Travel Teaching

I'm just back from teaching at a decorative painting retreat in Ohio. I taught 4 classes in colored pencil and took a basket making class. It was a very busy weekend. Once the retreat started, I was booked every class period. One of the classes I taught was called Your Pet in Colored Pencil. I had 3 students who each sent me photos of their dogs before the retreat started so that I could adjust the photos, select their pencils, prepare their packets and select some papers for them to choose from. For my demonstration/teaching piece, I chose to use one of their photos. This little Schnauzer had elements that each of the students needed to know about, so he was a pretty good demo choice. When I was selecting papers, I found a piece of purple card stock and that was what I used just to show them that you could be very creative in your choice of backgrounds as long as what you select supports the colors in your subject.

Playing around

I have to come up with several painted items for my baskets for the Town and Country Decorative Painters annual basket luncheon. One of my baskets has a tea theme. This is a journal with a papier mache cover. The design is created using watercolor pencil overlayed with colored pencil. The journal is about 6x8 inches.

Newest Pet Portrait

Finished this yesterday and the "Gramma" picked it up today. She was very happy. I hope the Mommy and Daddy are equally pleased. This guy is a 5x7 portrait done in colored pencil. He is a Brown Boston Terrier which is a very rare coloration.

What's new?

Today I completed a small commission piece in colored pencil. It is 5x7 and done on grey-blue card stock.

Chocolate bunnies

While I was in Ocean City, I had time to play with my colored pencils and my pastels. I had taken some pictures of a chocolate bunny that I wanted to do as a set and I packed the reference photos so I would have something to work on if I had time. I completed the set in colored pencil on grey-brown Mi-Teintes paper. The size is approximately 5x7. Sadly, the bunny was sacrificed for the good of the project--and a tasty bunny he was, too!

Wednesday--reclaiming a piece gone wrong

My painting for today almost ended up in the waste basket! I started this piece in colored pencil on a 4x4 piece of Ampersand Clay Board. Remember, part of the exercise is to try new products, techniques, and ideas. I don't like working on board with pencils. It has so much texture that it wears the pencils down very quickly, it takes a very long time to fill the texture so that you get a finished-looking piece. I was very unhappy with the results I was getting after about 40 minutes of working mostly on filling in background. At that point, I almost threw in the towel and threw out the piece. So, I walked away and thought about it for a while. I decided to try overlaying the colored pencil with pastels. In the end, I had a piece that is worth keeping. This is one seagull from a photo of a flock of seagulls that I am planning to use for a large pastel painting. I used my Pan Pastels to lay in the sky. Then I went to my soft pastels and worked on the gull. I used Conte pencils for some of the details, but they were not very effective over the colored pencil.

Another ribbon in my collection!

I picked up my work from the Cranberry Festival Art Show today and found a ribbon attached to my little portrait of Gus. Gus took 3rd place in the Adult Division. I am very pleased. The portrait is approximately 2.5x3.5 inches and is rendered in colored pencil on Stonhenge paper. Gus is now on his way to the Annual Miniature Show in Chambersburg, PA.

Off to see the Wizard!

I just got back from the annual HOOT (Heart of Ohio Tole) painting convention. This year the theme was Painting Up a Storm (the Wizard of Oz). My traveling companions and I were only there for 3 days. Two of us took a couple of classes and the other two only went so they could go to the trade show. The best class I took was a colored pencil class taught my Marian Jackson. This project was done on Mi-Tientes paper. I thought it was a lovely design.


In addition to taking a class and attending the trade show, I was also privileged to be asked to present a demonstration. My demonstration was the little raccoon done in graphite. About 30 people attended my demo. It was a good trip.

A Brag!

Last weekend I entered several works in the Festival in the Forest Art Show in Tionesta, PA. When I went back to pick up my pieces at the end of the show, I found out that my piglet had won 3rd place in the show. Piglet is done on grey suede mat board using Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. He is approximately 5x7 and is actually in a black oval mat for presentation.

What a little time and practice will do

A year ago shortly after I started working with colored pencils, I developed a painting from a photograph of a goldfish. I was very pleased at the time with the results of the exercise. This year, my students wanted to do that goldfish project. So, I wrote up the instructions, included a line drawing and the original reference photo and we went to work. When the project was finished, my students had done a very good job and learned a great deal about how to work with reference photos. More important for me was seeing the difference that a year of working with the medium made in my work. In the last year, I have spent a lot of time learning to manipulate the medium, but also working from photos and making a serious effort to really see what I was looking at. The difference between the original work and the new rendering of exactly the same subject is startling. Both pieces are done on the same paper, white Bristol Plate, and are rendered using the same Prismacolor Premier pencils. The moral of the story? Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!!

Here is the original goldfish rendering done in 2008:


Here is the 2009 version of the same goldfish:

Testing

reference photo

I have been wanting to try out the Dick Blick colored pencils. They are less expensive than the Prismacolor that I normally use and could help me keep my supply costs down when I am teaching at retreats or conventions. I bought a 12 pencil set to try, so my color choices were limited. The Blick pencils seem to be highly pigmented. They perhaps have a bit more opacity than the Prismacolor. This may be more a function of the specific colors that are included in the 12 pencil set than a characteristic of the entire line. They also seem to be a tad bit harder and less creamy. While I was working today, I was sitting in the sun holding a yard sale, so being a little harder was a definite advantage. They do seem to blend well and layering colors was not a problem. I used both the colorless blender marker from the Prismacolor line and the Prismacolor colorless blender pencil and both worked equally well. Overall, I like the pencils and will continue to experiment with them. I will probably purchase a larger set so that I will have a wider range of colors to work with as well.

Her is my experimental work. It is developed from a photograph taken by my husband several years ago. Because the poppies are intensely colored, I was able to make use of the limited palette of colors I had available to me. The only addition I needed to make was a white pencil from my Prismacolor set. The work is done on gold Mi-Tientes paper and is approximately 6x8.

What's on my drawing board?

I have been working on a number of new pieces recently. All of them are in colored pencil and all have been developed from photographs. Here is one based on a photo sent to me by a student. The original photo included a lot of leaves, branches and other "clutter". In order to make the apples the focal point of the painting, I eliminated most of the background from the photo. The painting is done on gold Mi-Tientes paper. Even working on the smooth side of the paper, there is still some texture to contend with. Mi-Tientes is primarily used for pastel work. I think that colored pencil done on Mi-Tientes has a bit of the soft look of pastel. I selected the color of the paper because it compliments the undertones of the apples and gives the piece a sort of glow. The piece is approximately 6x8.

Reference

Same Design, Different Medium

Sometimes you find a reference that you really like. When this happens, you may find that you want to paint it over and over again in different mediums, or different color palettes. These two paintings are both done using the same reference photo. This reference was in a Gourmet magazine several years ago. I contacted the photographer through the magazine and got his permission to use the photo as a reference. He was very gracious.

The first version of the compote is done is oils. It is painted on 8x10 gesso board, my favorite support for oils. The painting was done by first creating an underpainting in Burnt Sienna and then applying the color over it.


The second version is in colored pencil on black cardstock. This one is approximately 5x5. The result is a very different looking painting.

Here Kitty

Yesterday I had to do a demonstration to advertise my classes at Pat Catan's. I did a colored pencil demo and I may have a couple of new students as a result. The piece I chose to work on was a portrait of my friend's Siamese cat. The finished piece is about 4x4 on grey cardstock. In order to make the composition more interesting, I cropped the photo down to include just the cat and the flowers he was peeking through. Just because there is a lot of stuff in your photo, that doesn't mean you have to use it all. The cropped composition is more mysterious. You wonder what he is watching. Is he stalking something? Is he hiding from something? It gives you an opportunity to "write" your own story about what is happening.

Reference Photo

Colored Pencil Portrait

New Project

I finally had some time to sit down and work on a colored pencil project or two. Here is Miss Penny. She is a 12-week-old Miniature Schnauzer who lives across the street. Her portrait is done on black mat board. It is approximately 5x4.5. I selected the black background because I wanted to achieve a bit of a dramatic, contemporary look. Using the very dark background makes the lighter sections of hair stand out.

My new "nephew"

My sister got a new Cavalier King Charlies Spaniel a few weeks ago. She sent me a photo and I have done a colored pencil portrait of little Newton. This one is really small, about 2x3.

Pet portraits are a perfect gift for the pet lover for any occasion. If you are interested in a pet portrait, please visit my website and see how you can order one.

A difficult subject

A Visit to the Aquarium

5x7

colored pencil on Bristol Plate (smooth)

The challenge in this little piece is the aquarium lighting. Everything in the picture has a blue tint. To achieve this, after the little boy was completed, I applied a light wash of blue over him. The whale was rendered using various blue pencils in addition to the white and black so that it would have the blue glow that was in the photograph. See if you can find the lost edges on the whale.

When I am ready to frame this piece, I think I am going to mat it down to about 3.5x4 so that it will be eligible for submission to a miniature show.

Pet Portrait

I am doing a lot of pet portraits in colored pencil these days. I work from photos and create a line drawing by scanning the photo and sizing it to the size I want my finished piece to be and then tracing the essential elements of the portrait. Of course, the skill is in translating the color, markings, and expression of the animal into a well-painted portrait. If you are interested in having a colored pencil portrati painted of your precious pet, go to my website and you will find ordering information.

This little portrait is taken from a photo of my friend's cat, Ziggy. It is approximately 3x3 and is painted on brown card stock. The portrait is on top and the reference photo is at the bottom of the page.

More from HOOT

Here is another HOOT project. This one is colored pencil on sand paper--that's right, 400 grit sand paper! The project is very nice, but sand paper will eat up your pencils. This piece will mat to about 6x8. It is done in browns and white so that it has a sepia-tone look. By the way, the cup is not crooked, the photo is. I will need to take another picture with the surface sitting is a better position.

Testing My Skills

I tried my first colored pencil portrait today. It is far from perfect, but for a first attempt, I am not unhappy. A little work on the skin tones and the eyes will make a huge improvement in the finished work. With some more practice, I will be painting quite respectable portraits. Here is the pencil portrait and the original photo from which I was working. The size is approximately 3x3.