Update electric blue

click to enlarge

OK here's where I'm at. I ordered a bunch of electric blue coloursoft pencils yesterday. I have almost gone through the 2 that I had.

I also had a problem with rubbing off pencil. On the left and especially on the bottom. So I had to use some fixative on the left side. Where my arm was resting under the green pear (and rubbed off the reflections I made) will have to be redone.

Electric Blue!

Click Images to Enlarge

A very blue still-life. But no blue objects. This one is going to be 12" x 24" and it may take me a while. Not because it will be difficult to do (the shapes are very simple) but because I may have to take a break to mail order more blue pencils! This will have an all blue background and then the objects are mostly white except for 3 red, yellow and green pears. I hope the end result will be modern and dramatic, but we'll see!

I'm using coloursofts and Caran D'Ache pencils and then putting Faber Castell Polychromos on top to smooth things and to tint. Yum!

None of this is finished - I'll come back to them later and adjust values and edges. Especially that vase, that is looking pretty flat still!

So stay tuned!

Updates & a new trick or two!

OK I"M EXCITED ABOUT SOMETHING!!!!!!!!

I had sprayed the milk bottle drawing with fixative to prevent dark pencil from rubbing off (all pastelbord users understand that!) Then I went in to fix the bottle distortion that someone pointed out and I was trying to ignore .

So I went in with my new set of polychromoss that I got for Christmas. The reputation of polys is that that are oily and can glaze well, so I thought that would be perfect over fixed pencil & IT WAS! It blended in a smoothed things out - it was yummy. I went in and tried to tighten up some of the grain in areas I was having trouble filling in with my other pencils - like the table top and the red apples. It worked so well! I didn't do it all over - mostly the table top and the apples. Can you tell?

I think I will add this step in all my worki. Fixing then refining grain and details with polys. I'm going to try the same thing with my Caran D'Ache Pablos and see if it works the same.

I said a trick or two - My friend Gary Ruuska just told me at the last CPSA meeting that you don't need a saw to cut pastelbord - which I thought you needed. All you need to do is score on both sides with a utility knife and snap. I tried it today and it worked perfectly! Thanks Gary!


& the second update. I glazed some complements over the left upper side as well as here and there on the grapes and crate top. OK its finished. :D

Caulfield's Dairy

I still want to add some glazes on that watercolor one, but here is a little one that had to be done. Can you see why?

It's 8" x 10" on grey pastelbord with my favorite dry colored pencils. I actually got to scan it in instead of photograph it because of its size. It looks so different this way and you can enjoy the texture. :)

Grapes on a Crate

First off, I need a title. Grapes on a Crate just won't do.

I have to say during this whole process I was very skeptical. I was skeptical of my decision to pair the elegant white bowl and grapes with a brown old crate and surroundings. I was skeptical about all the space around the object - too much too little? I was skeptical about my abilities with the watercolor underpainting. Working with the watercolor is like doing a basic watercolor paitning and then beating it into submission with the dry colored pencil. I do enjoy the watercolor and it brought back memories of pushing around the wet pigments, lifting out color etc. but pairing it with colored pencil is a bit of a tug o' war.

The question on this technique however is "Is it worth it?" The reason why I was doing this new technique is its a way to use white board instead of colored. On the colored board, it brings down the tonal values automatically by the board color influencing all the colors/values in the piece. Its ot a problem unless the artwork is not lit well and it annoys me beyong belief when a piece doesn't show well because of lighting when displayed. I kind of miss the speckliness of my usual technique though when I look at this. I've always thought the specks give them a feel like an old movie reel or a memory.

I can still make changes on it add color etc. The photo is a bit skewed from camera distortion so try and ignore that.

A work in Progress!

More experimenting with watercolor pencils.

This is 11 x 14" overall and so far I've put 6 nonstop hours into it. I'm not even half way through yet.

More Experimenting

As with the last piece, the portrait of Obama, this drawing is done on white pastelbord with a watercolor pencil underpainting and then a build up of dry colored pencil on top. I actually took photos of the steps and deleted them by accident, so sorry about that!

This piece is successful in some ways and not in others. I should have left that vase all the way to the right out to create a less balanced, or I should say a more as symmetrically balanced, composition. I've named it "Regular Intervals" because it was just a simple experiment to line the objects to feel like they were equidistant apart.

The technique though I think was successful. I wish you could see what it looks like better. Not only is this a poor photo (with a portion out of focus) but you just can't appreciate the subtle textures as in real life. Usually I work with just a dry application on the Pastelbord, and keep the sand paper like even texture all over the piece. This new technique (for me) has a more "painterly feel" where you can see brush strokes, and just a bit more depth in the pencil itself. Also, since it is on white board instead of colored, I can reach a better range of values. The drawings on colored board always has the lightest lights knocked back by the influence of the board color. I think I'll throw in a few of these now and again. I'd love to know what you think of the new technique!

So I noticed quite a few of you mentioned liking the vertical still-lifes I've done. I'll try to make more of those. I find those compositions so challenging that I get tuckered out after doing one!

One nice bit of info I just found out - you can get podcasts from all the major art museums for free and download them super easily in the Ipod store. So glad I found this out - now I'll have something to listen to while I draw besides Harry Potter over and over!

Thanks for looking and if you read all of that, reading too!

Out of the Ordinary

I only like doing portraits for fun and every once in a while I get the urge. I couldn't help myself with this one after seeing my friend Dan White's photos.

I was also wanting to try using my Supracolor (Caran D'Ache) watercolor pencils on white board mixed with regular colored pencils. I had fun with it - even though I intended to keep more of the loose watercolor feel. Oops.

Its 6" x 18" on white pastelbord and it only took 3-4 hours!

But I don't know what I'll do with it???

Click on the picture to enlarge

New Year - A look Back to last year

Every January I tend to look back at what I did the year before and make some decisions about what direction I want my artwork to go in the next year. Not only is it a mark of a new year, but it just about the slowest time of the year for selling, so it gives time to reflect! :-)


Last year I made a big decision to stop working on paper, and do all my work on board instead, which is framed without glass. That was an easy decision.

Looking at the artwork I made on that support is kind of interesting. I made a rather large series of white still-lifes with a pop of color along with a wide panoramic format. Another series, much smaller, that utilized crunched paper and any format. Another series using things I took from traditional Dutch Still-life and traditional formats. The only other series I did was a small amount of images that cropped in on mundane items like a telephone, and some crushed cans. Of course there are some I did that don't fit neatly into one of those catergories, like the few "beach still-lifes" I did using all green bottles and shells.

Whew!

So what does this all mean. I really enjoyed working on the white still-lifes with a pop of color and I believe people have gotten to know those as "caulfield" still-lifes. So I am going to continue working on them, but adding a twist to them. Either like the Hopper one I just did, or my experitmneting with colored backgrounds, or more additions of pattern.

OK, good, I have one thing worked out.

I also really enjoyed doing the pieces with crumpled up paper, and I think the possibilites of that are endless... so I am going to keep that series as well.

The rest, we'll see... I know somewhere along the way in 2008 I will be caught on a whim to try some sort of new series.

If anyone has any opinions on what series/ideas I did last year that you liked. Please let me know! I thanks for listening to all of this... it helps to write it down!

Sorry no NEW artwork started yet. Today is a snowday for the kids and tomorrow I will hopefully be driving to my friends to look at the photos she took of the candidates.

Here's a last picture of my youngest daughter at the beginning of last year (in front of one of my faves of last years drawings). Gosh, she's grown!

Hopper Still-life

Hopper Still-life

My first drawing post of the New Year! & it feels good! :)

This is my usual 6" x 18" misc. colored pencils on Pastelbord.

I'm not sure what this piece means... I just love that painting by Hopper (and all of his work) and tried to create a still-life surrounding it and pointing to it as well as complimenting its color scheme. I'm hoping that since the objects are arranged circularly around the painting as well as many pointing to it, the viewer will get sucked right into where the girl sits.

New Hampshire Primary

Here's what our town Of Keene New Hampshire looked like on primary day. With record high temperatures, we were covered with fog for most of the day.

I have been absent still.... because I was helping out with the New Hampshire primary or going to see as many candidates I could see in person. On Sunday, I actually went to see 3 candidates in one day! Now that it is over, I think I am finally clear to do my artwork again!

Besides listening to what the candidates had to say, I was busy snapping photos of them. Between my photos and my Friend's' photos, I could make a portrait of each of them from both parties. I'm actually trying to think of how I could include them in one of my still-lifes. Just one of course, I don't want to be a political artist!

Here's some photos my friend Dan White took of his favorite candidate Barack Obama. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fugitiveblue/sets/72157603540307401/show/ Even if you are not an Obama fan, you will think these photos are artfully done. Not only do they show what a good photographer my friend Dan is and how photogenic Obama is, it shows how much access New Hampshire gets to the candidates.