Wren - Colored Pencil

I've been back at the drawing table and have some good things to show for it. This House Wren is Prismacolor colored pencils on smooth bristol.

It's a combination of birds and a theme from years ago: ribbons. It's monochromatic in browns and yellows with some black and white. It felt good to combine the two things and see what happened.

After the splashy paintings, I wanted delicacy and lightness and this does that nicely - I'm especially pleased with the white space. It's finished size 8 x 10. The gray shadow is from the scanner - I'll have to rescan to use this for cards or prints.

This is the first of four, with three completed. They're all monochromatic and three are finished. I'll post the others soon.

The Blue Jay watercolor from a couple posts ago is ready and in my Etsy shop as a notecard. Bonus for you: buy a package of cards (any of them) and let me know you're a reader here (just type the word "blog" into the notes/instructions) and I'll send you a free gift with your purchase!

One last thing! I'm working on moving this blog over to my main website and it'll be ready soon. Of course, I'm still working out the technical stuff but will keep you posted. It's looking good and it's going to be nice to have everything under one "roof."

Drawing of a Robin - Colored Pencil

This soft sweet Robin is in the same series as the Cardinals. It's 5x7, on Champagne Mi Tientes paper (smooth side) and done in Prismacolor Pencils.

For this one, I ended up with a few more colors than usual: Indigo, Periwinkle, Mineral Orange, Yellow Ocher, Black and White. The blue and orange tones are complements and work together nicely even though Robins in life don't have much blue in their feathers.

The softness of this drawing is very apparent, to me anyway, and adds a sweet look to the subject. That wasn't my goal when I started but I did work with it as it appeared.

The entire back of the bird is suggested but not drawn clearly or just plain missing. I'm still experimenting with the pencils to see how loose I can go. This may be getting close to the boundry of "not enough" - we'll see where it ends up.

Drawings! Cardinals! In Colored Pencil!

OK, so that's a lot of excitement up there in the title. But, it's been such a long while since I posted and almost as long since drawing and painting that I got kind of wound up.

This is the first drawing after being away for while and I could sure tell in my rusty hands and eyes. It's sketched lightly on Champagne Mi Tientes and then the color is worked in with Prismacolor colored pencils. In trying to stick with limited colors, I chose Tuscan Red, Scarlet, Poppy Red, White and Black.

Overall, it's OK but I didn't like the texture of the paper - too mechanical. Nor am I happy with the stiffness and lack of life in the bird; perhaps it's a bit overworked.

So, I did another drawing exactly the same- sort of.



Here's Cardinal #2, same paper (except on the smooth side), same size (5x7), and the same colors. To me, it seems fresher even if there's less detail. This one was much easier to draw and complete; I could feel myself loosening up as it progressed.

Colored pencils are a big draw for me, but I'm still getting comfortable with how I want to use them in a less precise manner. I'm enjoying exploring these small drawings and am trying to do some everyday. I've got another couple to show very soon.

Thanks for looking and any thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

Colored Pencil Drawing - Clay Face

This is a sketch of my clay face from the previous post. The paper is Canson Mi Tientes in some shade of buff with Prismacolor pencils in White and Sepia.

The color choices for the pencils and the personality around the eyes are pleasing. However, I'm less pleased with how the mouth and chin look. It's obvious from this drawing (and another that I'm not posting) that the anatomy of the model's mouth and chin are not correct.

Until now, I was confident (perhaps overconfident) that I had a good grasp of facial anatomy. Certainly, I can draw and paint the face and portraits with some aptitude, but that's just not the same as making a 3D model. This has really shown me where I could use some more information.

So, that started me on a study of facial anatomy. First, I'm making a study of the skull and then the muscles of the mouth and chin. Look for those soon!

A Clay Face - Just for Fun

Several days ago I had an idea to make my own clay model of a face for drawing practice. The idea isn't mine, it's from Bert Dodson's "Keys to Drawing with Imagination" where he talks about modeling your own subjects then drawing them to achieve a more personal interpretation of the subject.

So, I went to the local Michael's and bought some Laguna Self Hardening Clay. It comes in four colors, but I wanted the Terra Cotta for that natural look and because the lighter colors don't show shadows and contrast as well for drawing features.

That's my clay face up there and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out especially since I'm not accustomed to working with clay. It did remind me why I don't work with clay - too messy! Things that get my hands dirty just aren't my thing, but I wanted the end product enough to endure it.

Doing this did show me where my knowledge of facial anatomy needs work. Having to build it from scratch is a remarkable test of understanding. The nose and chin are purposefully exaggerated for character, the eyes turned out nicely, and the mouth could be more refined.

I'll probably make another one or two of these to have on hand for models as well as giving me the chance to explore facial structure. No time yet to draw and paint from it but, look for artwork based on the clay face in future posts.

Western Red Tailed Hawk Drawing - Colored Pencil on Dark Paper

I enjoyed drawing the hawk in the earlier post so much, I thought I'd try again. Here's a 5 x 7 Western Red Tailed Hawk drawn on Mi Tientes paper with Prismacolor pencils. Again I used a minimal palette of Indigo Blue, Dark Umber, Light Umber, Goldenrod, White and a touch of Black. I don't know the color name of the paper, but it is very dark and cool toned.

In hindsight, I would have done this differently. This color is incredibly hard to see to draw! My initial sketch lines - which are usually very light as is my habit - were nearly invisible. Also, the colors I chose harmonize well with the subject and the paper, but seem to lack sparkle.

There's some of this paper left and next time, I'll try a white bird for that lift it seems to need. Either way, I'm still pleased with how the hawk turned out, especially the expression, and it was really fun to do.

I'm still experimenting with watercolor toned grounds, but it looks like an art supply order for more colored paper is in the making!

Red Tailed Hawk Drawing

I haven't done enough drawing lately and was feeling the lack. So, here's a Red Tailed Hawk on gray paper. I think it's Canson but it was in a stack of miscellaneous paper with no marks or labels so that's a guess. This hawk is actually a warm toned bird in shades of brown, golds and cremes so my choice of cool colored pencils makes it look much starker.

I sketched the bird lightly with a fine point pencil, then used four Prismacolor colored pencils for the body and beak: Black, White, Indigo and Warm Gray 50%. Two more colors were added to enhance the eyes: Light Umber and Goldenrod.

This was a relatively fast study and, for what it's worth, fast for me means around 30 to 45 minutes. Overall, I'm pleased with it but, as usual, there's room for improvement.

Working with the pencils on the colored paper did start me thinking about using watercolor to tone and drawing on that. SO, I've got a couple of those lined up to experiment with. Let's see where that goes!

On a painting note, a new cardinal is available at Etsy. I think he looks festive, so he's a Christmas Cardinal with the name "Waiting."

"Waiting"

Christmas Cardinal

5 x 7 Original Watercolor Painting

More Thoughts on Keeping a Sketchbook

In an earlier post, were musings on my sketch book and what it means to me. Over lunch with a friend, I pulled the book out to jot down a quick idea – words only mind you – and realized that I never go back to the book to retrieve those ideas. So why bother?

Of course, the next thing to do was go back through the book and see just what it was that was so important. I found that the notes of ideas, lists or even basic outlines, are still valuable and could be developed into posts, articles or even books. However, it’s obvious that remembering to go back and look for them when the time comes will be a problem.

The pages that have sketches only or sketches and notes were much more interesting and memorable. They were so much more enjoyable to look at and the memories of those ideas were much clearer. Many of those pages were solely for my own amusement and pleasure or to document something encountered along the way. Like the one above.

My sketch book is a repository of ideas and images but not necessarily a specific reference. That doesn’t bother me because I enjoy the act and process of keeping the book. The one thing this exercise has made me aware of is the benefit of indexing to be able to find those ideas later when I want to use them. Any thoughts on using your sketch books and retrieving the information later?

Thoughts on Keeping an Artist's Sketchbook

Do I keep a sketch book? Yes, but I’ll bet it’s not what you expect. There are as many lists and words as sketches. I use my journal for everything from notes on book and article ideas to sketches of people, places and things. Sometimes, I go for days without an entry and then other times several pages are gone in one day.

I’m hesitant to share the sketches because people seem to expect a work of art and act a bit let down when the sketches aren’t as finished or polished as they expected. Some pages are more colorful and attractive than others and that usually depends on how much time I was able to spend. The fast and messy pages are more valuable to me because the ideas they contain were important. The sketch posted here was made very quickly while waiting at a parking lot because I liked the way the breeze was swishing the fronds and how the sun glinted off them.

To me, painting, drawing and sketching are different skills and may be accomplished in different styles. Some artists are more consistent, but I’m not one of them. My sketch style is abbreviated and messy while my drawings are much more precise and detailed. In comparison, my painting style is closer to my sketching style but doesn’t resemble it much because of the difference in mediums.

I really like to see other artist’s sketches. It’s like getting a peek at the thought process behind the scenes. Karen Winters, a truly accomplished landscape painter, posed a thoughtful question on her blog about drawing, sketching and sharing that process. I’d love to hear what you think.

A Bit of Black

Another bird! This mockingbird drawing was lightly sketched with graphite and finished with colored pencil. Colored pencil is nice for the detail it allows, but fairly time consuming to lay down the pigment.

This little (5x7) drawing has only a limited color range - blues, grays, a little yellow and a bit of black.

I'm finding these birds to be extremly enjoyable so have started more for watercolor sketches. We'll see how those go.

A Flash of Blue

This is a quick drawing from yesterday. After getting the initial sketch down and starting to put in the dark eyes, beak and feathers with graphite, I wanted more. He is a Blue Jay after all. So, I added pastel chalks and was much happier.

This is one of a very few bird drawings I've done and it was very enjoyable. Maybe there are more in my future!

More travel sketches on the way to CHA

Still gathering my thoughts on the Craft and Hobby Association trade show. To stretch things out a bit more before I make a report, here are a couple more quick sketches from the trip out.

The view from the gate in the Atlanta airport. I arrived from my inbound flight with no time to spare - they had started boarding already!

A few quick bits from the flight out to California. It was a long flight but that is all I could get done as I started to feel a bit off.