Fragile

The newest colored pencil piece, and first one completed for the new year, is titled Fragile, it is 10x14" and worked on rag illustration board. The idea came from a birthday party I attended back in November in which each attendee received a small nest with a saying attached. The words attached to my nest spoke to me: Be the rain. Wash away, cleanse, forgive. I thought what great advice, so true for our lives and a good way to begin a new year. I immediately started thinking of how I could put this little nest into a composition and tell a story.

I found some little blue bird eggs. No, not real ones - I found these at Pottery Barn! I brought my little nest and my camera out walking on the trails with my dog at Mt Hope Farm in Bristol, RI and decided to nestle it in amongst the fall leaves and grass. I took several photos in different areas with different colored leaves and then went home to look at the photos on my computer and choose one. I chose this particular one because of the bright red and orange leaves int he foreground and the older brown leaves scattered behind them. The contrast of the green grasses peeking through caught my attention also.

Everything in this piece is fragile, the nest, the fall leaves that are drying up in the cold weather and the grasses will soon turn brown. The eggs are fragile but also symbolize a new beginning. The words also remind us that our lives and our relationships are fragile. Happy New Year!

A Different Kind of Portrait

I had forgotten to share this photo of a portrait I had been commissioned to draw so I'm going to post it now. This portrait was done as a surprise for it's likeness, Angie, pictured here with the drawing. I had been asked by one of Angie's friends to draw a portrait of her from this self portrait photo that she took of herself and present it to her at my Providence Art Club exhibit. Pictured here, she is seeing the drawing for the first time. And since this was a surprise for Angie, I didn't post the image as I was working on it and then just got busy, absentmindedly forgot, so I'm doing it now.

The photo was black and white but had a sense of color to the gray tones. I was intrigued by her pose, the colors/values and the body art on Angie's forearm which reads Harmony, a tribute her young daughter. I used only a few colored pencils to achieve this the values: Slate Gray, Cool Grey 50%, Tuscan Red, Indigo Blue, Black Cherry, Black Grape and Black. While I wanted it to read as a black and white photo, I chose to give it warm tones of colorful darks. I worked on Strathmore rag illustration board which has a texture so I used bristle brush to burnish the colors into the board as I was working. The most difficult part was the top left which is a solid dark. I achieved this by layering color over color starting with Tuscan Red, adding a second layer of Indigo Blue and a third layer of Black Grape using a light even pressure then burnishing between each layer of pencil. This combination was too colorful and not dark enough so I added a layer of black on top letting the bottom layers of color show through. It took several layers and a lot of burnishing to achieve the rich dark I was looking for.

Our Art Boot Camp ended yesterday and I have to say it was a rewarding session for both students and instructors myself and Felicia Touhey. I have to share one comment that was made at the end of class when the students were laying out their work for everyone to view. One of the students said to Felicia and I with a big smile on her face: "You must be so proud of us and all that we achieved in this session!" Yes, we are absolutely proud of the students. To me that is the biggest reward an instructor could want, helping students to learn, to grow and feel a sense of accomplishment.

Beginning and Finishing

I have started a new piece, another drawing of tulips. I seem to be attracted to them lately. This photo I took on my deck of beautiful orange tulips in the blue glass vase. I'm going to add a background which will be a simple band of landscape and a lot of pale blue sky. And once the background is drawn, I will have to readjust color in the tulips so they will come forward. The surface is Rtistx and I am using Prismacolors, Verithins and Lyra Rembrandts.

Here is my paint tube drawing nearly completed. I have stood the drawing up in my studio so I can walk by for the next few days, look at the piece, and decide if it needs anything else. I am usually critical of my own work but I really love this piece and had so much fun portraying the crinkly old tubes of paint.

Crinkly Old Paint Tubes

I have been looking for new and creative ideas for different still life subjects and have been thinking about drawing some of my old paint tubes for months now. The older and the more crinkled, the better they look to me. I especially like the tube in the center with no label and paint residue smeared all over it. Last I finally sat down, sketched them out and started working on them. I began with two grays; Cool Grey 30% and Cool Grey 50%. I started by drawing all the shadows and crevices in these two grays only. The folded part of the red tube is currently just the 30% and 50% Cool Grey and I have just begun adding a bit of yellow which is Prismacolor Sand. It's the tube I am working on now

After I worked most of the folds and shadows in the 30% and 50% Greys in each tube, I continued by adding Cool Grey 90% to establish the very dark areas. At closer look, I realized the metal tubes weren't only in tones of cool grays but also had warm gray tones in them, thus I added warm grays. And its different because I often use only one or the other but this project lent itself to both cool and warm.

After establishing all the tones of gray, I then had lots of fun adding different reflected colors into the tubes. I see several golds and blues and some tones of red and brown. I found it easier to concentrate on completing one tube at a time. When they are all finished and I have laid in all the shadows, I will go back and complete the whole piece. This drawing is really fun and I am working on illustration board so I'm able to add many light layers of different pencils to the the subjects. I am also using Black in this piece which I normally don't use but it's definitely working in this piece to show strong darks and to depict the paint caps which are black.

Continuing on Rocks & Foam

I'm working on this piece a little at a time and really enjoying rendering the stones. I'm making them a little more colorful than they are in my photo, I do have some rocks in my studio to look at also. The colors I'm using consist of many grays and browns with touches of other colors; blues, purples, red/orange, yellows. The more I look, the more color I see so I have to back off a little from making them all to colorful and not realistic. My goal is soft and subtle rocks, foam and sand with subtle colors added. While I enjoy working on the sanded grounds in which the pencil can be applied quicker, I have to say my favorite surface is rag illustration board because its durable and takes the pencil softly. Once in a while I don't mind taking forever on a drawing because I enjoy the process and the outcome.