Colored Pencils and Pen and Ink

This is the last day of November! I can't believe where the time has gone.....it seems like yesterday that I was closing my cottage.

We have been very busy at our weekly art sessions and I will be posting some of the WONDERFUL artwork by the girls shortly.

In the meantime, I have completed a few pieces I would like to share with you.

This is a coloured pencil project called At the Beach and was designed by Pat Lentine. I absolutely love this design! I did the project on 8x10 sand colored mi-teintes paper. When I started this piece I thought the little girl's dress and hat would be the hardest part, but, it turned out the water was the most difficult. I really enjoyed working on this project.

Since it is the Christmas season, I decided to complete some decorations, so I got my pen and oil paints out, and this is what I came up with. The designs are by Jamie Mills-Price and are called Gingerbread Angels and Snow Angels....the patterns can be found in Jamie's book titled Between the Vines 10. These projects were done on wooden cutouts - I inked on the pattern then rouged on oil paint. I used acrylic paint for the dark blue dress, and also for the berries and other dots on the decorations. I think the angels are really cute - have to decide now whether to give them as gifts or keep them myself.

I am now working on a couple of large coloured pencil projects that will end up being Christmas presents. So, I won't be posting any new projects of mine until after Christmas. In the meantime, I have LOTS of very interesting projects the girls in our art sessions have completed - so, I will be posting these over the next while.

Weekly Art Sessions

I finally had some time to sit down at my computer and transfer some pics from my camera. The last few weeks have been crazy - I have been out of town a lot and, when I am home, there are so many things I have to do........however, I am finished running around for now, and I am now in the process of getting everything organized and up to date.

Our weekly art sessions run for four more weeks. I was reviewing all the pictures the girls completed last spring and realized there were quite a few I had not posted yet. And, now, all our new fall masterpieces are being completed! So, I am posting quite a few pieces this time to try and catch up with the rapid flow of wonderful art being produced.

This piece was done by Nicole on rectangular porcelain. It is so cute, I just had to post it! Although I believe there is a small amount of pen & ink work, most of the project was completed in straight oils. I do not know who the original designing artist was. I have posted another of Nicole's pieces below.

This is a Claudia Nice Design and can be found in her book titled Familiar Faces. The book is full of faces - people, dogs, cats, horses, etc., etc., and is a wonderful reference for anyone working on portraits in pen & ink. The book is out of print, but can usually be found on Ebay or Amazon. Sue decided to tackle this project and completed it on 11x14 canvas - it only took her a few hours to complete. There is no paint on it - it was all done in pen & ink.

Linda decided to try her hand at coloured pencils, and for her first project she chose this Sherry Nelson project titled American Goldfinch and Daisies (she is a brave lady - this is a difficult piece!). The project is in Sherry's book titled Painting Garden Birds, and all the instructions are for oil painting. Linda, who is obviously quite artistic, converted the instructions to coloured pencils and created this wonderful piece. Linda enjoyed working with the coloured pencils and plans to work on future pieces using them.

This project was designed by Susan Scheewe and was completed by Ruth on 11x14 canvas. The instructions on the pattern were for straight oil paints, but Ruth decided to do it in pen & ink with oil rouging. So, she had to convert the pattern. I think Ruth used every colour of oil paint I had - she was constantly adding colours and touching up everything. I think she was happy with the final result and I think it looks great.

This is another piece by Sherry Nelson taken out of the book Painting Garden Birds. The piece is called Western Bluebird and Morning Glories. Nancy completed the piece on 11x14 mi-teintes paper and used coloured pencils. Once again, the instructions were for oil painting, so Nancy had to convert all the instructions to coloured pencils. I love the colours in the picture - I think Nancy did a wonderful job.

I don't know who the original artist was for this piece, nor do I know the title of the project. This is an oil painting completed by Nicole. She is always showing up with very interesting projects to work on. I think she has done an amazing job on the fruit and I love the background. It is always interesting to see what Nicole brings to the art sessions to work on - always a surprise!

This is a coloured pencil pattern designed by Pat Lentine titled Ava Rose. I think it is a lovely pattern. Sue decided to do this on mi-teintes paper, and I think it only took her two nights to complete. I love the hat! Sue has now done several coloured pencil projects and, I think she is enjoying working with the pencils as much as I do.

This project was completed by Cecile. It was done with coloured pencils on mi-teintes paper. The pattern is called The Painted Lady and was designed by Janelle Johnson. There is a lot of fiddly detail on this piece, and I think Cecile did a great job.

I hope you enjoyed the above projects. The girls in my Monday and Tuesday night and Thursday morning art sessions are very talented and they are currently busy producing all kinds of wonderful works of art, and I will be posting some every few weeks.

I have been busy working on Christmas ornaments with pen & ink and oils, and I will post pics of those shortly. I am now starting to work on some coloured pencil projects, most of which will be Christmas presents. Christmas is only six weeks away! Can you believe that? It is my favourite time of year, so I better get busy and get all my projects finished so I can sit back and enjoy the season!