In the style of Suzi Blu

My Suzi Blu girl.  Not quite as grungy as Suzi does them...and, I doubt I would ever manage to do a grungy one anyway....     but, I love her!

See the little area with pink roses and stems?  That is some pretty tissue paper I happened to have hanging around ....so I glued down two pieces ...  ... one other is up on the left corner ... I just couldn't believe how perfectly it fit with my colours...

Here it is .... near some of my own chosen pinks and greens ..

A few of my means of getting some texture and odd areas of interest.  I found a bit of scratty, sort of open weave straw ribbon or whatever it is .. no clue why I had it in my box of assorted oddities.  A piece of golden open weave ribbon.. and I punched out my own version of sequin waste to put paint onto in a few areas.  Worked just like the waste does.

Almost reminds you of stars in her hair and on her dress....

Still have't found any beeswax to smooth onto the whole canvas..but, maybe I won't bother anyway.... my big fear at this point.... what if I ruin her?  Yes, I know our first attempts are supposed to be experimental anyway ... but, I do like my result ...and ... well...    ..

Today, it's Effie Trinket...

Have you seen Hunger Games movies?  This is a character from those.  I found lots of pictures of her on the net... not too many that are straight on to her face...but, decided to give this one a try...

She usually has even more outlandish lashes than these .... but, here is the original..

... and.....here is my rendition...

I didn't get her eyes round enough, but, I quite like her ...

Hi, it's me....

Quite literally.... this is me.  Well, yes, of course....I've taken total artistic licence ....and liberties.... but, basically, I drew it from a photo of me taken about 8 or more years ago....

I definitely left out the wrinkles.... plenty of 'em.... because, when I think of me I still visualize me just like this...  well, maybe I was never this wrinkle-free ..hahahhah... but, you know what I mean.... and, maybe I got the neck a tad longer and slimmer...and....oh, boy....

Go on.....have a good laugh yourselves..... I'm here for entertainment purposes only.  Actully, that's why my sweetie, Mr. BV,  says he keeps me around.... comic relief.... that, and the muffins, biscotti and other goodies .... the cheek!
   

........................still snowing................

...................so ....................I'm still playing.....

Made this face shorter and rounder and placed the nose, lips, and eyes closer to the centre of the face to have her appear younger .....

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also had a play in the kitchen...with some leftover strawberries from the last batch of Mr. BV's lunch muffins I made.  Last time I was at Safeway, I saw strawberry/white chocolate scones and now...I wanted to try them.  But, the tv was on blaring away the news... all bad...and I wasn't concentrating I guess (on scones that is...) .... so, all of a sudden I realized I hadn't added the sugar to the flour.... rectified it....but, then...just as I popped them in the oven... saw the egg still sitting on the counter... dammit..... and further insult... what the? ...there sat the white chocolate square as well... still wrapped.  Sheeeesh!!!

And, then... even worse, for me ... (not for Mr. BV ) ..he loves overcooked baking.... I turned off the oven while I stirred some soup and began toasting big slabs of home made bread to eat with it...I forgot the scones!   After all that...I can't believe they were even edible...but, they are ...and very tasty too, I might add... even without an egg... how is it possible?  Guess I can bake them that way if I want next time I'm out of eggs....hahahahhaha....less cholesterol!  Bonus.

Look at this crumb... still great...

I prefer them a bit lighter than this ..

'specially on the bottom.... but, ehh..... they're okay....

And, I bet some of you noticed.... white chocolate drizzled on top... I was not going to do without that after I wanted it inside them in the first place.... so, I popped the square in a baggy..... put it in a bowl and poured boiling water on top of it... melted the white square and snipped off a corner of the baggy...and drizzled it on instead.  Lovely....

..... plus... had some ginger/apricot biscotti that I just baked the other day and thought I'd give the last bit a try on a few of those as well... haven't had one dipped in my tea yet....just off to do that now...
wanna join me? ... ....

... and, then?? ...I better do about 40 minutes on the treadmill !!!!

The "How to" of a Button Babe...

Cabinets for the laundry room are being constructed today... but my hands are not needed for each and every step.. so, while I wait for the "okay... I need you now" call.... I usually do some cleaning, baking or playing.. today I chose play.

Thought I would make another Button Babe ... and I do use buttons for the heads.

This is smaller than the last one I drew and picci'd which was a huge button at 2.5 inches. I prefer the larger ones because there is so much more "eye" to play with on the larger faces. I love playing with a lot of colours to get a pretty eye.










1.5 inch self cover button. Pale shell pink polyster fabric that is satiny on one side and crepe on the other... I'm using the crepe side.










Cut a circle of pretty much any fabric you like for a face colour. However, check with some light strokes of your pigma pen to see if the fabric lets the ink bleed too easily... slightly is not a big problem..you just have to do lighter strokes and wait for it to dry before moving on.










You can use either pencil or some type of disappearing pen to draw the main lines of your face. I prefer pencil... probably because that's what I used to make my first one. Creature of habit, me. Then... when you are happy with the look of the face, go over the pencil lines with a very light stroke, using .005 brown Pigma pen. When it is dry... I use a soft white eraser to remove the pencil. You can even use slightly less detail than I have here...it does make it a bit easier to cover some errors or to help to resize eyes ..things like that. Invariably I get one eye larger than the other...and quite honestly, sometimes my own eye doesn't really pick up on it til I take a pic and look at it on here. It is glaring in a photo where as we don't always notice some of the tiny differences with our own eye . I may go over some of the brown pen strokes, but will wait til later in the colouring to do it... you can do it whenever you like or not bother.










For the colour I'm using Derwent water colour pencils. There are several different brand names available. I colour in the complete iris with my lightest shade of whatever colour I choose... in this case Water Green. I always have to put some lipstick on right away... a girl can't be seen in public without it right? ..but that is just me..you can do it whenever you like. ... Rose Madder Lake, to which I will add some Crimson Lake later in the process.










Another thing I find strange is that in a photo I can clearly see the grain of the fabric... in real life... hardly noticeable at all.










Now I add some Emerald Green to the side of the eye that I am going to pretend is the furthest away from my light source. If the sun or a light were shining on her right side, the left would appear to be a bit more shadowy... or slightly darker. Put the darker colour on the top portion of the iris and down to where the pupil will be... and along the left edge of the iris ... I almost cover the left half of my iris.










I add a bit of the darker green colour or one a shade darker yet...Mineral Green to the outline of my iris... covering or using the brown pigma lines...sometimes they even smudge a bit as I draw over them, which I think looks fine.. I don't mind if the line is not hard and delineated. It is a bit difficult to tell...but I also add a bit of the mid green colour just beneath the pigma line of the upper eyelid where it meets the white portion of the eye. It is like making a slight shadow beneath the lid...it adds a bit and continues with the colour you have chosen. You can see I have also been playing with my white pencil in some areas of my iris. If I decide I want it lighter in some areas..I like to use my white to lighten.. I also now use the white pencil on the whites of the eyes ... this can even help to enlarge some small area ... or make smaller other areas where I may have over coloured or made a bit of a mess. My white hardly shows up when shading... so I end up licking it a bit sometimes when I want something really white.










Use a very sharp Burnt Umber ('specially on tiny eyes) or even a light line with black pigma pen .005 to darken the upper eyelid line. I like to draw in my pupil at this point using a black pigma pen......but most people leave it til much later. I like to work with it there... to play around it with my colours.... but it probably is easier to leave it til the end. I find I can even draw out some very fine lines (with my very sharp coloured pencils ) from the black pigma pen used for the pupils...instead of having to draw them in later.










Outline the lower lid with brown pigma pen .005 , beginning slightly away from the actual corner of the eye. Close to where the iris begins...










Shade down the sides of the nose with a colour that blends nicely with the colour of fabric you have chosen. I began with a colour slightly darker than shell pink... Pink Madder Lake, then reinforced it by going to a darker shade... a light reddish brown called Venetian Red... I also begin to add some shading around the eyes and darken the nostrils with brown pigma pen.










Darken the pupil... add eyelashes (for a light face and lighter eyes I usually use a brown pigma pen...for darker skin and eyes...black eyelashes... and now is when I might put in some fine lines radiating out from the pupil like the spokes of a wheel... again...brown pigma pen for lighter eyes or even darkest iris colour using a very sharp pencil... black pigma pen for darker eyes.

Continue refining and adding a bit more shading ...I like to use pictures of catalogue models to help with the shadows.










.... am still playing with a bit darker green, Mineral Green and a greenish blue called Jade Green as well as some Blue Gray at the tops of the iris...and following the line of the upper eyelid when it meets the whites. This is an opportunity to continue with recontouring to make sure the eyes are the same size.




















Some more shading with pinks and reds for cheeks... add white highlights to the pupils... even a bit more in an area where you may see a bit of shine from a light.... how about an area on the bottom lip to make it look like it glistens....










.... and....here she is! after a bit more playing .... smoothed, made up and ready to go....

I want to give her something pale and pretty for hair or a hat ... similar to this soft gold yarn... or perhaps with some greens and pinks .... hmmmm ... time to pull out some stash containers and have a look what I might have that I've totally forgotten about .. ....

making faces....

Delta took a beating and got a bit muddy... but survived the rain and hail.... still looking beautiful ... looks like a sun bonnet dropping over a little face.










How can delicate flax look so perfect after a blustery day?

Today we golfed (my old guys and me) ... we had a small opening in the weather ..not perfect but at least we didn't have to wear earmuffs. I even took my coat off on the third hole. The wind picked up on the 9th...but by then...we were done. Only a small 9 hole course for us on Wednesday. It's plenty. Can't afford a 5 hour day right now.... had to come home to play gopher for the carpenter. You know... get me the stubby in my toolbox? ... oh, I need the vice grips... where's my Phillips?... can you see the hammer? .... I need the plumb bob...
Only today he was dismantling even more, so I was a burro part of the time and then the gopher. It does save him a lot of slogging up and down steps and I get some exercise. Not enough..but some. Then, I made the mistake of saying about choosing a piece of nice coloured arborite to match the green paint... and there was still a piece of soft blue gray mottled arborite on the sink side... .... I say was because it is now in the garbage pile. If I am having green on one side... no use having blue on the other.. but..to get it out...the sink had to come out...then...the toilet almost came out... (my laundry room is also a bathroom) .... for now the toilet is the only thing he hasn't taken out. And..if it is too much trouble to paint around it... well, it too will become history. sigh.... he is all excited and said..you are getting a new sink! I was happy with my old sink. I was happy having a fairly nice working laundry room. When will I be able to wash clothes?
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Okay...I'll play dolls instead.










I managed to find an occasional half hour and did finish a Button Babe. I forgot to take one before I got this far... next time. These pics have been posted before.....but just to show the progression...here they are once more ...










A self covered button. Any fabric that is a nice flesh colour... and one on which the Pigma pen doesn't run or isn't too deeply ribbed to wreck a very delicate nib. Then, I lightly pencil in features and use watercolour pencils. Some outlining around eyes, lips and nose with .005 Pigma pen..some brown..some black. A spray of Krylon fixative to protect and hold the colours.













Then, I play with different fabrics for hats...or decide on yarns, fur or wool for hair.... it's lot of fun.













The rhinestone "jewel" on her black velvet hat is a vintage earring found in Mom's jewelery box... I bet she would giggle to see it used for this. I imagine she wore this pair a few times... "bling"! It needs daylight ..or perhaps candlelight to see the true sparkle.
Katerina may eventually have some ribbon or a small ruffle at her throat. Still might just need that little bit extra.... we call it OTT (over the top)... and it is almost a must for our dollies...