Portrait Workshop with Michael Peery

This weekend I took an oil painting portrait workshop with Michael Peery. I took this workshop for two reasons, I am hoping what I learned will help me with my colored pencil portraits, in terms of color and value and rendering the human figure. I also wanted to do something different and out of the box for me. I always believe that one medium will influence another.

Michael Peery is a fantastic painter from New London, Connecticut and teaches at both Rhode Island School of Design and Rhode Island College. His portrait and still life work is just fascinating and American Artist magazine published an article about his inspirations, style of painting and his works in the March 2010 issue. I have included the links.

To paint the portrait, we learned Michael's technique of mixing the basic or beginning flesh tones from flake white, transparent red oxide and payne's gray. A series of colorful grays or flesh tones are created (see Michael's value chart above using these three colors only). He prefers flake white to titanium for more subtle flesh tones, often the painter may achieve a pasty or chalky look mixing with titanium white. I have to add that one must be careful working with flake white because it has a lead base. From that basic palette we mixed other colors as we began laying in the values and hues of the figure.

The bottom photo is Michael's demonstration of how he begins the portrait painting and shows his palette with transparent red oxide, payne's gray and flake white value mixtures in the center and other colors in his palette surrounding them.

I'm going out on a limb and posting my painting in its beginning stages. Because after this, I started to really mess her up! I'm still learning oils and the portrait process is soooo slow for me. Our model was lit by two lights; the brightest light source on the left and a more subtle greenish light on the right which highlighted our model in green and allowed us to experiment with green in skin tones. I love color so I found that part fascinating. With two light sources, we learned about transition shadows on the flesh as it turns from one light source to the next. I had fun with the colorful shadows and highlights on the model's skin and hope to eventually finish this piece in my studio.

Three Shiny Apples

I have been asked to create a small colored pencil artwork for the CPSA silent auction fundraiser called "Small Works of Great Magnitude". The silent auction is held during the national convention week and exhibition which is in Dallas, TX July 12-16. The silent auction takes place during the Members' Night on Thursday, July 14 and is to benefit CPSA's exhibition costs. All of the works will be featured on the CPSA website by the end of June. This year there will be 36 wonderful works to bid on and I'm happy to say that I will be attending and can view them all.

For my submission, I chose to draw these candy apples. The size is 7x10" which will be matted to 11x14" which is the maximum size for the small works. I've worked on red Canson Mi Teintes paper and used Prismacolor pencils and Lyra Rembrandt pencils. Because the paper is so textured, the red shows through giving the whole piece an overall warmth. The colors I used for the background are Prismas Imperial Violet and Blue Violet Lake, which make the background look so interesting with the red behind it. I burnished the apples with a bristle brush so they would look shiny and and not textured like the rest of the piece. It was fun to draw and took me about 3 or 4 hours to complete.

Balancing Stones

I draw this small piece along with my morning class on Tuesday. I gave each person a piece of Aubergine colored Art Spectrum Colourfix paper and everyone chose a few stones to put together in a composition and draw. I chose to stack four small stones and I like the way this little drawing turned out. Each stone was different, the bottom one being the most intricate. The Colourfix paper is nice because it's sanded surface takes layers the pencil quickly. The color makes a really nice background for the different stones we all chose. This little piece is going to look really nice in a frame!

Experimenting with Neocolor II Water-soluble crayons

On Tuesday, my morning colored pencil class and I experimented with the Neocolor II crayons as an underpainting for our still life drawings. In advance for the lesson, I prepared the surface for us to use. I took a sheet of gatorboard and covered it with with two coats of Storm Blue Colourfix liquid primer then cut it into 8x10" pieces for each person. The surface worked out perfectly for our application of the Neocolor crayons, a little water and then colored pencil on top. Colored Pencil artist Ranjini Venkatachari uses this method so successfully, I wanted to give it a try. I read my class Ranjini's recent blog post on how she uses the Neocolor II crayons with colored pencil and then we tried it.

In attempt to keep the lesson simple, our still life subjects were different pitchers and each student chose one. First we applied the Neocolor II crayons lightly and evenly all over the drawing, not paying attention to detail and blocking in large areas. We only had small sets of Neocolors so we had to choose from what colors were available. Secondly we brushed on water and wet the crayon, dissolving it and giving the background a smooth underpainting. Next the surface had to dry and we found we could speed up the process by using a hair dryer and after it was dry we began adding in colored pencil and start drawing and defining colors, shapes and values. The surface is so textured that it will take many layers of pencil and crayon and I even added more crayon on top of the pencil giving it almost the look of a pastel. Pictured is my experimental drawing which I really had fun with.

Now I am anxious to buy a BIG set of the crayons and experiment more of this method. So I'm looking for a sale on-line!

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.

Tuesday Colored Pencil Classes

These are photos of some of my morning and evening students colored pencil work. I brought in several New Guinea Impatiens plants in red, pink and white and each person chose a plant and chose a portion of the plant to focus on and draw. The morning class worked on Raspberry Canson Mi Teintes paper and the evening class worked on Violet Canson Mi Teintes because I couldn't find any more of the Raspberry color at our local art store. I chose the bright warm tones to make the flowers pop and give the finished drawing a color harmony. The warm pink and purple tones showing through the leaves give the whole drawing an interesting effect.

I thought this lesson would be interesting and fun but most everyone found it very challenging. The flowers lack different hues and values and they found it difficult to make them look real and find enough brightly colored pencils to get the job done. The leaves, buds and stems are intricate and took some thought and drawing skill. I suggested they each choose three values of green to work the leaves and later add other colors if needed. By the time everyone left I think they were tired, I even heard some comments about needing a glass of wine from the night class! I'm not sure if you can tell from the photos but they all did a wonderful job and we marveled at how we used the same subject matter and paper but each person's drawing was unique and had its own style

Orchid Drawing is Complete

Since my last post of this drawing, I decided on a blue background which is mostly Prismacolor Blue Violet Lake and the surface is Prismacolor Gingeroot. I chose the cool blues and cool greens in the leaves to make the flowers pop. When the background was complete and I worked on the pot, I then returned to the flowers and punched them up with more color. I particularly worked on the three blossoms on the right which are my focal point. I didn't use any solvent on this piece which makes it look more like a drawing than a painting with the surface texture showing through.

Its been raining here for days so working on this piece made me feel better about our dreary weather because it is so colorful and cheerful.

I sprayed the drawing with Lascaux fixative and Krylon Kamar Varnish to finish and seal the colored pencil. And I chose to frame the piece in a light wood floater frame which gives it a contemporary look.

Orchids in Pinks and Purples

I'm continuing work on the orchids that I started a few weeks ago. I'm using my bright pinks and purples and two of my favorite dark pinks have been discontinued by Prismacolor. The are Lightfast Madder Lake and Thio Violet so I am down to my last few pencils of those colors. I am working the warm pinks against the cool greens in the background, complementaries. The greens make the pinks pop forward. The grouping of blossoms to the center right will be my focal point. The first post about this piece is here where I explain about the surface I'm working on. Thus far, I have only worked with Prismacolor and Coloursoft pencils without solvent. I'm not sure if I will use solvent with the pencils on this piece.

Yesterday's Class Project

For my colored pencil classes yesterday, I gave the students white Chinese take out boxes, fortune cookies and chopsticks to choose from and set up their own still life to draw. My intention was to have everyone draw the white boxes and create colorful grays. We used Canson Mi Teintes paper in Felt Gray to draw on and started with whites and grays on the box, students chose either cool or warm grays. Next we added other colors in different areas where they saw color in the shadowed areas. For example, we used colors such as Cream, Grayed Lavendar, Light Flesh, Sage and Celadon green and several of the blues. Afterward some added a fortune cookie, with or without the wrapper and some colorful chopsticks and shadow. The Felt Gray paper makes a nice background.

In the top photo are drawings from the morning class and in the bottom photo are drawings from the evening class. It is interesting to see how different each person's style is and the different choices of color, especially the subtle color in the white boxes which you may not be able to see from the photos.

CPSA 19th Annual Exhibition

I am very excited to learn today that my piece "Sea Foam" has been accepted into CPSA Annual Exhibition which will be in Dallas, Texas this year. I really enjoyed working on this piece last summer because I love the beach and all its treasures. My intention is to draw the viewers into the scene and through the rocks, sand and foam of the surf. I'm thrilled it will be a part of the exhibition and hope to be able to make it to Dallas.

Brightly Colored Orchids

I put the golfers aside and started a new colored pencil drawing. This one is on 12x12" Ampersand cradled gessobord. The surface of the gessobord is coated with Burgundy Colourfix liquid primer mixed with red Art Spectrum Liquid Spectrum ink to brighten the burgundy colored base. I chose this color for the background because I feel it will compliment the bright purples of the orchid blossoms nicely and still work well with the greens of the leaves. My reference photo is at the top of the photo.

So I began by drawing in the white areas of the flowers and little yellow centers. Most of the white areas are drawing with white pencil although I used some Powder Blue, Cream and Peach for the flowers behind others. The nice part about this textured surface is that it will take many layers and I can adjust any color or value issues that I need to.

Next I moved onto the leaves and began choosing and laying in some greens. I am using gray greens; Sage, Kelly, Celadon and Limepeel rather than the bright greens. I want the blossoms to pop forward and the green leaves to settle in the background. I'm going to have fun with this piece, especially the beautiful purples and bright pinks of the orchids themselves.

Portrait of Three Golfers

Working on my art has been a bit slow because of issues with my dad. I'm losing my mind while he's losing his mind! His health is holding steady, now the problem is with his memory, confusion and some dementia which I find an incredible challenge. He fights me on every decision that needs to be made regarding his health and I just get so tired. The doctor has just put him on a new medication for memory issues and I'm hoping it will work.

Enough complaining! In the last few weeks I've been working on this portrait for my husband. The portrait of the three golfers are my husband (left) and his two best friends. I won't put their names in the blog because the portrait is a surprise. Although I doubt my husband or his friends will even read my blog! When it's finished we are going to have giclees made so he can present each friend with a print. These three lucky golfers have played golf courses in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This year They are going to a world tournament in Deal, England (although the name of the tournament escapes me).

I wanted to portray them as happy and casual with the lovely landscape of this golf course in Scotland behind them. My husband had some special requests such as take a few pounds off him, remove wrinkles and make them all look younger. Yeah right, easier said than done! The piece measures 17x23" but their faces are only 1 1/2" wide. I began the drawing with the faces, because if I couldn't get their likenesses, then it wasn't worth doing the portait. And I learned that it's very difficult to get the likeness of a person when the face is so small because you have be able to draw it in a few strokes. Would you believe, the person I had the most trouble with was my own husband? His skin tone is darker and I found the browns made him look too wooden. I used purples, flesh, peach and some light browns. The surface I chose is white illustration board and I started with the Prismacolor and Coloursoft pencils then added Polychromos and Prismacolor Verithins to burnish and fill in the grain of the paper so white specks wouldn't show through. I also used a small bristle brush to burnish areas I wanted smooth. Two areas I still think I need to work on are their teeth, they may be too white and the grass which is much brighter green than I had intended. I don't think the grass area will take any more layers of pencil so I think I'll try blending either watercolor or pastel on top. Any suggestions? Please comment!

Eye Candy 2 Opens Today

My solo exhibit at Bristol Art Gallery, Bristol, Rhode Island, opens today and continues through June 3rd. The opening tonight is from 5 to 8 p.m. Here is the largest wall with my work, however the fish with the big teeth in front isn't mine! This is a wonderful gallery with many other intriguing artists in all mediums. Everyone is invited, for anyone in the area, please feel free to stop by at the opening or through June 3rd.

Fixing Mistakes in Colored Pencil

Here is the tulip piece I was working on last summer. I searched my blog and the last entry I could find contained this bottom photo with the brown background. I finished the piece, entered it into a national exhibit (which it was rejected from) and then it just in my studio for several months. Meanwhile, I kept looking at it and saying to myself, "something is wrong". One of the artists in my studio came by and told me the brown background was killing the piece! I was trying to choose a background that sit back quietly and let all the action happen in the foreground and I failed.

So ... I scraped the entire background off with transparent tape (middle photo). Believe me, this took hours because I had to work small sections at a time. And its something I wouldn't want to do again. Although, it looks kind of cool. I had applied so many layers of pencil on the paper that I couldn't pull the color entirely off. I almost left the drawing this way but decided to experiment more and apply another background.

The top photo shows the finished piece. After scraping off the background, I applied several layers and colors of pastel in grays, blues and greens. I rubbed each layer/color into the surface so that it wouldn't overpower the delicate tulips and glass bottles. I took the brown reflections out of the glass and added the grays reflected from the background. Thus, the entire background is pastel worked very gently around the subjects and worked into some of the tulips to make some of them fade into the background.

This drawing has been a learning experience and somewhat of an experiment. I kind of like what's going on in the piece where I removed the background but wouldn't really want to take the hours to apply all that pencil and then remove it. What did I learn? To really think before choosing a background that works with the subject and that you can remove large areas and reapply color!

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.