Leanne Shawler, Artist

I don't remember how I stumbled across her, perhaps through Pinterest or something, but it was the story of Jaguarina, the nineteenth century swordswoman, who attracted me as a potential portrait. (Which shouldn't surprise anyone who knows me.) She went practically undefeated. This link recounts one of her duels. There are pictures of her in her late nineteenth century garb, and this one, in plate armor with her hair looking cropped (but surely pulled back into a tight bun). And so, using the palette left over from last week, I got started. It starts with some leftover paint from a couple of portraits ago, which got a bit tricky as I went over the darker values, and I had to switch to a cream Posca paint pen to see the lines. I should have done so with the chin also, because then I would have realized that her face was too long, but oh well... I rather like the innocent look of this sketch, it echoes her rather plaintive expression in the original, but then I went an...

This is another of the Weekend Challenges . As usual, I went my own way. Using the reference photo they gave, I started with a loose drawing with Lyra pencil using my left, non-dominant, hand (thanks to Ivy Newport for that tip), and then switched to my right hand to rein in some of the crazy lines and add shading. Oh, and yes, there is leftover paint on this page. It's starting to become a trend. The dark shadows on the right hand side are binder clips to hold the page flat. I craved lime green and orange, probably because I needed to brighten up my palette and my week. I used Naphthol Red Light, Cadmium Yellow Medium, Green Gold and Titanium White. Because the colors are all somewhat transparent, even in heavy body paint, the lines from the Lyra pencil (which is water soluable) showed through. It got to a point on the weekend where it just looked awful, like, unredeemably awful, not simply the ugly middle stages. Sunday was super busy, so I couldn't get back t...

I was asked recently on the 52 Portraits in 52 Weeks Facebook group by a new member as to how I am keeping track of my progress. Aside from posting to an album in the group where at least the number is close, I use a planner. The number in the album is close only because I posted on picture to show my starting point before I started on this project. I needed to keep myself on track (or at least know how far ahead I am). I bought one of Jane Davenport's planners, the Learning to Fly one, and in the month section I wrote in each week the number of portraits I should be at. Bonus: I get to be a bit of a planner girl and put in stickers and decorate with washi tape. One of the reasons I have taken on this year-long project is to do a little bit of art every day. And so I'm journaling briefly as a last act before turning out the light and going to sleep. And every now and then I will have enough of the portraits resized about 1.5" wide to print out onto a photo, cup u...

Last weekend, I finished up a LifeBook lesson (as taught by Tamara Laporte) and really enjoyed it. The bright colors, the mixes, and so on, and then when it was done, not only had I painted an amazing hand and an okay self-portrait, it was entirely dominated by Tam's style. I enjoyed it so much had forgotten to forge my own path, which is what this portraits practice is about. So after I processed the guilt (it's in my portraits journal! but it's a portrait!) I set it aside, and went on to do the second Weekend Challenge  as my twentieth portrait. We all use the same reference photo. The demonstration piece used Payne's Grey and white, but I wasn't feeling it so went for Cobalt Violet (and white), and then I just had to use the muted rose acrylic ink from Liquitex. Totally forgot to do process photos. Sorry. What I will do is take what I loved about doing Tam's LifeBook lesson and see if I can create a fresh portrait out of it. I don't k...

I have been a subscriber to the Art Snacks box since April 2017. So when I heard they were coming to Los Angeles and having a meet and greet and do art party at an art supplies store, hopping on the train seemed like a no brainer. And it kind of was. Until the March for Our Lives got scheduled for the same day (March 24) and I found myself having to choose between a cause I am passionate about (I mean, isn't sensible gun control a no-brainer?) and something else I am passionate about. I'd already got the train tickets (on points), so to Los Angeles I went, feeling guilty along the way. I had a great time. I made art for, like, two hours, ate yummy tacos, and I said hello to Roxanne and James of the Pug Party Podcast . Roxanne is an amazing artist, and I'd done one of her online classes , and she records ArtSnacks box breakdowns once a month. James is a writer and as I have been a published writer and now painting is my preferred creative medium, listening to the t...

Recently, I was invited to a weekend challenge. It's a newsletter you have to subscribe to at Olga Furman Art. We were all given the same reference photo and a time limit of an hour. I am telling you now that I blew through that. Because I spent a little time on Friday to sketch a simple outline. Which I did on a page that I painted leftover paint from the last portrait I did. And I forgot to take a photo. Oops. It was a busy weekend. I didn't get a chance to sit down and work on it until Monday night. I used black acrylic ink, muted rose Liquitex ink over the background and Dr. Ph Martin's bleed proof white ink. This part took about an hour, until the timer ran out, anyway, and I was in the middle of trying to fix an overworked chest area. (Ahem.) Here she is before a little more tweaking (and the ink still drying) And here is the scan after tweaking and everything has dried. I have figured out to use PhotoShop Elements' adjustment layers to work on the v...