Revolution on Facebook

Y'all are used to my wonky portraits by now, courtesy of instruction by the fabulous Deb Weiers. But some artists on Facebook made a big jump this week, when Jenny Manno, who specializes in portraits of long-necked, dewy-eyed girls with rosebud mouths and elaborate hairstyles done in all kinds of super-cool media (of which she is a total master) decided to offer, as the weekly "prompt" on her page, one of her friend Deb's wonky people, challenging her followers to try out a new look. And a bunch of them stepped up and did an amazing job.

One of the elements was to put words on her nose, and many people did profound sayings or comments, or even resorted to poetry. I couldn't find anything to cut up for material except a Roaman's catalog that came in the mail, so mine is less, er, philosophical. The portrait also includes Deb's trademark big lush lips and dreadlocks. I am clarifying here that it's not the artist claiming she's the prettiest, it's the girlish Miss Thing herself who thinks so!

This was fun, and also challenging because I ran out of watercolor paper and had to do this on toned tan mixed media paper, so my color decisions were more difficult, and the ability to blend is a bit compromised by the extremely smooth surface where stuff tends to move around instead of staying where you put it. But I managed it in the end. It also pretty much derailed what I had planned as an industrious day, but hey, in the land of retirement (and Covid), there's always tomorrow to fill!

"Prettiest"—Uniball pen, Daler Rowney inks, watercolor, collage, Signo white gel pen, on Strathmore 184-lb. Toned Tan Mixed Media paper, 9x12 inches.