Carved Stamps Sept 6

Bobbi and I sat at the gallery this morning, and between swapping stories and chatting with other people passing through, I managed to carve this woman's head. The man's head I did late yesterday. I think I like carving heads because I find faces so difficult to draw to my satisfaction. The woman's head is based on Bruni's wife's portrait which he did back in the 1920's. I changed it to suit me, but at the same time it retains the charm of his work. The man is an unidentified man I traced from a book. You can almost see the resemblance. LOL It is very difficult for me to control expressions on my rubber stamps because you have to work so tight on small works. Between old eyes, and old hands ....... I like them anyway.

Collaborative pc returns

Punwit put the finishing touches on this pc. Click on it to get a larger view and see all the little details. I get to keep this one.

New carved stamps

This man's head is carved on two erasers. That's the only size surface I had handy to carve on, so decided to give it a try and see if I could line it up and get a decent image. I also played with the shading on the man's face and neck. I'm crazy about his nose. Best nose I've done so far.
The profile is based on a Charles Dana Gibson illustration. He's the one that did those beautiful Gibson Girl magazine illustrations. The original man depicted by Gibson is dashing and young. When I carved him - well he's aged a lot and looks like he's lived a lot more.

If you have time and like images of people, I recommend checking out a book of his work at the library. Or look online. The pen and ink faces are so interesting. Not only the key women in them, but all the supporting characters. I think he was brilliant.

The second one was done on a larger eraser, one from the Dollar Tree. It is much easier to carve on it, as there are no bubbles so the knife moves more smoothly. I didn't like her hair or face outline so I removed them and left only the features.

mail box - incoming

Here are two darling cards. One is a collaboration from Rosemary. The other side of it has ironed on very fine tulle. It doesn't pick up on scanner or photo, so you'll just have to imagine it. The other one is from Lisa - I sent her one to collaborate - but it got lost. So she started from scratch. Thanks gals. These made my mail day!

Collaborative post card

This card was started by Pat Henshaw, and is being routed to three other artists before it gets to it's final destination. Here it is before I send it on.

Incoming mail - oops

This card came in a week or two ago and got taken right away to show friends in person. I forgot to scan it and post it here. I love how Linda Giese from San Diego does her lettering on her cards. If you look back through my blog sometime looking at post cards, you will find more of her work. Here is the latest.

Happy mail day

Here are a couple new pcs that arrived in my mail box. The green eggs and ham was done by Sherry Feiger from Oregon. It was done in fabrics for the Doctor Seuss pc swap online with a group.

The balloon is from my friend Roberta, who has had a bad cold, and passed some time making pcs to send out. BTW she has a new piece shown in Somerset Studio's latest issue, Sept/Oct on page 95. She took part in Misty Mawn's online class which is featured in the article "Stretching Within" pages 92-99. You can see more of Roberta's work here.