Colored Pencils

Hi, and welcome to my blog. Our weekly art sessions have been going strong for the last seven weeks and are now winding down for the summer - our last session is this week. The girls have created lots of wonderful pieces, and I will be posting them over the next few months.

In the meantime, I have completed two colored pencil projects that I want to show you.

The first was designed by Gemma Gylling called Yorkie. The picture was done on 5 x 8 suede board, which was a new surface for me to work on. I found working on suede to be very interesting - it takes lots of layers of pencil, so you can build the hair and make it look very fluffy and realistic. With the suede surface you also end up with a wonderful background without doing anything! Sometimes with colored pencils, creating a background can be rather challenging, so it was great to have the background already there. I liked working on the suede, and plan to use it for more projects in the future.


This project is called Western Meadowlark and was designed by Sherry Nelson - the entire project can be found in her book called Painting Songbirds. The instructions in the book are for oil paints. I converted everything to colored pencils and completed the piece on 8 x 10 wave green mi-teintes paper. I really enjoyed doing this project - the butterfly and grasshopper were a bit of a challenge, but, I was happy with the final result.

I am now getting my summer projects ready to take over to my cottage, so I can work on them over there. I plan to complete projects in pen & ink and colored pencil, and I will also be doing some Christmas ornaments - fall will be here before we know it, and that is when we all start working on our Christmas stuff!

That's it for now - please check back in a few weeks when I will post some wonderful art completed by the girls in our art sessions.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Joan

colored pencils

After taking a break from my artwork in January and early February, I decided it was time for me to start painting and colouring again.


This piece is called A Partridge in a Pear Tree, designed by Audrey Bettin, and it can be found in the October 2000 edition of Lets Paint. The original design is on a dark green cloth vertical banner and, it has three pears and lots of leaves and berries. The instructions in Let's Paint call for fabric acrylics.
So, since I am not into acrylic or fabric painting, nor did I want to do a large piece, I decided to downsize and convert everything to coloured pencils.
I did not have any dark green mi-teintes paper, so I settled on a burgundy background - I really like the background, but I did find that some of the brown shades in the partridge did not really pop out on the burgundy. The original project had shiny metallic paint on the ribbon and wings, and I really liked the effect. So, on the partridge wings I used a gold metallic Prisma colour pencil, and I used gold metallic acrylic paint around the outside. When the light falls on these areas they shine. It was a fun project and I really enjoyed working on it, but if I do it again, I think I will use a dark green background.

I have already picked out my next coloured pencil project, and I am in the process of deciding on a new pen & ink piece.

Our spring art sessions start in April, so I will have lots of new pieces to share with you soon. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Colored Pencils

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

Before Christmas I was very busy working on two projects I was giving as Christmas presents....and I would like to share these pieces with you.

My granddaughter, Jessica, loves everything involving princesses. So, for her Christmas present, I decided to do the Disney Castle. This picture is done on 16x20 mi-teintes paper (orchid colour), and the entire piece is done with coloured pencils. I had a lot of fun experimenting with the pencils to get the right look for the castle, but, I must admit, the bricks at the bottom did get a little tiresome after the first couple of hours working on them! It was a huge undertaking, and I was definitely happy with the results. I was also very happy to finally complete the picture! However, it looks like I have to do another one - my granddaughter, Abigail, now wants a castle for her wall.....

In my collection of pictures I had one of my granddaughter, Abigail, with this wonderful, crazy hat. It was a picture I just loved. So, I decided to try my hand at doing a coloured pencil portrait from the picture. Although, I had done some portrait work using patterns, I had never attempted one from scratch. It was an interesting undertaking. I did the hat first - it was fun, - I had a great time and was very pleased with the way it turned out. Then came the face, the eyes, nose and mouth - it wasn't nearly as much fun as the hat! I made several corrections along the way, and I really had to do some experimenting with the various skin shades. I finished off with the shirt, which was very easy, and did not take much time at all. For my first portrait I am pleased.....I learned a lot, and I am looking forward to doing more portraits in the future. I gave this portrait to my daughter, Jill (Abigail's mother), for Christmas, and she was very pleased with it.

For the next month I will be taking a break from my art work - I will be working on other projects that I need to complete. However, I still have lots of pictures that the girls in my art sessions completed, and I will be posting them every month or so. So, please check back in a few weeks.

Colored pencils

I have completed another coloured pencil project - I have made up my mind, I WILL work on some pen & ink with oil projects over the summer and (hopefully) have them ready to post in the fall. I just LOVE col. pencils so-o-o-o much, I can't seem to stop working on them - I think it is becoming an obsession....

This project is called Evening Grosbeak Pair, and was designed by Sherry Nelson. The pattern can be found in Sherry's Book Painting Songbirds. It is a lovely book - I have already done a couple of projects out of the book, and several of the girls in my art group have also worked on some of the patterns. The instructions in the book are for oil painting, so, I had to convert everything to coloured pencils. I had fun doing it, and, with approximately 150 coloured pencils to choose from, I had no problem trying to match the colours with the designated oil paint. Perhaps I got a little carried away with the colours on the leaves - I didn't plan to have them quite so colourful! This picture will be a gift - hope they like it!

We now have our cottage open, and I plan to spend a lot of time there over the summer. So, I will be packing up all my pens, brushes, coloured pencils, etc., and setting up shop on the banks of the Ottawa River for a couple of months.

I still have quite a few pictures that were done by the girls in my art sessions, and I will post these over the summer.

I hope everyone has a great summer.

Colored Pencils

Well, here I am again reporting on some colored pencil projects I have finished. I do have plans to work on some pen & ink pieces, but, right now, I am enjoying the pencils so much I just keep working on new c.p. projects.

The first project is called Daydreamer, and was designed by Pat Lentine (http://www.patlentine.com/). I love the simplicity of this design as well as the very subtle colour. There is really not a lot of colour on this piece - it is just tinted here and there, and the colour of the paper shows through in almost all areas. I have already picked out a picture (side profile) of my granddaughter, Abigail, which I plan to tackle with the col. pen., and I am going to use similar colours as are shown in this piece.

This project (Black-capped Chickadees and Cherries) was designed by Sherry Nelson, and can be found in her book Painting Garden Birds. All the instructions for this project were for oil paint, so I had to convert everything to colored pencils. I found the cherries rather challenging, but I loved working on the chickadee. When working with coloured pencils there is such a large range of colours to choose from that it is so easy to create the exact look and color you want.

Right now, that's all I have to share - I'm off to work on a project with two grosbeaks and fall leaves - will post it when I am finished.

The girls in my Monday and Tuesday art sessions are busy producing all kinds of interesting artwork, and I will post more of their finished pieces shortly.

Colored Pencils

I have spent most of my time over winter working with my colored pencils - I can't seem to get enough of them.

This first project is called Copper Still Life and was designed by Janelle Johnson (http://www.janellejohnson.com/). It is done on 11x14 hand-dyed paper that I got from Janelle. Last fall I took a course from Janelle and this was the project we worked on. I did not complete it during the course, so I have been working on it on and off over the last few months. There sure are a lot of leaves on this piece - I was glad when I finally got them all done. But, I can say that I now definitely know how to do leaves! The copper pot and lantern were very interesting and I feel I learned a lot working on these two items. To finish the piece off I added a rust colored matte and put it in a black frame.

This project is called Buddies and was designed by Pat Lentine (http://www.patlentine.com/). I did it on 8 x 10 Mei-tentes paper. I expect it will probably end up being a baby shower gift. This piece was a lot of fun to do and did not take a long time. I just love the expressions on the faces of the bears! I thought the fur might be time consuming, but, once I figured it out, it worked up very fast. The bows just seem to set the picture off. I still have to matte and frame this piece.

There are a number of colored pencil pieces I plan to tackle soon. I have several photographs that I plan to turn into colored pencil pictures. Since there will be no pattern, I will be winging it as far as the pictures and colors are concerned. It will be fun, and, I hope to learn a lot by experimenting and attempting different things with the colored pencils. I have a total of about 150 colored pencils, so, I should have fun deciding on colors to use.

Colored Pencils

I have just finished matting and framing my latest colored pencil project - it is going to be a Christmas present. The project did take quite awhile to complete, but I am very happy with the end result. The picture is called Goldfinch at Feeder, and it was designed by Janelle Johnson - to see other designs by Janelle please visit her website at: http://www.janellejohnson.com/. Now that I finally have this project finished, I can tackle some other designs, including some pen & ink work.

I absolutely LOVE working with colored pencils. The colors are so varied, there is no mess, and it is relatively inexpensive to get started - the biggest expense being the cost of the colored pencils. Since you are just working with the pencils, you can leave your work station with absolutely no cleanup (no brushes to wash!!!). Right now I have another large picture on the go, and I am also working on designing a couple of smaller pieces. One of the girls in my Monday night group has also tried her hand with the colored pencils, and has finished two pictures already. She managed to complete each one during an evening session, and I will be posting those pics. soon.

As soon as I have more news and pictures I will post them.

Colored Pencils

The first weekend in October I attended a 3 day colored pencil seminar in Ajax...the course was taught by Janelle Johnson (http://www.janellejohnson.com/). It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I learned a lot, and, since returning home, I have been working on several projects. The first day of the course we completed the Baltimore Oriole in the Cottonwood, and on the second and third day we worked on Copper Still Life (I did not get this picture done, so I will post it when it is complete). I love colored pencils! It is so nice to work with just the pencils, a sharpener and scotch tape in front of you - no paint, no cleanup material, nothing to spill.....it is great. At this point, I realize I still have a lot to learn, so since returning home, I have been working on 'beginner' pieces. I have attached a pic of the two pieces I completed - Albert's Rose and Calla Lillies (both of these are patterns by Janelle Johnson). I do have some harder pieces to work on, and I plan to tackle them very soon.

Janelle was a wonderful instructor, and I certainly learned a lot from her. I feel with a little time and experience I will be able to convert some of my patterns into colored pencils, and I am really looking forward to the challenge.

Some of the girls in my Monday and Thursday art sessions have expressed an interest in working in this art form, so I expect to have some company while I am learning.

Well, I'm off to work with my colored pencils....I will post new projects and information soon....