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.