expressive mask mandala…

20170505-expressive-masks-mandala-resized — expressive mask mandala

Well, this has to be one of the stranger mandalas I have done so far! It started with an idea about six faces integrated and separated by the Celtic knots. The last thing to be added were the six small faces. I am not sure what they represent – one’s conscience? ancestors? descendants? imps? There may be no single meaning to the various faces and expressions so the viewer can overlay their own meaning.

Here’s Tom’s poetic take on it which took a darker, allegorical turn.

Subtleties of secular expression
each in opposition to the other
balancing the soul’s intense progression
’round the stations of my truest lover:
steady, saddened, joyous, shocked, concerned.
contemplative of her soul’s possession
of a body ruffed by wreathen ferns
wondering at time’s unchecked succession.
Anger fading to annoyance then
acceptance, understanding, contemplation,
wryly knowing all that one may ken
of the centre’s subtle conflagration.
The mystery of mysteries remains
Yet still we stand, defending life’s domain.

today’s doodle… uncertainty

20120830-doodle — not sure what the future will bring…

She does seem very worried about something. I actually started out wanting to do some kind of landscape but this is where the stylus led me! Well, I hope I have that out of my system!

UPDATE: This in from Tom in transit. Poetry from an airport!

Dark horizon
Flash of lightning
Storm abrewing?
Coming dawn?
Future boding
Well or failing
To live up
To promise gone?

image (cc) 2012 Hilary Farmer

after running through the woods…

20120318-Hope — Hope after an exhausting run through the woods

It is definitely time to have another (less sad) drawing than the last post. Hope you enjoy this one. I was happy with the expression and the general look of the image… coming soon on Songs of Albion.

Also – this month is the three year anniversary of Green Tea Doodles! Woohoo!! 😀

UPDATE: New poem from Tom for Hope! The transformation I tried to capture in an image, is here in poetry.

HOPE

What is this feeling running deeply
through my breathless frame
exhausted by my climbing steeply
running ’til I’m lame?

It feels so alien and weird
like something wild made tame
like a friend who once I feared
an innocent once blamed.

I think I know how it’s described
a spark in darkness, flame
that lights a future, death belied,
the image of my name!

image (cc) 2012 Hilary Farmer

sad face…

Practicing drawing various facial expressions seems to be paying off. I am quite pleased with how this drawing for Albion turned out. She does indeed look like she is distressed and crying – just what the scene in question calls for. Poor girl.

UPDATE: Poem from Tom in the comments capturing in words what I tried to show in my illustration…

fractured fragments of a life fall hard
cold rain upon a bitter stormy sea
pouring forth the pain of broken shards
splinters of a soul by death set free
melting childhood verities secure
questions never answered but by tears
desperate moments seeking to assure
sorrow overwhelming hollow fears
face distorted anguish speaks in sobs
the inarticulation of her loss
marches down her visage as it robs
reason cast aside in tempest tossed
incoherent sadness sweeps her past
though everything still matters nothing lasts

image (cc) 2012 Hilary Farmer

facial expressions…

Since I’ve been thinking more about the difficulty of creating expressive faces, I decided to try using a book which is designed to assist artists with this challenge. This book, called Facial Expressions by Mark Simon, is more or less a catalogue of a large range of different people with all kinds of expressions on their faces. The biggest help to me is that it shows the same person with a variety of… grimaces to grins and anything else you can think of. Here’s my first attempt. Feel free to suggest a caption for the picture! – the one above was inspired by Tom in the comments.

image (cc) 2009 Hilary Farmer