Class from CREATE NJ on Saturday, 7/12 Faces class

This is from my day 2, Saturday at CREATE NJ.  The class is Explore Faces class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  After seeing her in the Creative Jumpstart 2014 classes earlier in the year I checked out her web site and watched a bunch of her demos. I'm a big fan of her work.  

So many interesting concepts in her class.  I am so thrilled I took this class.  What I thought was interesting is that it takes very little accuracy in a drawing for people to recognize an image as a face.

The formula she provided is really helpful, and again, since we're not going for photo-realism here, it's very open and playful. This is so conducive to learning because you don't get hung up on anything, you can enjoy the learning process and get out of your own way.

Check out her blog:
Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's blog

This is one of the images from a magazine that I used:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We did quite a few exercises to break us out of the fear of faces.  I think it worked because I now have none.  One amazing part of the class is that even though constructing a face is a fairly simple formula, we came up with so many different faces.  

Also, the faces that we constructed using face "parts" from different ads (where the parts didn't "match") had more character, and were more interesting than the ones solely based on a the basic formula. This lesson is so liberating because it means you really can have fun and toss out the idea of perfect. It's not what we're going for, and that makes me happy. Just like any project where exact measurements are not involved, it takes the pressure off and allows you to have fun.

I'm so excited to get home, create and play in my new journal. To me, that's the mark of a good teacher!!  I got a picture with Julie:

Here's the picture Julie emailed me of our whole class! 

I'm overwhelmed with ideas, so the toughest part is getting down to work.  I first plan to paint and prep some journal pages and let them dry.  My pal Brenda was talking about looking at so many web sites and getting inspired, but then you just sit at your desk and don't know where to start.  So, what I plan to do is find a demo and use it as inspiration for a journal page.  You have to start somewhere and then after you've begun, it will doubtless make it easier.

Theme wise, I keep getting inspiration when I listen to my favorite songs.  Lyrics mesh with imagery.  So I want to create a journal based on my favorite songs.    

Well, hope to share more this week.