Joan of Arc - The Maid of Orleans
"One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live with out belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying." - Joan of Arc
"Go forward bravely, fear nothing, trust in God, all will be well." - Joan of Arc
"Thank you to all the brave women who paved the way for us." - Donna Wilson Irwin
I really enjoyed making this painting. For a long time, I wanted to make hair out of the alcoholic inks. I also enjoy the fact that she isn't totally pretty, but strong. I love the vibrancy and strength of this piece....and what Joan of Arc stood for and her beliefs.....later, she was burned at the stake she was only 19 years old.
Joan of Arc – The Maid of Orleans
Supplies
Mixed Media Paper 11 by 14
the book Mixed Media Portraits with Pam Carriker - page 100
a variety of mixed media paper (i.e., dictionary paper, music paper, colored scrapbooking paper you like)
Mat Medium
Ceramcoat paint Santa's Flesh and white
Pam Carriker's sheer colors turquoise
Sharpie water-based paint pen white
Jane Davenport's ink pen
Quinacridone Magenta by Golden
Ranger Alcohol inks Citrus, Denim, Sunset Orange, Caramel, Watermelon (see Ranger/Tim Holtz demos on using Adirondack Alcohol Inks)
Col-erase black pencil
HB 6 soft pencil
Used Mixed Media paper as my base 11 by 14. Using Mat medium, I glued down an assortment of mixed media paper. Remember you are sketching over the paper and drawing a face - so I used old dictionary paper, music paper, scrapbooking paper of colors I liked. Let it dry. (I used Tim Holtz craft blower.)
I often use Jane Danvenport's books as resource to create faces, but I felt I wanted to try something different so I used Pam Carriker's book on making faces. I photocopied the one I liked and used that as a guide to sketch my face in. Page 100 - I liked this face because the shading was already there and I was looking for a strong image. Also, if you are not sure where to shade, it is right there for you to follow. Using this, I sketched out my face with a HB soft 6 pencil. Both Jane Davenport and Pam Carriker have great books on sketching faces.
Using ceramcoat paint called Santa's Flesh, I painted the face and neck. Once it dried, I used Pam Carriker's Sheer Colors Turquoise and shaded in areas already in the face from the image. Once that dried, I used white for the highlights.
For the lips and cheek, I used white mixed with the Quinacridone Magenta by Golden. It didn't matter to me what was around, but it was just close by so I used this. Feel free to use any color that appeals to you.
I also integrated some of this pink into the neck, and put dots in each corner of the eye. I used the white sharpie paint pen (water-based) to fill in the whites of the eye and put a dot of white on the iris.
You can add or build up the face with shade and highlights until you are happy with the face. I always add a bit of turquoise over the eye lid.
I went over the face using Jane's ink pen to bring back the outline of the face. I try not to go over the top of the lip with a strong line of black but use the Col-erase black pencil and use water.The center line can be a strong black for the mouth. The top lip is always darker than the bottom lip. Then, over that, I used Col-erase black pencil and went over the entire face. Next, I took a brush with water and went over it to make the lines react to the water and paper. I'm not looking for hard lines but soft lines.
Hair/top
Go to Ranger/Tim Holtz demos on how to use Adirondack Alcohol inks.
I chose Citrus, Denim, Sunset Orange, Caramel and Watermelon. I used a Tim Holtz applicator and put the ink into the applicator and colored several stripes of torn music. I glued it down onto the page for hair using matt medium.
