Join me each week for Friday Face OFF, Sunday in the Art Room and Monster Monday
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Welcome to
SITAR is about ANYTHING art. Your art, someone else's art, writing, photography,
the art of cooking, the art of sewing and textiles. Sharing historical
art, street art, a story about art. Do you have a question or need help
with art? Write a blog post and link it up here. We will all try to help
with it. My only rule is that if someone asks for critique it must be done with generosity and consideration.
This is a place of learning, encouragement and inspiration.
Lately, I feel like I'm having trouble drawing eyes. I will sketch a face in and realize the eyes are way off on the side of the head. Here is an example. I got so frustrated with this that I just crumpled it up and threw it away. I retrieved it from the garbage. That's why it's all wrinkled.
I had erased the one eye so many times that the paper was shredding. You can see how far apart the eyes are.
It was the same with this piece. That I salvaged it by adding an eye patch.
Most of the time when I sketch out a face, I just do it. I rarely put in guide lines.
However, my Nan told me to do the 1/3 method. That the outside of the nose should line up with the tear ducts of the eyes, and ends of the mouth should line up with the middle of the eyes. Easy right?
In fact I don't even think about it I just eyeball it and put in the features.
However, for some reason I see the eyes too far apart. I have had to start measuring eye placement.
Not of the whole face just the eyes. There should be one eye length between the eyes. I'm not putting in all of these line to draw a face. My dyslexia would go nuts.
I think I have shared guidelines for a face in an older post, but it doesn't hurt to review the lesson again. Maybe this will help some one with portraits.
There are so many ways to measure features and some of them are pretty extensive. I'm just not into that. I need and want easy.
Lately, I get everything sketched in then I actually take a ruler and put light marks on where the eyes go.
Here are more examples of proportions of the face. This one just doesn't make sense to me but it may to someone else.
Also, I'm not putting in numbers either.
Drawing for me has to be fun and instinctual. I don't want to follow some mathematical equation to draw a face.
Give me the general measurements and let me go for it.
My question to all of you is, how do you start your portraits?
A reminder, FFO Portrait challenge is
April 24th. There is still plenty of time to create one, two or all of these expressions.
Happy, Sad, Tired, Surprised, Anger.
That's it for now. I look forward to seeing you in Sunday in the Art Room.
You
know, ANY type of face, nature, the face of a flower, photography,
drawings, paintings, AI. There just needs to be a face in your blog post, a
link back to my blog and please use the image below.
Thank you.
This last month has been hell with lupus and especially the last 2 weeks.
I'm much better now.
So I really haven't been able to draw.
I've had a few people comment and email me asking about what is lupus. Most of you know that May is lupus awareness month and I will be posting most days for that. For now, Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease where antibodies attack healthy tissues and organs causing widespread inflammation and damage to the body. lupus can attack anything and everything from skin, joints, muscles, kidneys, heart, lungs, brain, thyroid, digestive system, eyes, and other organs.
This last few weeks lupus decided that it would attack my large intestines with OMG pain that moved into my kidney.
As I wrote, I'm much better.
I did sit down today and got this created.
This is the first photo taken
I do draw other things besides faces. 😁
Here is the finished piece.
My niece got married last week and her new husband took her to Italy for their honeymoon. I only have 2 photos so far. They are going to, something like, 10 cities.
This first place is their room. Can't remember where it is, but this is a palace that was turned into a B&B.
She looks very tired here. Jet lag.
Here they are in Florence.
They will be visiting Naples where our family is from and visiting Punta Campanella. Obviously our last name.
It's a marine protected area. I know they will have so much fun there.
Now it's time for some AI.
These look pretty good. I might attempt to draw one or two of these.
It's feature time. I have to say, that I am very impressed with all of the artists who join in. Thank you.
Before anyone throws the 1st amendment at me. I know exactly what it says. What the amendment is for. However, today footage of protesters in Philadelphia are cheering the deaths of US service members coming home from Iran. I would like 5 minutes alone with this MF.
In the video, a masked speaker says, "For every US soldier who comes back in a casket, we cheer" Also, death to America. He continued with,
“Until we have done everything in our power to bring the United States
to its knees, let us not lose sight of the enemy,” the man yelled, with
the crowd cheering loudly at each hateful invocation.
The masked, hooded ringleader called on Hamas and Hezbollah “resistance
forces” and “popular forces” — then called for the Iranian regime to
remain in power so it could continue supporting the terror groups.When Frankie Scales, a conservative activist, confronted the hate-monger, he responded, “May a Hamas rocket blow up your family’s home.”
As most of you know my granddaughter and both grandson's are active military. My SIL retired 25 years in the Marines, he was deployed to war 11 times, and my Son served in the Army. I know many of you had and have family members in the military. They all fought and still fight for all of us.
I believe in the freedom of speech, but this is treason. This asshole and his followers, who hate America so much, need to be deported to Iran. Then he will be crying to come back. He is a coward that won't even show his face.
Nicole
This is how I feel, you won't change my mind and I really don't want to hear that these are just words.
Here is another woman who deserves to be known. This post is a bit long but the information vital.
Helen Rodriguez Trias
July 7, 1929 – December 27, 2001) was an American pediatrician, educator and women's rights activist. She was the first Latina president of the American Public Health Association (APHA), a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the APHA, and a recipient of the Presidential Citizens Medal.
She is credited with helping to expand the range of public health
services for women and children in minority and low-income populations
around the world.
This is a very short video and ends abruptly but some excellent information of what Helen accomplished.
Rodríguez Trías's parents had been living in New York during the early
20th century. After Rodríguez Trías's birth in 1929 on July 9th, her
family moved back to Puerto Rico. Her family returned to New York once
again when she was ten years old, where she experienced racism and discrimination.
Even though she showed great academic abilities, having good grades and
being bi-lingual, she was placed in a class for children with learning
disabilities. The NYC public school system in the 1930s has many stories
of open and systemic racism. It wasn't until she participated in a poem recital, her
teacher realized how intellectually gifted she was, and sent her to a class for gifted
children. She later choose the medical career path because it "combined the things I loved the most, science and people."
In 1948, she began her academic education at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan where she earned her BA degree. In 1957 she entered the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. She earned her medical degree in 1960, at the age of 31. While at University she joined the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party
Her family didn't approve of her activism.
She returned to New York after her brother threatened to cut
off her college expenses.
In 1949, returning to the University of Puerto Rico, she reinserted herself as a
student activist on issues such as freedom of speech and Puerto Rican independence.
She fought for women's rights.
From 1937 to 1960, one third of the population of mothers on the island of Puerto Rico were sterilized through manipulation and
misinformation, while others became part of the first clinical trials
for the first birth control pill after being misled to believe that the
drug was already proven safe. The doctor who helped bring an end to
these abuses, Dr. Helen Rodriguez-Trias. She was a pioneer for
reproductive rights, and her work changed medical ethics across the
globe.
After attending the conference, during her years in Puerto Rico,
Rodríguez Trías became aware of U.S. sterilization campaigns located
there. During the 1960s and 1970s, many programs popped up around the United
States, specifically targeting women of color (African
Americans/Latinas) to perform non-consented sterilizations. This could
happen as doctors would tie women's fallopian tubes postpartumwithout
telling the patients what they had been doing. The United States was also using Puerto Rico as a laboratory for the development of birth control technology. In 1970, she was a founding member of Committee to end Sterilization
Abuse and in 1971 a founding member of the Women's Caucus of the
American Public Health Association.
She supported abortion rights,
fought for the abolishment of enforced sterilization, and sought
neonatal care for under-served people. In 1979, she became a founding
member of the Committee for Abortion Rights and against Sterilization
Abuse and testified before the Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare for passage of federal sterilization guidelines. She describes events at a 1974 Boston conference:
"We had a panel on sterilization abuse, which had to do with disrespect
for women's needs, wishes, and hopes. We brought up the Relf suit,
brought on behalf of 2 Black, allegedly retarded girls, Minnie Lee Relf,
age 12, and Mary Alice Relf, age 14, who had been sterilized without
their knowledge or consent in a federally funded program in Montgomery,
Alabama."
Please watch this it's only 2 minutes
The guidelines, which she drafted, required a woman's written consent to
sterilization in a language they could understand and set a waiting
period between the consent and the sterilization procedure. She is
credited with helping to expand the range of public health services for
women and children in minority and low-income populations in the United
States, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
In the 1980s, Rodríguez Trías served as medical director of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute. She worked on behalf of women from minority groups who were infected with HIV.
In the 1990s, she served as health co-director of the Pacific Institute
for Women's Health, a nonprofit research and advocacy group dedicated
to improving women's well-being worldwide and focused on reproduction.
She was a founding member of both the Women's Caucus and the Hispanic
Caucus of the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the first Latina to serve as the president of the APHA
On January 8, 2001, President Bill Clinton awarded Rodríguez Trías with the Presidential Citizen's Medal,
the second-highest civilian award in the United States, for her work on
behalf of women, children, people with HIV and AIDS, and poor people.
Rodriguez Trias died later that year, on December 27 due to lung cancer.
According to AMA Education hub
Reports, research, and legal analyses indicate that involuntary or
coerced sterilization still occurs in the United States, with evidence
appearing into 2025 and 2026. While the mass eugenics programs of the
early 20th century have ended, forced sterilization today persists
primarily through legal loopholes, guardianship laws, and coercive
practices targeting disabled individuals, people of color, and those in
immigration detention or prisons
.
Legal Standing. According to research from the National Women's Law Center,
31 states and Washington, D.C., have laws that allow for the
sterilization of people with disabilities against their will, often when
they are under guardianship.
Disabled Individuals and Minors:
Courts can and do grant petitions from guardians to sterilize people
with disabilities, including children, on the grounds that it is for
their own benefit.
Detention and Prison Settings:
Reports continue to surface regarding pressure on incarcerated women to
undergo sterilization. A notable case in 2020 involved allegations of
coerced hysterectomies on immigrant women at a Georgia ICE detention
center. While a June 2024 court ruling found there were no "mass
hysterectomies" at that specific facility, concerns regarding coercion
persist.
Investigation in New Mexico (2026):
In February 2026, New Mexico lawmakers approved measures to investigate
the history and ongoing impact of forced sterilization of Indigenous
women and women of color by the Indian Health Service and other
providers, acknowledging that these practices have left a lasting impact
on reproductive health choices.
Coercion in Medical Settings:
Studies have shown that people with chronic conditions, such as sickle
cell disease, have reported feeling pushed toward sterilization by
doctors without being provided with full information, a pattern
affecting women of color in particular.
There is no federal law banning forced sterilization, leaving regulation
to the states and creating legal gray areas in many jurisdictions.
The fight for women's rights is never ending. Now, with the "thing" and his SCOTUS the fight is even more imperative.
Just a few short years ago I was able to deep clean my entire house in 2 days. The downstairs one day the upstairs the next. OMG! I hate being old. I now have to do one room a day. I started with the bathroom then today got most of the kitchen done. I just need to do a bit of painting. We will see how I feel tomorrow,
if I can do another room or not.
She looks a bit manic.
Mr M. tells me, quite often, I can't hear. I always have to have him turn up the TV and he does repeat himself to me. So, I have a hearing test in April. Ohhh, can't wait. The last time I had a hearing test was in 2012 and I was told I had the hearing of a youngster. Another thing about getting old.
So, do I really want to see this guy with two arms and hands on the same side???? EEEKKKK.
Well that's enough of my bitching about being old.
The nice things about being old........ Well when I think of something I will let you know. 😁
Most of the time when I sketch out a face, I just do it. I rarely put in guide lines.
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