Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Hi and welcome to my blog:

I hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather....we have been spending a lot of time at our cottage, and, there are so many things to do outside that I have had little time to devote to my painting.  But, all that is going to change...I am packing up my painting supplies and colored pencils and hauling everything over to the cottage.

I have some artwork to show you that the girls in my art sessions completed earlier in the year:

This is a design by Sherry Nelson called Emperor Morpho and Torch Ginger.  Sherry's instructions are for oils, but Cecile decided to do the piece with colored pencils on 11x14 mi teintes paper.  This project took Cecile quite awhile...unlike working with acrylics or oils, colored pencils require a layering technique in order to obtain brilliant colors, so it takes quite a while to build the colors.  I think the piece is lovely, and Cecile did a wonderful job.





Ginette did this sunset piece (designed by Bonnie Seaman) in oils and pen and ink on a wooden surface that was approx. 10x20".  In most pen and ink pieces first the pattern is traced, then inked in, and the paint is added later.  However, we have found with the sunset scenes if you do all your inking, spray, then try to do your sky, you are constantly erasing the sky colors off all your inked areas.  So, we decided to do all the background colors first, gave the piece a few good coats of spray, then applied the pattern outline and inked it in.  The piece is then finished with a few coats of spray.  It works wonderful.  Ginette's has done a great job.

This is Linda' dog.  She took a photo of him, traced the outline on 11x14 mi-teintes paper, then completed the piece in colored pencils.  Although it looks rather simple, there are a lot of layers and different colors of pencils used in order to get the dimension of the dog's hair - you have to build the dog's coat in layers.  When coloring animals, it is crucial that the face (particularly the eyes) is almost perfect.  Linda did a great job on this project and her dog is so-o-o cute!.





Ruth did this piece that combines a few techniques - she did it on canvas that was approx 20x24".  First she applied a coat of Texture crackle, let it dry, sanded it lightly, applied several layers of spray, then basecoated it with acrylics. After sponging the various areas with acrylics, she then applied the decorative design and words with stencils.  Finally, she applied the flower and butterfly - not sure if she used acrylics or oils for this.  After a few coats of spray, Ruth had a lovely, colorful piece to hang on her wall.  Nice job!




This is a project originally designed by Claudia Nice that a few of us have tackled.  Monique decided to do it on 11x14 canvas, and did it using pen and ink with oils.  There is a lot of inking to do on the moose, and it can be rather difficult to keep all the hair going in the right direction.  Once all the inking was done and the piece was sprayed, small amounts of oil paint were rouged on, just to add a touch of color.  Monique has done a lovely job on this piece.


I have recently joined the Artists Clubhouse (www.artistsclub.com)...it has over 900 members.  It is a wonderful site - everyone has their own individual page where you can add your profile, display your work, add friends, post a blog (which every member can see), carry on discussions with other members of the club, and, generally add anything to your page you want.  There are also individual groups you can join - snowman club, santa club, unfinished projects club (and many others), where you can join in discussions, ask questions, etc. with other members who share an interest in that topic.  You can also chat online and join in general discussions with the other members.  If you have a question, or want to answer a question asked by another member, you can do that too.  I think there are a lot of advantages to being a member of this club, so, if you are interested, please check it out.  Oh, did I mention there is no cost to belong to this club!!!

Well, I am off to my cottage!  Right now I seem to be rather intrigued with silhouettes and sunset pictures, so I will be working on a few of these.  So, in a few weeks I will be posting some new artwork of my own.

I hope everyone has a great summer, and thank you for visiting my blog.

Joan