and events from her life, which was upended by a bus accident at age 18. She  underwent a series of painful surgeries on her damaged spine and pelvis, 

and then wore casts until her 

 death in 1954 at age 47.

She started to paint while bedridden, 

During the years Kahlo was confined to her bed, she came to view it as a bridge between worlds as she explored her mortality.

The painting is the star of a sale of more than 100 surrealist works by artists including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning.

Kahlo resisted being labeled a surrealist, a style of art that’s dreamlike and centers on a fascination with the unconscious mind.

“I never painted dreams,” she once said. “I painted my own reality.”

In its catalog note, Sotheby’s said the painting “offers a spectral meditation on the porous boundary between sleep and death.”

“The suspended skeleton is often interpreted as a visualization of her anxiety about dying in her sleep, a fear all too plausible for an artist whose daily existence was shaped by chronic pain and past trauma,” the catalog notes.

I, like so many other artists have been connected to Frida in some strange way. My Nan and Mom introduced me to her art when I was young. You know her art feeds my inner weirdness. 

Some of my other favorites are, of course, 

 Dorothea Tanning, and Leonora Carrington 

Is there a "surrealist" artist that you like, that you connect with?

Let me know in the comments

 

Just a note, FFO self portrait is this Friday. It is NOT mandatory. Just a fun addition to FFO.

Have a great Sunday 

Nicole  

  

 

Friday Face OFF 11/21/2025

 Welcome To Friday Face OFF (FFO)

This is the place to show off your face art.

You know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, Photography, drawings, paintings. There just needs to be a face in your blog post.

I get news from 1440 and this is what I found this morning. Many of you have drawn or painted Frida's face and my dear friend Gene Black quilted her face.

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait could become the most expensive artwork by a female or Latin American artist at auction tonight in New York. Sotheby’s estimates “El sueño (La cama)” will fetch $40M to $60M, potentially surpassing the $44.4M woman's record set by a Georgia O’Keeffe painting and $34.9M Latin American record held by another Kahlo self-portrait.

“El sueño (La cama)” depicts Kahlo asleep beneath a skeleton wrapped in explosives, a nod to a Mexican Easter effigy. While most Kahlo pieces are in Mexico under a law barring their sale, this self-portrait is privately owned abroad. The piece appears in a surrealist-themed auction, although Kahlo rejected the surrealist label.

Now for my FFO piece.

I'm working on a colored pencil piece but it takes longer than graphite so here is a graphite face.

It starts like this. I used mainly graphite, tinted graphite, colored pencil and white gel pen.

 Then this 

Then this

Then this. I wish I would have left her hair like this.

Finally I have this. Her head is cut off the page and with the hair it makes her look strange. Anyway, that's what I think. Mr. M. says that won't matter once I frame her.

 

Time for some AI art that I create at NightCafe.

I went on a fairy kick.

 

And then I had to go dark with them.  LOL

 

Now it's time to see what other FFO artists have created.

I'm going to show and extra piece this week. From Gene Black. 

It just seems appropriate. If you don't know, Gene is an amazing quilter and he did Frida in fabric. 

Next is my friend Barbara. She actually was the brilliant artist who helped get FFO started and introduced me to Gene Black. The three of us would challenge each other every week with portraits. Soon other artists wanted to join in and that's how FFO got going. 

She has been gone a long time from the blogging world but is back! So be sure to visit and welcome her.  

Christine always surprises me with all the detail she gets with her miniatures.

The next artist is Louise. She is a gem. Always has the most interesting and fun posts. Here she shares prairie dogs. 

Before I go I want to remind all of you that next week on FFO all of us will be showing our self portraits. 

I ask that it is really you from any age. Please include the photo you worked from. If you are creating from life, like looking in a mirror, just show any photo of you now. 

Any medium can be used except a photograph. Ya know, you can't just put a photo of yourself. However, it can be realism, character, surreal, abstract as long as we can see you in the art. 

 Any kind of expression. Create you as you see yourself.  November 28, 2025 to show your face on FFO. That gives you 1 week to work on it. All Self Portraits will be featured the following week on FFO. I hope you join in.

Now it's time to show me face art.

Nicole