Colored Pencils and Pen and Ink,

Hi, HAPPY NEW YEAR, and welcome to my blog:

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I certainly did, but, as usual, I ate, drank and partied more than I should have...but, I did have a wonderful time! Now, all the decorations have been put away, the tree has been taken down, all the sweet snacks have disappeared from the fridge, and I am settling back into a normal routine. Quite frankly, I am ready to have an organized, calm life again.

Prior to Christmas I finished some ornaments, and I would like to share them with you.

The first two pictures include Icy, Flake, Chill and Noel. The other character in this group is Believe, and he is posted in my November 30 post. These characters were designed by Jamie Mills-Price, and can be found in her book 'Christmastime 6', along with a lot of other wonderful projects. These ornaments are done on wooden cutouts. I did all my basecoating with acrylics and also a lot of the decorative dots, bows, leaves, etc. All the black areas - the hats, penquins, etc. are filled in with a Faber Castell brush pen, and the rest of the pieces are done in oils (all the shading, hi-lighting, etc.) I painted the backs of all the pieces and added snowflake stencils. These ornaments were a lot of fun to do, but, there is a lot more work than what meets the eye!

I found this little angel - I don't know who the original artist is - and I decided to make her into an ornament and use coloured pencils. So I started with a wooden heart, glued mi-teintes paper on, traced my pattern, then did all the work with coloured pencils. When I was done, I found some acrylic paint that matched the colour of the mi-teintes paper, painted the back of the ornament, and added white snowflakes (I used a stencil for this). This is the first ornament I have done with coloured pencils, and I am sure I will be doing more.

I think this ornament is funny - all the snowmen hamming it up in the woods. With the exception of the ornaments on the tree, everything is done in pen and ink with oils. It is a very quick project to do - did not use a pattern...just starting inking in trees and snowmen. The 'snow' is applied with sno writer, and the glitter is glamour dust. A very fast (and silly) project.

One of my granddaughters is right into Strawberry Shortcake and the other is crazy about Minnie and Daisy. So I decided to do them each an ornament as part of their Christmas presents. The ornaments are wooden cutouts. I sealed and basecoated the mittens, traced and inked the pattern, then used oils to rouge the colour on - I used acrylics for the Christmas tree decorations. To finish them off I used white oil paint for the 'snow', then sprinkled glamour dust on all the snow. I am pretty happy with the way they turned out - my grandkids loved them!

This year I will be holding winter art sessions on Monday evening and Thursday morning beginning the week of January 9 and running until late February. So, over the next few months I will have lots of new artwork to show you.

I have a few ideas about new projects I plan to work on, and, after taking a Christmas break, I must admit I am anxious to get started on some new pieces.

Thanks for visiting my blog, and please check back in a few weeks

Joan

Colored Pencils and Pen and Ink

Good Morning, and welcome to my blog:

Over the last few weeks I have completed several art pieces I would like to share with you.

This coloured pencil sunset scene (done on 5x7 mi-teintes paper) was originally designed by Lee Hammond - I loved it and, since it looked very straight forward, I thought I would tackle it and have it done in no time....no such luck! Although it looks easy, it took quite a few hours for me to build up the colours so they were deep and rich. I really like the finished piece, and I learned a lot about creating waves and sunsets.



Isn't this piece adorable? It is also a coloured pencil project, originally designed by Lee Hammond. This one did not take nearly as long as the sunset scene. I did it on 5x7 mi-teintes paper and only used about 6 or seven different colours - the whole project took me about 3 or 4 hours. The most challenging part of the piece was the nose area...I love this piece!



I did this Christmas ornament (original artist unknown) on a 7" wooden snowflake. I basecoated the wood with acrylic paint, inked in all the black areas, used white acrylic for the stars, and a stencil for the large star. The words were also stencilled on with white acrylic. I used Snow Writer to create the 'snow' and on the ground, to touch it off, I added some glamour dust. On the back (photo is also shown) I added some 'stencilled' words, and left plenty of room to add greetings and a signature.

This piece was done on a 3 1/2 x 5 wood oval. I don't know who the original artist was. I basecoated the wood with acrylic paint, and also used acrylics to paint the moon. The hills, trees, Santa and the reindeer were inked on. The stars were done with white acrylic paint, and I used a stencil and white acrylic for the large star. After spraying everything I added white oil paint to the hills and sprinkled glamour dust on the 'snow' and large star.

With Christmas just around the corner, most of the girls in our art sessions are busy working on Christmas ornaments. Painting on texture and using stencils are also very popular. So, over the next couple of months I will be posting all the wonderful pieces they create. Get ready to be 'wowed' with all the interesting and awsome artwork!

Thanks for visiting my blog - please check back soon!

Joan

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.