Boys in Surf

I have finished this commission drawing of the little boys running in the ocean surf. I added the boys to the drawing focusing first on each piece of clothing, it's folds and highlights to make it look realistic and form around the contours of their bodies. The details in the bathing suits took a little bit of time to add – I didn't want it to be overly busy and detract from the picture so I kept the marks simple. Next I added their hair in various shades of light browns and finally the skin tones and shadows in the skin tones.

For skin tones, I used Prismacolor pinks, warm yellows, Pumpkin Orange,  Burnt Ochre, Imperial Violet and Luminance Manganese Violet & Ultramarine Violet. I wanted to create highlights and shadows on glowing skin, making it look realistic in flesh tones.

After I finished the boys I went back and adjusted the tones in the water, making some of the waves in the water darker. I added colors such as Prismacolor Clay Rose, Nectar and Burnt Ochre and the Luminance violets to the sanded area in the foreground. I burnished the sand and the waves with a bristle brush to smooth out texture.

Boys in Surf - Beginning

I have been asked to create a colored pencil commission piece of the two little brothers jumping into the surf at the beach. The reference photo is below and the top photo is step 1. The drawing is approximately 11x14" and I am working on Legion brand Stonehenge paper in Pearl Gray. I chose a neutral for the paper, I thought white might be too bright underneath for the boys' skin tones. The Pearl Gray will be a nice tone for under the waves and beach and I can add the amount of white on the foam that I wish. The paper is beautifully soft and builds layers of the pencil nicely.

My first step is created with Prismacolor, Caran d'Ache Luminance and one of the new Derwent Lightfast pencils in Deep Blue. I received this pencil from the Colored Pencil Society of America convention in 2018, the color is perfect and I like that this pencil is lightfast. I may choose to add another brand of colored pencil also but these three are working fine for now.

The waves, the surf, reflections and beach are somewhat daunting so I decided to tackle them first before the figures. I have laid in colors and shapes first and will surely go back in and adjust contrast, tone and color. I will want the boys to be the main focus so I will have to be sure the water and surf doesn't overpower the figures.

Pet Portrait Commissions

I am posting my three latest pet portrait commissions and the photos I worked from. I take commissions from customers and enjoy working on pet drawings. 

The first (above) is Chester, I was commissioned to draw his portrait in 8x8" colored pencil, varnished and mounted on an Ampersand 3/4" cradled Claybord. I am attaching the photo I worked from because it was not a good reference photo. Fortunately, the customer had other photos of Chester for me to use as reference to get the color of the fur, eyes and details.

Here is Rocco, he is drawn in colored pencil on white Stonehenge paper, 11x14". He was then matted and framed under glass for the customer. I've included the reference photo I used to work from. 

Here is Cyrus, also 8x8" on Stonehenge paper mounted to Ampersand 3/4" cradled Claybord. The first photo is his portrait, the second is a side view in order to see the Cradled Claybord and sealed/varnished drawing. The third is the reference photo that I worked from. 

Hide and Seek

I meant to take photos of this piece in progress but just kept working and now it's finished. I titled this drawing Hide and Seek because I felt stones were taking on a  life of their own by hiding behind others as I worked. I started by working from the left to right, stone by stone, shell by shell. I started by putting on the dark lines and markings of each stone's individual characteristics and letting one flow into the next. One big challenge was getting the shadows just right, in my photo they appeared much darker and overpowering (photos can do that). I used some Indigo, Black Grape, Dark Umber and Warm Gray 90%.

Creating the sand is also a challenge. Here are my scribbles on the side of the paper, these are all of the (Prismacolor) colors I used to make the sand and probably a few I didn't name.

I am also happy to announce that my piece Winter Glow received an honorable mention in CPSA's ArtSpectations Spring 2015 on line exhibit. Take a look at the link, there are some really nice colored pencil works for inspiration.

New Colored Pencil Work

On my drawing table, or rather on the kitchen table. I have been working on this new drawing of rocks and shells on the beach while spending time in Florida away from the cold. The piece is 14x18" on Stonehenge drawing paper. I started by laying in the sand and the shadows beneath the rocks. Sand is more difficult than I thought, I've layered many colors in an attempt to capture the colors and textures of the sand. I'm keeping the layers light because when I put colors and values on the rocks, I know I will have to adjust the values of the sand and shadows.

I am working rock by rock! It takes time and patience. I'm drawing in the marks on the rocks and then surface colors and textures. I keep adjusting sand, shadow and rocks themselves as I go along.

Pet Portraits

I've started a small (8x8") pet portrait of my Yorkie, Bandit's, face close up. I'm working on a Fabriano paper in which I love. It has a textured surface with faintly impressed vertical lines that add a nice texture and pattern to the drawing. Unfortunately, I can't recall or find the name of this paper and I'm not sure if Fabriano even makes it any more. Someone gave me a few sheets more than ten years ago and I just happened to have a small sheet left. I always start with the eyes and nose because those are the most important features to capture the pet's likeness and personality.

Here are two finished dog portraits of this black lab, Ike. Sadly, Ike was hit by a car at a very young age and isn't with us any more. His owner misses him very much. But here is a nice story: the coworkers of his owner got together and commissioned me to create these 8x8" portraits of Ike as a remembrance for Ike's owner. I will be curious to find out how Ike's owner likes these two pieces when he receives them.

I worked the two drawings on white Stonehenge drawing paper and Prismacolor pencils, I cut the paper to 8 1/2 x 8 1/2". When the drawings were complete I sprayed them with two coats of Krylon UV Resistant Clear fixative. Then I attached them to two 8x8" Ampersand Cradled Claybord panels with Grafix archival double stick mounting film and then carefully trim the edges with a mat knife. I always create the drawing a little larger than the board I am mounting it to in case it moves a little. Next I spray the entire piece and edges with three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish to seal it (or any permanent non-yellowing varnish will work). The final step is to brush on Golden UVLS polymer varnish (water based) and thinned three parts varnish to one part water. Brush carefully in order to not get bubbles and keep it consistent. I will layer on three or four more coats of the Golden varnish letting each dry at least an hour or more in between. I also put two coats on the wood edges. Or you can paint the edges.

Tye's Dog Portrait Finished

Here is Tye's finished portrait, size 12x12". His owner Matt took the nicest picture of Tye sitting in the snow and looking upward. I worked this piece in Prismacolor pencil on Stonehenge paper. I used a small flat bristle brush to burnish the pencil where I wanted solid areas of the fur with no texture from the paper showing through.

I created the shadows in the snow by using cool blues over warm blues and purples, then another warm blue over the top. Experiment layering warm-cool-warm-cool (or vice versa) to make colors sing.

New Grouping of Boxes

Started another grouping of my Ocean Life boxes on 5x5" Ampersand Claybord boxes. I have sold several of the last series of boxes and decided to create another series of boxes. Shown here are seven new cover drawings and three new inside drawings. All of the cover drawings are worked on white Stonehenge paper with image transfer and colored pencil. I adhere them to the Claybord surface of the box top with Grafix Double Tack Mounting Film. I like the bottom drawings to be sturdier so I use white Strathmore rag illustration board, again with image transfer and colored pencil and glue them onto the bottom. The box top drawings are sprayed with one coat of Krylon UV Resistant Clear, three coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish and then several layers of Golden Polymer Varnish with UVLS to make them smooth and glossy.

In the last series I left the natural wood box sides showing and varnished them for protection. In this series I've decided to experiment with painting the wooden sides or collaging some of the box sides with rice paper. I'll explain that in my next post about the boxes.

Ampersand Clayboard Boxes

I purchased nine 5x5" clayboard box kits from Ampersand with the intention of doing a series of drawings on the tops of the boxes and inside the boxes when the covers are lifted. I've chosen ocean life as a theme and worked on the drawings for the tops of the boxes shown here, placed close together. Because the clayboard is too smooth of a surface to draw on, I'm using white stonehenge paper or white bristol paper, although the turtle is drawn on cream stonehenge. The mediums I have used are image transfer and colored pencil. Image transfer is a process in which I take a Xerox copy of a drawing or photograph and transfer it onto the paper with a Chartpak colorless marker. Of course the image will come out in reverse so I have to switch it accordingly. Next I add colored pencil to the transfer and around. Some of the backgrounds I chose to leave white and some are colored.

My next step is to decide what smaller images I want to place inside each box and work on those. I'm doing this series for my upcoming exhibit at the Providence Art Club in October. I will show these boxes on pedestals as 3D artwork and most likely in smaller groupings.

Also, Ampersand has used my colored pencil piece on Gessobord Patti's New Bowl in a recent blog entry for the company's fall sale on the different boards.

Moths, Moths, Moths

Another assignment for my sketchbook class was to create a drawing in which the composition is similar to the studies of Ernest Haeckel or Albertus Seba. Ernest Haeckel was a naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist. He published a book titled Art Forms in Nature which included over a hundred detailed, multi-colored illustrations of animals and sea creatures. Albertus Seba was a pharmacist who collected numerous amounts of natural specimens. He engaged several artists, engravers and writers to help catalog these specimens into a book titled A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. If you do a search for drawings from these books, you will find many of these drawings have been made into wallpaper, wrapping paper, textiles, etc.

I have modeled my drawing after several by Ernest Haeckel, drawn on black paper with white pencil. The drawings are so beautiful and intricate, I decided to create my own. I chose moths as my subject and did some research to find different types and views of moths. I never realized there were so many and so many beautiful colors. This is my layout on black Stonehenge paper.

Kaleidoscope of Koi

Here is my finished piece "Kaleidoscope of Koi". The size is 13x20" and it is all colored pencil on Stonehenge paper with the help of the Icarus Drawing Board for getting rich, intense color. I also burnished with a bristle brush in order to get the solid areas with no pencil lines of paper showing through the drawing. I did not figure out how many hours it took to complete this piece but I worked on it for 3 weeks straight, several hours per day. This is one of the pieces I submitted to the CPSA international exhibition for jurying.

On My Drawing Table

I am working on this very complicated drawing of a group of hungry koi fish, the drawing is on Stonehenge drawing paper and is approximately 14x20". The reference photos I am working from are from a trip I took to Napa Valley several years ago. The Domaine Chandon Winery we visited had some of the largest and most colorful fish I had ever seen. As I leaned over the pond to take photos, they all surfaced at once. In the photo, my shadow covers all of the fish so I am working from imagination and artistic license to bring the fish out of the shadows and into the light. The most challenging part of this composition is working on the water. In my photo the water is lime and olive greens, not colors I find complementary for the fish thus I'm changing colors to darker blue/greens.

I'm also having fun because I am using the Icarus heated drawing board to blend and layer my colors. Using only colored pencils, I start with a color on the cool side, add a second layer of color on the heated side, back on the cool side I burnish with a brush, then back to the heated side to add more layers of color if needed. Our New England weather has begun warming up this week but in previous weeks, the Icarus board has served a double purpose, it also keeps my hands & arms warm on those cold, damp days!!! Some days I want to just lay on top of it and warm up ;-) I'm not sure that Ester who lives in Southern California realizes that her board can also serve to keep cold New England artists warm!

This colored pencil drawing still needs work. I asked my students for comments and they gave me some good suggestions. I asked my husband for his comments and he said "well ... it's abstract ... " Anyway, I'm having fun with it but have been working on this piece since March 1st and eager to finish and move on to the next project.

Experiments with Colored Pencil and Varnish

This photo is a cropped portion of a 12x16" colored pencil and pastel drawing I did several years ago. In fact it was accepted into and shown at the 2007 CPSA Explore This! Exhibition in Brea, CA (before Explore This! exhibitions became on-line only). I did the drawing is on black Stonehenge paper with colored pencil and bumped up the vibrant colors with pastel on top. The drawing looked so vibrant until I put it under glass to frame the piece. It made the rounds to different exhibitions but never sold so it came back to my studio and hung for a few more years. If it was light in the studio, the piece looked very vibrant but if it was a dark day, it looked dull. I kept glancing at the piece and wondering if I could somehow varnish it so that it wouldn't need to be shown under glass but I was afraid to varnish paper. After reading and learning about Ester Roi's blog entries on glassless framing, I came up with an idea. What did I have to lose? Just a piece of artwork ... but it was worth a try.

First I unframed the piece and adhered just the drawing to a 12x16" Ampersand Claybord with Grafix double tack mounting film adhesive. Next I sealed the drawing with Lascaux UV Protect spray, let it dry and then sprayed two coats of Krylon Kamar Varnish to seal and protect the drawing. I thought the spray might darken the colors but they were vibrant enough and remained so. The drawing sat for 24 hours and next I brushed on several coats of Golden UVLS Polymer Varnish Gloss letting each one dry in between. Here came the problem; I wasn't careful enough when brushing on the varnish, not only was I getting tiny air bubbles but I was getting brush marks. I tried to smooth out one "gloppy" area after the varnish had begun to dry and thus ended up with brush marks. Because the surface is so glossy, if I held the piece to the light, one could see all the imperfections. I learned that you have to be very, very careful when applying the Golden UVLS Polymer Varnish, any imperfection on the surface can be easily seen and detracts from the artwork.

I remembered that when I called Golden company tech support, the person I spoke to told me to be sure the artwork was sealed and protected with a spray varnish before brushing on the polymer varnish. The polymer varnish is water based and he told me that for conservation purposes, if museum quality artwork needed to be cleaned and re-preserved years from now, the polymer varnish could be easily washed off, the piece cleaned and preserved as the layer of spray varnish would not wash off and preserve it.

I was very frustrated with my piece so I took it to the sink and proceeded to wash off all the layers of the polymer varnish, holding my breath and just hoping I wouldn't damage the artwork. All of the polymer varnish washed off but the piece looked wet and cloudy for about a day. I was worried and discouraged I might have ruined it but was pleasantly surprised when I came back to the studio two days later and found the drawing perfectly dry, looking like it had before I started. The double tack mounting film kept the drawing perfectly adhered to the claybord also. I was really happy! I began again brushing on coats of the polymer varnish, much more carefully this time. I made sure I diluted the varnish exactly two parts varnish to one part water and let each coat dry before I applied the next. I didn't count how many coats I applied but I think probably about 6 or 8. I'm very excited because I accomplished what I set out to do, with a little bump in the road in which I learned from. I'm ordering a frame and will exhibit the piece in my studio or in a gallery and will most interested in viewers' comments.

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!"

Upcoming Workshop

I have been asked to teach a one-day colored pencil workshop for a group in central Massachusetts. I am penciling the composition (above) and making a list of all the colors I have used for the students. It has also been requested that I do a line drawing of the subjects and photocopy it onto the paper for the students so they don't have to spend time drawing the layout, they can concentrate learning how to apply color and layering color. The class is going to be working on Stonehenge paper in 100% colored pencil, no solvents, etc.

Above is the drawing in progress, I've begun laying down colors and doing some layering of color while making a list of each color I use. I'm enjoying the drawing and hope that it isn't too complicated for the students but I will have plenty of instructions in case they can't finish in one day. I tend to be rather "ambitious" with the complicated subjects I choose! I'm also attempting to minimize the list of colored pencils that I use and that can a challenge in itself.

My next step is to add in the background and smooth the reflective surfaces, bottle and dish.

Flotsam & Jetsam

My latest piece has just been accepted to the Cape Cod Art Association's National Exhibition, June 18-July 13 at the art association in Barnstable, MA. I am happy because this piece took me hours and weeks to complete. I kept putting it down and picking it back up and working on it but I really had fun!