On My Drawing Table

I'm starting new work in colored pencil and a new series of nostalgia. It feels good to be drawing in colored pencil again for the new year. My inspiration comes from a photo I took of a grouping of wrapped candy apples. I chose to use an older Ferris wheel in the background, thus nostalgia!

 This first piece that I am creating on a piece of standard Crescent Watercolour Board which is a textured 100% rag paper mounted on board. I had this piece in my supplies and that's why I decided to use it. I'm looking at the pricing on line and I don't think I paid that much several years ago when I purchased the board.

I worked this piece with a variety of Prismacolor Premier, Caran d'Ache Luminance, Faber Castell Polychromos and Derwent Coloursoft pencils layering the different types of pencils over one another. This rag paper surface is soft so the Polychromos work well under and over the other pencils particularly the Prismacolor which are softer and more crumbly. The Luminance also layer nicely over the Prismacolors as do the Coloursoft. In this piece I am really experimenting with different pencils applied over one another.

My reference photo of the candy apples was dark and I had to work with lightening up the apples to give the piece some depth. The surface of the board is tough thankfully. I erased colored pencil, put pencil back on and erased again trying to make the two concepts of candy apples and Ferris wheel work together. I am still not finished, still working and reworking the background into the piece.

Converse Sneakers

Last fall while our studio Art Boot Camp students were drawing from a variety of shoes, I began thinking about a composition of just the two pairs on contrasting Converse sneakers. I put the mens' black high tops with the womens' regular red sneakers. I'm working on UArt paper and the size is approximately 24x24". I started with a study of just the red sneakers (previous post) but was too intrigued with the larger piece so I abandoned the study for now and jumped right into the large drawing.

I love working on the UArt paper, it is one of my favorite surfaces for colored pencil. Because it is a rough sanded surface, it can take many layers of pencil and give me rich color in my drawings. I also like it because I can apply light colors over dark colors and they blend nicely. The lighter colors applied with a heavy pressure will also help burnish the piece to eliminate the texture showing through. I also burnish using a short flat bristle brush to rub out the texture in the paper.

My favorite part of the drawing is the shoelaces, I began with them using only whites and cool grays then added some light blues and purples. For pencils I used mostly Prismacolor and a few Coloursofts.

Take a look at the Colored Pencil Society of America's latest blog postings. Many of CPSA members, myself included, have donated a small piece for the silent auction. All of the pieces up for auction are posted in four different blog entries. There are some beauties! However, you must be present to bid and win and the auction takes place at the international exhibition in Brea, CA.

Angel's Trumpets & Chinese Lantern

I've been on hiatus with my art and my blog writing because we just moved. We only moved to the next town but we downsized from a house to a condo and the whole downsizing process happened during the holidays as we signed the contract to sell our house the day before Thanksgiving. Our move also consisted of helping two of our sons move from our house into their own apartments so it was almost three moves in one. I can't tell you how much stuff I gave away or threw away and we still have a storage unit that is chocked full of Ferreira "treasure" but for now we're settled in and adjusted to our new condo and town. What I like the most is living in downtown Bristol, being able to walk everywhere with many shops and restaurants only a few blocks away (dangerous!). I also like the ease of taking care of a condo as opposed to the house; the trash and recycling chute right in the hallway vs. driving everything to the dump; and on days like this, not having to plow the driveway and shovel the walks. What I miss the most is being able to just let the dog out the door with his invisible fence as now we have to walk him outside on the leash every time he has to go.

Now I'm hoping I'll have more time to spend on art. I've been working on the piece of artwork that I created for the RI Blood Center but I can't show it because it needs to be kept secret and unveiled by the Blood Center in March. I've also been working on this unfinished piece that I blogged about last September and October. I thought I should finish the drawing in honor of Chinese New Year which is this coming Monday. This is just a portion of the piece which fit into my scanner, there is more to the left, to the right, and on the bottom. It's drawn on Rtistx board using Prismacolor and Coloursoft pencils. I needed to smooth out the pencil because of the texture in the board and I didn't want to add solvents so I used the heated Icarus drawing board to soften and melt some of the pencil allowing me to add more pencil layers and smooth them out. What I did find is that the Rtistx board warps when it is heated, thus I had to work on small areas and try to hold the board flat. However, it does flatten out again when it cools.

Five Colorful Koi

Today I finished my koi drawing in the midst of Hurricane Irene which was, fortunately, downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit Rhode Island. We lost power early this morning and have been without it all day. The nice part about being a colored pencil artist is that I can still work without power (as long as it is daylight!) all I need are my set of pencils and battery operated pencil sharpener.

Over the last few weeks, I fussed with the colors and patterns on this piece, toning down the bright colors in the water so they wouldn't overpower or detract from the koi fish. My favorite fish is the large white one on top although another artist who saw the work in progress liked the two at the bottom because they had more contrast. I was hoping to create some of the koi with more detail than others and all of them to have an abstract quality. I'm happy with it and ready to finish it and deliver it to the gallery this week.

I'll spend the rest of the day going through photos and notes, trying to decide on my next piece. I prefer to have the next piece in mind before I even finish the current one but preoccupations with the coming hurricane this week kept me from that. We were really worried about how hard we were going to be hit and watched the Weather Channel every day. However, it's difficult for any of the weather authorities to predict the path until it's almost here!

Splendor

Splendor is the title I chose for my "bowl of cherries" colored pencil piece. I've been working on and off for a month, especially on intricate patterns in the glass dish. As I mentioned previously, I used several brands of pencils; Prismacolor, Derwent Coloursoft, Luminance, Lyra Rembrandt and Prismacolor Verithin. The surface is Rtistx board which is a sanded surface so I began with the Prismacolor and Coloursoft pencils which are softer, especially the reds which are very soft pigment. On top of the softer pencils I filled in the textured surface and burnished with the Lyra Rembrandt pencils and Luminance. I especially liked the Luminance white for burnishing the white patterns in the dish. It was just hard enough and opaque enough to cover the surface perfectly. I used some of the Verithin pencils, especially the Tuscan Red to burnish the dark shadowed area behind the cherries.

I needed to render the cherries in a slightly different way to make them pop off the surface and not compete with the intricate dish pattern so I added solvent to the pencil. By adding solvent I dissolved layers of pencil so that it is applied in a thick layer. When it was dry, I added a top layer of lighter red Prismacolor and Coloursoft pencils to really make those cherries pop.

The finished size is 14x17", varnished and framed without glass in a warm silver frame and linen liner. This piece is going to Bristol Art Gallery for my solo exhibit Eye Candy 2 opening this Saturday, April 9.

Life is Like a Bowl of Cherries ... Or Not

I've been plunged into a situation that was totally unexpected only two months ago. My father was hospitalized for congestive heart failure about 3 weeks ago and while he's back at home now, he needs full time care. I've been living with him for the last two weeks and finding that he not only has heart problems but also memory problems and possibly dementia. I am taking care of his every need, including daily care, coordinating visiting nurses and physical therapy as well as doctor appointments, not to mention the finances and legal things that the artist in me knows little about. This is the second most challenging task I've ever had to do in my life (the first was surviving cancer) and I've had more than one meltdown. As if that wasn't enough, my dad's lady friend died last week so we've dealt with his grief as well as attending the funeral and consoling the family. I am hoping to set up care for my dad within the next week so I can return to teaching my classes and doing my artwork soon. But first I can't wait to just return HOME and sleep in my own BED without having to worry about sleeping with one ear listening to when he wakes up and wanders.

For now I am working on this one colored pencil drawing whenever I have a few hours alone. I should call this piece "My Sanity" because working with my colored pencils is keeping me sane. Right now it looks more like "ghostly" cherries because I am working on the background first. My surface is Rtistx board and I am using a variety of brands of pencils; Prismacolor, Prismacolor Verithin, Derwent Coloursoft, Luminance and Lyra Rembrandt Polycolor pencils. I am not using solvent on the background so I am working first with the Prismacolor Premier Pencils and Derwent Coloursoft and then burnishing with the Lyras and Verithins in order to create a solid surface with none of the textured Rtistx board showing through. I've chosen to render the colorful glass dish and reflection first and when I'm satisfied, I will begin on the cherries. The cherries really have to "pop" off the intricate background so I am waiting until last to tackle them. I will list colors in my next entry.