Portland Workshop

There are still some seats left in the Portland Oregon Workshop March 14 - 15th. The deadline to sign up is March 4th so email me if you want some workshop details! For prices and other workshop information you'll want to contact Maggie Turner from the CPSA group which is sponsoring the workshop. 

It will be very similar to the Florida workshop, but one day less. I use two sanded supports - one for my still-lifes (Pastelbord) and one for my portraits (Fisher 400) so I'll give each its own day... plus a bit of color theory. It is supposed to be a sanded support workshop and not exclusively a portrait workshop - but since I use 2 different sanded paper techniques and one woks really well for portraits I decided to use it as a subject. 

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Lorraine just asked this question on another post: Do you ever do a workshop near your home but several days in a row so students could stay in a hotel/motel near the workshop? I live in Ct close,but to to far to drive up for a once a week class.

I have thought about doing just that. Actually I was thinking a 5 day workshop on portraits... but what is preventing me from doing that is where I live. Its a great little city near sights to see, a great hotel downtown near perfect places to hold workshops + coffee shops and restaurants. The problem is it is an hour and a half from the airport and I am not sure how to deal with that or if that would stop people from signing up? 

Here's my town on a map - zoom out and take a look where it is. What do you think - is it doable? Would you sign up for such a thing? 

& here's our town wiki 

the EF Lane hotel downtown (which I could possibly get a discount on)

the coffee shop Primeroast whose roasting beans waft up to my studio window every

& some google images of Keene

It's Official!

I know I already posted about this but it is now up on their site. My dawing Zen won 3rd place in the children's category in the Portrait Society of America's Member's Showcase Competition (for those of you that didn't see that post)! Here are the winners in the show http://portraitsociety.org/membersonly-competitions/2008/winners.htm

It is soooo amazing to see my colored pencil drawing alongside all those traditional oils! & and dang good traditional oils! I just wish it listed the media it was made in and the sizes along with the titles. but YAY!

I feel bad, but I won't be posting any new artwork this week. The kids have winter break this week from school  and I am busy cleaning the house from after leaving the kids at home with their father for four days... and planning my 6 year old's birthday party which we are having on  Thursday. We invited her entire kindergarten class - 20 kids - to my little house, so we are having to put furniture in the garage etc. Fun huh? I think I'll be buying the cake instead of making it this year! 

Florida Workshop

I just got back (well at 3 am this morning) from my workshop in Ft Lauderdale Florida hosted by the Ft. Lauderdale chapter of CPSA. Thansk so much ladies for all your hard work setting up the workshop and all the set up, driving me around etc! It is much appreciated!

We had a good time despite the fact that I tend to talk during most every minute of my workshops..... uck.... and I sometimes think I am some sort of colored pencil comedian. Not a good one mind you. 

The workshop was 2 1/2 days and was meant to be a sampler of sanded supports with colored pencils so we used 3 papers and felt their similarities and differences, as well as their pros and cons.  You can see my lousy lousy distorted photos below of the work we did. Not everyone finished each day, especially the portrait day, but we all got a chance to get a feel for he technique on this type of surface.

Eggs and Fabric on UART 400 using dry colored pencils.

Side-lit portrait on Fisher 400 using Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. 

Shiny Red Shoes using watecolor underpainting and 

dry colored pencils on Ampersand Pastelbord. 

I havanother workshop coming up March 14th - 15th in Portland Oregon if anyone is interested. It is a 2 day workshop so it will be similar to the one in Florida, but I'll have to mix things up a bit to fit it in the 2 days. If you are interested in sigining up email me and I'll get you to the right person to sign up. Again it is being hosted by one of the wonderful CPSA local chapters, but they are happy to have non-members join them. 

Off to Florida Workshop!

So sorry I haven't checked in in a little while. I've been getting my things ready for  my workshop this weekend in Ft. Lauderdale FL. I leave tomorrow and come back Sunday night. I hope to have some photos of some of the work we do when I get back.

Although.... as I am writing this there are giant thick snowflakes falling on the other side of the window and according to the weather forecast it will be snowing tomorrow as well when my flight is supposed to take off. Sigh.... I hope I get out on time! I've got my sandals and capris ready!

& a big THANK YOU to all who voted for my drawing Zen at the Thorne Sagendorph Biennial Show. I just found out that not only did I win Best of Show, but I also won People's Choice Award! Its a real honor!!!! 

See you all soon! Nicole

Chocolate and wine

I don't usually post food on here... but since I spent HOURS making these for my daughter's class  Valentine's Day party tomorrow, I thought they deserved to be posted. They are chocolate ganache brownie sandwiches, obviously shaped like hearts and with some frosting in between the sandwiched brownies & no there are no extras!

Below is the drawing I worked on after Shannon. Its 6 x 18" on green pastelbord - a color I don't usually use, but my friend Gary Ruuska said it was his favorite color, so I gave it a go. It was great really - much better than the grey and without the speckle problems with the tan. 

Just a couple adjustments to go, then varnish, frame and delivery tomorrow!

Shannon Finished

OMYGOSH! Yes it IS finally finished. & I think this is actually an accurate photograph! I've been working from home lately and my laptop settings have so little contrast that I didn't realize HOW different the image looked on that computer. I finally used my printer to help me get a more accurate .jpg. Now that I'm in the studio on that computer - I didn't realize what the other .jpgs looked like.

So this one prints out ok (never perfect) and looks good on this monitor - so I think it is pretty accurate. & finished!!!!!

I'd love some feedback on this one because I am thinking of entering it in CPSA this year along with Becca. The CPSA International show is the one show I really want to make it in each year and sadly I didn't get in the past 2 years. So I really really want to make it in this year! If Shannon is not a good enough entry I can still choose from any of my portraits as I have done them in the last year or so... so ifyou have time, I'd love to hear which 2 you think I should enter. I can't enter Zen as its too big OR Obama because I didn't only use colored pencil - so it has to be another two.

Also this is the photograph I will be entering (if I choose it) so it will be what the judge looks at - excpet a bigger .jpg with black bars and the sides to make a square.

Thanks for the input!

blue.... Shannon

This is the neverending drawing. I started playing with compositions for the still-life I'm working on next... but after staring at this all day... I decided to attack it with some blue pencils... after some prodding from my crit partners. 

Not only did I add blues and blue greens but I realized that a bunch of pencil had rubbed off  and I had actually lost a lot of darker values so I worked on that too. 

I don't think its finished yet!

& an interesting article about the famous Obama posters:http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2009/02/05/ap_wants_credit_for_faireys_obama_image/#

& another link to it with updates:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/outofline/2009/02/fair_use_vs_faireys_use.html

Becoming a Follower

I just went through all of my blog subscriptions and cancelled them. I also removed any blog links in my sidebar.  

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this act!

The reason I did this is is because of the "follower" function. I've been using the function for a while now and really like it for keeping up with the blogs I like to read. I just go to my dashboard on blogger and can see all the recent updates from the blogs I enter in to follow & they never clog up my mailbox. 

I also removed my favorite blog links in my sidebar. If you would like to know the blogs I regularly read - just find my profile and you can see the blogs I follow. 

So if I recently unsubscribed to your blog, don't worry I am still around! I still have some to add to my list, if you are not on there yet. Especially my pencil pushers friends because I usually update myself on those blogs right at the coloredpencilnewengland blog site. I will be adding them to my follower list soon. 

& if you subscribe to my blog you still can do that or you can switch to becoming a follower too. 

a-l-m-o-s-t f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d shannon

I'm getting there. I have loads to tidy up and some values to fix. I need to finish soon so I can start on a very important commission involving a very good wine!

Shannon - added Raw Umber

I brought this portrait home for the weekend to live with it in different light. I used to do that all the time - tack up my pictures and just get to live with them in all kinds of light or angles. Since my studio has been away from home, its something I rarely get to do now. 

I found that indeed the picture was too red when there was a direct light source - be it natural or lamp light. When the light was very like the light in my studio (indirect sunlight mixed withoverhead  flourescents) the reds were not too intense. Weird. 

Anyway I resorted to washing a layer of raw umber (a very green light brown color) to knock back the reds. & here it is after that straight off the camera with no adjustments. I can't wait to put that last bit of hair at the top of her head, but I have classes all day today so I won't get to it until tomorrow. 

For fans of all things colored pencil - the CPSA Explore This show is now displayed on the web. http://www.cpsa.org/EXHIBITION/EXPLORE.THIS/Explore5/Expl5PShop-Revised/index.htm#7 

The Explore This Show is a show the CPSA puts on every year for work that is colored pencil + mixed media. This is the first year it is just an online show and that they are not allowing pure colored pencil works in. They also have made a signature status just for the mixed media show which I think is a fabulous idea. I don't work in mixed media - but I know so many colored pencil artists that always add a little somethin' else in their work, so I'm glad that they can now get the recognition they deserve.