Sunday, August 3, 2008

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 .. ....

18 comments:

B.T.Bear (esq.) said...

WOW! Thank yu fer showin how yu do theez faces. They ar so life-like! I'll tell Mummy yu've dun this cos she waz ownly sayin the uther day how good yu ar at drorin faces...

nose hugs!

:@D

B.T.Bear (esq.) said...

Hey! Hav a look at this!

Mummy's going to have a go this week. I think you'd be brilliant at this!!!

http://inchybyinch.blogspot.com/

suze said...

I love this! Thanks for showing how. And thanks for your comment on my blog today.
I have been collecting bears for 51 years. Mostly Stieff and artist made.
suze:)

MightyMom said...

just lovely!! you're so talented,

your last post made me want to call my mom .....but I may wait as it's 1:40AM

Vee said...

That was fascinating! It was wonderful to watch the process and to see the end result.

Hope that those laundry room cabinets are all assembled and looking great.

Melanie Gray Augustin said...

Wow! That is amazing! Thanks for the great tutorial!

Linda Fleming said...

Vee, you create such gorgeous faces! Beautiful work.

Becky said...

Wow - you made that look so easy... And I tried it and it ISN'T!! LOL .. You are seriously talented :)

Susan said...

amazing Vee ! she's lovely and such great instructions with step by step photos. xo, S.

Carla said...

Very, very pretty! Nice tutorial.

BumbleVee said...

Tx for having a look everybody... glad you all enjoyed the "how to" ... I love doing faces...

Becky... you can do it... give a few more a try...and..I wanna see one! When I took my first online class to do a doll with a face... it took a few goes to get it right...

Carole Burant said...

Sigh...you make it look so easy but I know I'd make a mess of it! lol Such a beautiful face you created right in front of us...I'm always in awe of artistic people like you:-) xoxo

Fete et Fleur said...

She is truly beautiful!

Nancy

Mrs Mac said...

Thank you for your visit, your kindness, support and encouragement :^)

Your comment really helped. It sort of made things click.

Susan said...

hey Vee, It's been awful quiet over there. I'm figuring your either golfing, cookin' up a storm, gardening, working on another miniature masterpiece or holding up laundry room cabinet doors or some such other renovation assistant's appreciative duty. xo, from that other coast.
S, Winn & those darn cats.

BumbleVee said...

hahahha... all of the above Susan....and more.... summer is for being outside more than in for me. Even if it is watching grass grow... or mowing it....

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

WOW! She looks so real! Your watercoloring is perfect. A very nice project.

Thanks for the invitation to the use of your blog roll :-)

I'm still baffled why that woman was upset I was clicking through hers?

I'm going to check your other blog too! Thanks!

Susan said...

Oh my gosh! She's just beautiful. Thanks for the tutorial..now if only I could draw! I once made a cloth doll and I loved her body but she remains headless. She went from looking like a wood sprite to looking like the monster of the forest. Poor dear. :-(