I'm sitting here at my desk sipping a well earned Corona after spending the day at my local IKEA with 2/3 of my crew. Did I mention that my local IKEA is 2.5 hours away? I'm a glutton for punishment, I KNOW! But if you're an IKEA lover like I am, you'd probably drive 6 hours one way if that's what it took to get your paws on all that wonderfully designed Scandinavian magical plastic. I LOVE IKEA! Just sayin. I was so proud of myself for even having room left in my car after leaving! 

My 3 boys are on break for 3 weeks so I'm not working as vigorously as I normally would but that being said I have a huge surprise for my Fun Fab Drawing Club Members. In addition to the new Fashion Fairy Project this month, I also added a full length tutorial on how to make this adorable Granny Fairy! Wrinkles and All!
Are you thinking...what the HECK is that?!

Well, believe it or not, she came about after I polled my people in my wonderful Patreon Community and on Facebook and asked them directly what they wanted me to teach next and overwhelmingly I was told: OLD LADIES WITH WRINKLES!
And I thought, "What? WHY?!"
But like a good girl I do as I'm asked and the strangest thing happened while drawing this sweet beautiful lady. I LOOOOOOOOVED her!! I loved drawing all those lines! They were telling the story of her life and it was remarkable all those lines! Some were in the same direction as her eyelashes, some echoed her laugh, I loved drawing them all and I'm so tickled at the end result!
This creature thingy is actually a compilation of 2 separate references, one of a Picsee, and one of an ADORABLE older lady! Want to see how they came together to form this funny creature?  You can watch the making of her for yourself in the short video below!

​WRINKLES ROCK indeed!!! Who knew? Clearly a lot of people! lol! And now I do too 😘

​To get the long version of this project, complete with PDFs of the references and 18 minute commentary and instruction, you can simply click here to enroll into the Fun Fab Drawing Club and dive right on in.
You'll get this lesson, the previous original Fashion Fairy Project (pictured below), along with a 7 other complete face and figure drawing courses pre-packaged and ready to make YOU and awesome artist starting TODAY.

​So what are you waiting for?

Had a CRAZY week last week!!!!
Lots and lots of bad stupid stuff (broken everything: computer, shower, dryer) came crashing together with some amazing stuff as well (we got a new kitty!!!!!!!)
​Meet TILLIE!!!! 🐱So now Rosie and Zoe have a new sister!

and I published not one tutorial (as usual), not 2, but THREE!
My apologies for sending out 2 emails in one week, I try really hard not to over-email anyone but I thought, I really do need to let you know or how else are you going to, well, know?!
So here's the skinny and in case you missed it:
Last Thursday I published a really free, fast and fun tutorial on how to draw a shade a fun, fab, face in 5 minutes!

Then on Friday I sent out this funny how-to video for those wanting to work on their faces with LOTS of expression!!! ​

That's plenty for one week, don't you think?!
Have a WONDERFUL WEEKEND!!!

​Three jumbo pieces of news to share with you today, ALL OF WHICH involve making YOU a better artist. So let's get right down to it.
​
1. Have a super fun drawing video for you today (cuz after all, every Friday I do!). In my constant effort to get us all away from the dreaded boring dead-eyed looking girl, today you'll be drawing a sultry face!!! So fun! I know! Just click HERE or the photo below to watch the free short video now!

​3. Last but not least, I STARTED MY 6TH DRAWING BOOK THIS WEEK!!! I know! I can't believe it either!! This book is going to be MAMMOUTH - a literal giant compilation of how to draw females in 4 completely different styles!!! First up? Realistic! The hardest by far which is why I'm tackling it first! Here's a little sneak peek!

And of course Rosie says helloooo to you too!! I hope this week finds you healthy and happy and well and that with all of these lessons you are having a blast while you become a better artist!!!

I don't know how the weather is around you but here in normally sunny North Carolina it is WET and COLD and RAINY! OOOOOOh so rainy! Like for 8 billion days in a row!
To calm my nerves I've been doing drawing after drawing! So many in Copics, and ALLLLL of these tutorials I have lined up for you for the next many Friday's are sure to bring new skills to your fingers, new tools into your toolbox and hopefully more smiles on your faces too!
Somehow my car ended up driving itself to Jerry's Artarama on Friday and buying all these Copics for future fun days, naughty car!!!! Does your car do this too?

​But before I delve into some more marker drawings, I want to give you a chance to watch yesterday's YouTube tutorial on drawing this gorgeous watercolor portrait! My dear friend Claudia Finelle guest stars in this episode and shows us how to draw this beautiful smiling girl, teeth and all!! And somehow manages to make her look NOT like the Chicklet face (like the ones I draw) but sweet and pretty!

P.S. Wishing you could watch ALL of my YouTube videos right away? Days, weeks and MONTHS before they are posted to YouTube? You actually can if you join my Patreon Community for as little as $5/month! For more information just visit Patreon.com/karencampbellartist
For those who have already joined, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT, IT MEANS THE ABSOLUTE WORLD ❤️

​Happy Drawing!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!
​My husband and I celebrated by eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! He in his office on a conference call, and me, munching mine with the kids at the table.

Aaaahhhh love, ain't it grand?!
​Hahahaha no worries, I think since we just had our Vegas trip, we weren't too keen on spending anymore money on love! 😂We're good!

This week I am continuing to have a blast practicing and teaching how to draw EXPRESSIONS!!!
Cuz frankly I'm in love with drawing beautiful faces but in hate with all the dead-pan expressions that they normally wear!!

What the heck is up with that! lol!

If you want to learn how to make your girls have better/more/different expressions, then come join me for a fun and easy 6 minute tutorial you can watch by CLICKING HERE or on the photo link below. But grab your pencil to draw along, it's the bestest way to learn!

And don't forget to have fun!!!
See you all next Friday for some more fun expression lessons as guest artist Claudia Finelle will be joining us to be teaching how to draw a smiling girl with TEETH!!! THAT LOOK AWESOME!! I KNOW!
See you on YouTube!

As you know, I LOOOOVE drawing and painting faces! BUT I am SO TIRED OF THEM BEING COMPLETELY DEVOID OF ALL EXPRESSION AND EMOTION. Like, seriously!!! We need to move on past the Resting Bitch Face, amiright?!?!
That's why I'm so fired up for today's lesson which you can WATCH HERE. TODAY is the day that I am kicking off how to draw faces that express ACTUAL emotion. I'm not talking a slight little smirk or a sassy raised eyebrow. Nope. I'm talking how to draw a full on seething woman!

Is this going to be hard? Nope. Although the lesson is relatively short, it's very very simple once you see how!
So come on over to YouTube and LET'S DRAW!

Incidentally, this is drawing prompt 14 of 20 in a series of face tutorials I am teaching!  If you'd like to up your learning game you can view all of the art tutorials from the start HERE.  It's fun, fab and free!  Want to see what others are creating?  Hope over to Instagram or Facebook and search the hashtag #100funfabfaces and you can see for yourself!

My dear friend Scottish artist Lucy Brydon is here this week to bring you a really in-depth watercolor lesson that is just jam-packed with goodness.
Lucy is a phenomenal artist and fantastic teacher. We met in Scotland in 2016 and have remained friends ever since!
You may remember her from my Fairy Tales Course where she taught another gorgeous watercolor fairy piece, and she was also the very first lesson on this year's LifeBook with Tamara LaPorte! So yeah, she's kinda a big deal!
Her soothing Scottish brogue I could listen to for DAYS. Having trouble falling asleep tonight? Turn on her video, close your eyes and she will totally soothe you! I'm not joking!!!

In today's video she covers SO MUCH GOOD STUFF!! If you have difficulties with watercolor, struggle with it's fluid craziness and have a hard time mixing those perfect skin tones (I know I do!!!) then you really need to tune in, 'cause the stuff she talks about is gold.
She goes over SO much in her sweet, calming video including:

• Learning how to create a 3/4 portrait drawing.
• How to transfer your drawing from paper to journal without transfer paper (I hot tip for me!!)
• How to use a photo reference to correctly position facial features.
• Tips and Techniques on how to mix your own skin tones.
• How to do a wet wash.
• The correct way to layer your watercolor to get depth and shading.
• And how and why to use gouache to add highlights.

So I hope you enjoy this week's lesson! For those wanting to go and reference all the Fun Fab Face drawing prompt tutorials I have been doing on Fridays, you can access them all here for free: https://awesomeartschool.com/p/100funfabfaces
Have a beautiful day!!!  Happy Arting!

TGIF!!! Today's tutorial for the #100FunFabFaces drawing challenge was inspired by an artist I've admired for some time, Molly Harrison. I recently purchased one of her gorgeous prints on Etsy and specifically fell in love with the way she rendered the lips and sparkly eyes of this girl.

I mean, just LOOK at the way she highlighted those juicy lips and the sheen in those eyes!!! To die for, right?!  I reached out to Molly and asked her permission to use this piece as a reference to inspire today's lesson. She graciously agreed! (THANKS MOLLY!!!😘) 

I decided to work in my altered book art journal (which is actually a giant Alice in Wonderland coloring book from my local scrap exchange!) I started off by reinforcing the perforated pages using some decorative tape, and put down a layer of Daniel Smith Watercolor Ground (a new product to me). 

If you know me at ALL, you know I'm obsessed with Daniel Smith watercolors. However, the watercolor ground - I didn't love. I'm an absorbant ground girl when it comes to watercolor surface prep, and still highly recommend that product after this experience.  Lots of students ask me where to find this - your best bet is typically Amazon. I rarely see it in stores. 

After my surface was prepped, I sketched the outline of my girl's face with all her features (sans one eye - to replicate the sexy Veronica Lake look!)

​Next, I squeezed a few droppers of acrylic ink, let them drip around,  and pulled out a watercolor brush to drag some color where it just felt right. I totally had a blast in my creative flow, blasting George Michael in my studio, while bringing this chic to life. 

When you watch the vid, you'll see I have a bit of a paintbrush malfunction while it happens to be filled with permanent ink, no less! I didn't freak out because I actually love the adventure of mixed media. When something unexpected happens, it presents an opportunity to problem solve. 

I actually took a day to mull this one over. After a break, I was able to channel my inner Bob Ross, and turned my "happy little accident" into a somthing I actually love now, and would never have added to the piece if it hadn't been for that snafu.

Be sure to check out the lovely Molly Harrison on Etsy & Pinterest. Her work is gorgeous!! Thanks again Molly! 😘

​In this week's face drawing prompt (#10 of 20 in the #100funfabfaces drawing prompt series) I will be teaching you an easy way to shade a mixed media face! Honestly, once you know where to put the shade, adding them with Tombow markers is a cinch!! Go grab some watercolor paper and let's do this! This project can also be done with Copics or colored pencils, watercolors or what-have-you! No rules in art my friends, no rules! Questions? Pop them in the comments section in the video or right here and I'll answer them, guaranteed :)

Want and easier place to access all of these free fun drawing tutorials?  Enroll here for free! ​https://awesomeartschool.com/p/100funfabfaces

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
I hope you had a restful and healthy holiday time! We had a lovely time (mostly) of plenty of ups (Christmas, yaaaay!) and downs (my 11 year old car literally died and we were forced to go out and buy a new one the same day...turns out you can't have 3 kids with no working family car ). But alas, we are pushing the drama behind us and away we go into the new year!!
I am kicking off 2019 with fresh new splashes of inspiration as I begin to reach outward to other artists more and more to see what they're up to and see also if they'd be interested in sharing their talents with US!! The first artist on my list? James Burke!!! He is Australian (now living in the US), extraordinarily talented (that's an understatement) and said YES when I asked if he would share some of his ideas with us on YouTube (OMG!!!)!  I can honestly say, after doing this collab, I can die a happy girl.  I'M SERIOUS!

​Yesterday he shared with us a REALLY FUN mixed media collage (art journal) technique on YouTube! With a fun mix of tracing paper, collage elements and Posca Pens (with a few loose watercolors thrown in for good measure) he shows us how to make some REALLY funky and FUN pieces to create on canvas in our art journals!

Click the video below to watch!

That's it for this week!! Stay tuned for more free and fun drawing tutorials coming out every Friday :)

For those who may be interested, this is week 9 of 20 in a 100 face drawing challenge that I am doing with my YouTube subscribers and within my Facebook Group and I AM SO IMPRESSED by the progress in drawing skills already!!! If you would like to join in the challenge yourself, it's never too late! CLICK HERE to be connected to the entire video series playlist on YouTube (all 9 videos so far) so you can start at the beginning.  See you there!