New Face Stencils!!!!

So excited to announce my new line of stencils with StencilGirl. I have loved seeing the incredible creations that people have come up with using my last series of stencil designs, and I can't wait to see what you all come up with next! Most of these designs came right out of my sketchbook and are heavily influenced by my love of both faces and street art. Here's a quick overview of what they look like: These are the 7 new designs for 6X6 stencils...(click on any of the designs to be taken to the product page)

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....and one more 9"X12" design to add to the collection:

I'll start off by showing you a few examples of what I've done with these in my journals and my artwork and then link you to a tutorial I designed for these stencils as well as a few workshop links where you can find out ALL of my stencil secrets. 

Using Stencils to Create Fabulous Portraits - Tutorial

Place your stencil on your page, make sure you leave plenty of room around it to add more details later. (I am using the Mystique Stencil here).

Now grab your pencil and start filling in the stencil. As you can see in the photo I'm not being too fussy about it....you can take more time with this if you wish, but you really don't need to.

Now take your blending stump and start blending. This will smooth out the pencil marks quite quickly. 

Remove the stencil and this is more or less what you'll see on your page.

Now go back into your drawing with your pencil, you are going to fill in the missing bits of the gace. The line and shading breaks that you see in the lips and eyes....fill them in. This is an important step to transform the look of the work from an obvious stencil to more of an actual drawing. 

Once you are done filling in the line breaks it's time to add a little more emphasis. Here I have gone over the eye lid with my pencil to darken the line as well as add the pupil to the eye. 

Time to go back into the drawing with your blending stump. Soften the lines by blending into the lips, smoothing the eyelids and brow line and here's a BIG secret (so shhhhh, don't tell anyone)...by now your blending stump is covered in graphite dust...you can use it to add subtle shading wherever you want. Here I've gone in with just the blending stump to add more shadows around the nose and eye lid. 

Using your pencil go ahead and draw in the shape of the face, the hairline and neck. Draw lightly so that you can go back and easily erase and modify your lines until you are happy with what you've drawn. 

The finishing touches...here I've gone back and repeated all the techniques we've just covered but using my A Rose by any other name, A little Birdie told me and Free as a Bird stencils to add additional details into the headdress and portrait.  

Here's what the final portrait looks like.

In Your Face Workshops - Mixed Media Faces Using Stencils!

I've had so many requests from students asking how I get all of the effects that I do with my face stencils (available at StencilGirl and in the workshops) that I decided to create a one class to go through all of the various techniques. 

Here's where you find the "In Your Face" Workshops:

Random Arts - Saluda, NC - May 21st

 Art is You - Minneapolis, MN - Sep 17-20

Art is You - Stamford, CT - Oct 7-12

Workshop Description:

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not the sitter." ~Oscar Wilde

In this fast-paced class we are going to explore a variety of different techniques for creating unique and expressive portraits using stencils. Combining collage, paints, inks, oil pastels and markers you’ll learn all of the subtle tricks you need to create portraits that capture the essence of everything from pop art to dimensional artworks. Truly inspired by many of todays street artists we’ll be creating our engaging portraits through the use of multiple layers of materials as well as layered stencil effects. We’ll be using a pad of mixed media paper for all of our experiments, the best of which will be ready to frame and hang on your wall.