Gina Lento: Fine Art and Illustration

Friendly Faces Day 29

Today’s prompt is “tall” so it seemed appropriate to use the giraffe reference photos that I took last week at the Brevard Zoo.

The cool thing about this Zoo is that you can feed the giraffes.

Today’s prompt is “culture different from my own” and another artist on Sktchy, Naomi Draw, posted a photo of herself when she was younger, in traditional costume. I chose her photo as a reference but took a little artistic license with the features.

Friendly Faces Day 27

Today’s prompt is “bashful” and I thought Chloe needed a turn since Mack’s portrait was done last week.

Chloe doesn’t like to be photographed. As soon as she sees a cell phone she closes her eyes or looks away, lol.

Friendly Faces Day 26

Rick N is a bearded fellow and is the perfect model for today’s prompt, “beard.” Rick has been on Sktchy for many years and has been an amazing resource for when I need to see how to draw an emotion or a pose. His comments are always positive and upbeat and he is a valuable part of the Sktchy community. Rick has posted almost 3000 reference photos for artists to use for inspiration. Amazingly, he is extremely versatile, with a whole treasure trove of poses, costumes and expressions.

This is a classic Rick face, sketched with gouache.

Friendly Faces Day 25

I like that this daily challenge is forcing me to find shortcuts and it’s fun for me to play with the prompts to stretch or exaggerate a feature. Or to head in a completely different direction like using a plant for heart.

Today’s prompt is “rock star.“ This sketch, painted with gouache, has not been digitally touched up.

Day off from Friendly Faces

There is no Friendly Faces prompt for Sundays but I have been working on a side project in between everything else.

I made this sketchbook from felt and I stitched it together yesterday. I have been learning some new and really cool bookbinding techniques and I love this stitch much better than the long stitch.

Friendly Faces Day 24

I am starting to go more stylized and less “realistic portrait” with these to speed this challenge up for me…

Today’s prompt is pointy chin

Friendly Faces Day 23

Today’s prompt is “heart.” I have this plant on my table that has heart shaped leaves and flowers so I did the plant today for a change of pace. This is technically “plein air” since I did it from life while sitting outdoors.

Friendly Faces Day 22

Today’s prompt is “culture different from your own.”

Friendly Faces Day 21

Today’s prompt is “curious” and we all know why cats have 9 lives….