Class Drawings on Wood

I have seven students in my morning colored pencil class and here is what we've been working on for the past two weeks. I gave them all 6x8" 7/8"-cradled wood panels from Utrecht as a surface to work with pencil. I let the students transfer the drawing onto the wood rather than have to struggle with trying to draw the intricate patterns. After which we began with some light washes using Derwent Inktense pencils and water. Derwent was very kind to send me a set of 36 Inktense Pencils to try with my students. This establishes a colored ground in order to work with colored pencils on top which can also intensify colors and give a nice base so the wood grain doesn't show through. Next we applied Prismacolor colored pencils starting with the cherries and then working on the background. You can see from the top photo of everyone's work that they work at a different pace. The second photo is the reference photo we worked from and you can also see that each person has their own interpretation of colors.

Blue Bottle & Cherries

Here is the finished 11x14" piece, Derwent Inktense and Prismacolor colored pencil on wood. After I finished the drawing, I sprayed it with Lascaux twice and then varnished with Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS - gloss which I diluted 3 parts to one part water and brushed on with a large, soft, flat, bristle brush. I learned using the UVLS from Ester Roi's blog entry glassless framing and also by talking with her. The result is a beautiful glossy finish which intensified the colors of the pencils.

The Art I've Done This Weekend

I'm continuing on with my drawing of the blue bottle, cherries and silver dish and I find the colors are so vibrant over the Inktense pencil washes. I'm just about finished, the only part left is the background and then I may tweak some of the other areas.

On Friday, I taught a colored pencil workshop for a group of decorative painters in Westborough, Massachusetts. I am told that colored pencil is very popular right now in decorative painting. Most of the students have used other mediums such as oil paint or watercolor and one lady told me that she works with colored pencil on porcelain. I may have to try that myself.

This group considered themselves beginners to colored pencil and asked if I would lead them step by step, color by color in this workshop using Prismacolor pencils. We worked from a photo and a photo of my drawing. I preprinted a line drawing of the composition on Stonehenge drawing paper for each student so they could concentrate on working with colored pencil for the entire workshop, not have to take time to pencil draw the composition out first. For the subjects, I chose the same blue bottle and silver plate that I'm using in my drawing on wood above, but instead of cherries, I added tulips. The drawing proved to be a little challenging for beginners and took us the whole day to get through each element but I like to challenge my students and I think a good challenge helps a person to learn and grow. I was very happy with each person's (almost) finished piece and I hope they were also. At the end of the day I told them that if they go home tired, I've done my job. To which one person replied "if YOU go home tired, we've done our job!"