2 Light Sources versus 1 Light Source

This is where I am at after 2 days of work. The plan is  to have just the face and collar area in focus and have everything else a bit out of focus, especially the window and masks on the wall.

I am really happy with the actual figure in this one. I decided to photograph him with the natural light of his home instead of dramatic lighting.  I stood him close to one window with another window across the room. This allowed some strong blue light to hit his face and hair on the right from the close window and filtered, fainter warm light to hit his face from the windows across the room. I like how this lighter airier lighting looks with the young adult, softening him. 

Just to show you the difference lighting can make, below is a portrait I did with my daughter as the model. I darkened the room and used one strong light on her right side. The dark reddish light on the left side is just the reflected light of the one light source bouncing off the other side of the room. It makes for a spooky dramatic effect. Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer were amazing at using this effect, although maybe they used this lighting because it mimicked their lighting in their homes! Windows or candles! 

I used this dramatic one light source lighting in my Zen series. 

Two Vermeers with very different lighting. Which do you prefer?

check out James Gurney's post on warm and cool light sources and their interaction! http://bit.ly/etxmhu

Beginning of a Portrait

This is a portrait commission I've just started. It is going to be about 18 x 24" and is done with Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper. 

Valentine Kid Craft Idea

It is Thursday & if you are getting to know my schedule you know that means it is a day dedicated to my art. Mon, Tues, Wednesday are teaching days & Thursday and Friday are my art days. Saturday and Sunday as well as evenings are family time. 

Before I start my colored pencil drawing of the week I wanted to share with you a simple Valentine's Day craft I did with my kids at school yesterday as I think it would be a great home craft in time for the holiday.  I did it with preschool - 3rd grade and they all enjoyed it and added their own personal twists to the project. I wish I would have photographed the amazing ones the students did or brought home my example from school, but I didn't think of it in time, so you will have to imagine my quick example below. 

So I know - what is the craft Nicole?!  Now that I hyped it up it won't seem so exciting. 

I often frequent Martha Stewart crafts for inspiration for my little kiddos at school and I came across this lace printing project. http://www.marthastewart.com/article/lace-print-stationery  I was thinking about doing it with preschool (3-4 year olds) and decided:

1) it was a bit too difficult for them and

2) I would have to go out and purchase lace, so the idea had to be tweaked. 

So what we did was make lacey heart stencils out of just plain old copy paper. For the smallest kids I folded their paper and had a line for them to cut on to form the heart, while the older kids made their own. Then they were allowed to use hole punches to make them look doily-like. Again, I wish I had some of their examples because they really went all out on them. This one is just the simplest you can go. They added rows and rows of hole punches, heart punches, flowers, zig zag scissors, etc. We also made separate stencils of rows of small hearts using a small hand held punch, which worked great for creating a frame around the card. 

I really like the kids making their own stencils and have done it with trees for a snowy landscape before. It gives them confidence and allows them to add their creativity.  It also teaches them about symmetry and positive and negative space. 

stencil tools: scissors, hole punch, shape hole punch, zig zag scissors

Next of course is the printing. If there is one thing I've learned as an art teacher of smaller kids, its that you do have to limit the supplies a bit so they don't make a big painty mess. What I did at school was squirted a very small amount of magenta, white, and turquoise paint on paper plates. I showed the kids how to sponge over their stencil using a very small amount of paint on the sponge (in all three colors) in a dabbing or up and down motion. They seem to want to drag the sponge across instead of dab, which quickly tears the cheap stencil and of course makes it go under the edge, so the little ones may need help to do the process right. I found that for the kids that were having a hard time, if either I or a partner held down the stencil with two hands while the child printed slowly, it worked well. 

The best part of this craft is when the child lifts up their stencil and sees the crisp design in all the marbled colors underneath... their eyes light up like its magic! 

Anyway! I hope you try it with your kids or grandkids and make a better one than my quick example up above!

I'll post the colored pencil drawing I am working on tonight or tomorrow. Cheers. 

White Espresso

White Espresso 6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Green Pastebord 

I hope everyone has made it through this week's crazy weather! It did alter my week a bit, having a snow day for the whole family on Wednesday... that was our 4th snow day. The kids are getting a bit bored with it and unfortunately they have a week off at the end of the month called  "Winter Break."  Don't worry though I've gotten pretty good at working with constant interruptions. My husband was pretty impressed even, as he usually ends up stopping his work and playing video games with the girls. 

I barely finished this piece in time to have a post for the week as tomorrow I am going into work (which is usually a dedicated art day), but I am glad I finished. I did have to photograph it with a light shining on it  since it was dark, so I will try and replace this photo with a better one when the place is lit up tomorrow after work. There's a bit of a glare on the left side - you can tell especially in the the dark space of the bottom of the espresso pot. It is a bit blurry too. 

 The idea behind this still life was to have all silver and grays, but hidden inside are pops of color. Kind of like what it looks like outside my New Hampshire home right now!  

There are a couple of progress shots below that were taken during daylight hours!

Framing Colored Pencil Without Glass

Today is an art working day, but no new artwork has been worked on. Why? Because I needed to finish off and frame the 2 pieces I just finished and deliver them to the gallery. This blog post will explain what I do to finish off a piece of art, but first I'll have to explain the process and supplies I use.


Most of you know that my still-lifes are framed without glass.  I do this for a couple of reasons:
 1. to make pictures seem more approachable/intimate.
 2. to bypass the perils of framing with mats & glass.


I've tried quite a few surfaces for colored pencil that can be framed without glass, but my favorite is Ampersand Pastelbord which is described as "a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper..." It was first recomended by my friend/artist Louise Sackett who thought I was a little nutty trying to make my own sanded board with grit, paint, etc. when Ampersand has a pre-made board. 


Choosing a Color


It comes in grey, green, tan and white. I find the white board unusable for my techniques unfortunately. The grain is quite large on Pastelbord so whatever the color the board is, that color  will show in the "grain" as dots in the finished artwork. The white is just too white when seen in dark areas of the composition, throwing the values of the piece off. I prefer working with one of the colors and choose the color based on what I think will look the best in the grain of the piece. If I have a piece like Tea with Milk  that is mostly cool colors, I'll choose the grey board because the little specks of grey in the grain will influence the overall tone of the piece. 

Pieces like Italian Decadence is a bit harder to choose. The overall tone is warm, but the tan board is light and would lighten the dark areas of the cloth and bottles of oil too much... so I'd be better off using either green or grey board. 


Building Up Your Lights. 


Using colored board is a bit different than using white or beige paper because you have to make sure that your light and medium colored objects look bright enough on that color, especially after varnishing. What I do is build up my lights in the light and medium  areas to make sure they glow.  Since this post is on what I do when I finish a piece, I'll save this explanation for another post. 


Colored Pencils That Can Be Varnished


 Not all colored pencil brands can be varnished. Faber-Castell Polychromos (which I use for all my portraits) can not be varnished. The paint thinner that is in spray varnishes to keep them liquid eats away at the colored pencils, and the oil binder in Polychromos can't withstand it so your drawing literally dissolves away. I've found that Derwent Coloursofts, Prismacolors, and Caran d'Ache Luminance pencils all do well with spray varnish, although you still have to be ready for some colored pencil to dissolve and color changes with the process. 


Using the Prismacolor Colorless Blender to Minimize Dissolving Pencil

Despite these changes in the drawing when you varnish, I still think it is worth doing to stay away from glass. Plus you can anticipate the changes that will happen and minimize the changes or use them for your advantage. One thing that happens when you varnish is a small amount of colored pencil will dissolve, making more of the color of the board show through. That is why I build up my lights in light areas when working on a dark surface.  If there are enough light layers of colored pencil under your color, it will darken less (demonstration in future post). Also if you regularly build up your pencil to burnishing levels it seems to not have as many significant changes. I don't usually burnish however, so I've found that  if I put a layer of Prismacolor's Colorless Blender on my pieces, especially in the lighter areas, the colors stay brighter. Going back through the piece to add the blender pencil takes time, but it also gives you a chance to blend the pencil in some of the grain and soften edges if needed. I've found that adding the blender only on the areas that I don't want to darken is sufficient and actually adding the blender over black or dark areas leaves some light colored wax, so I wouldn't do it. 


After you finish adding colorless blender over your drawing just make sure you remove any colored pencil dust before varnishing (or hair or whatever else has fallen on your artwork) as it will be a permanent fixture to the piece if you leave it there!   


Varnishing, Finally


I use canned spray varnish over my pieces. I once sadly tried a brush on kind and wiped my entire drawing off, so using a spray on varnish ensures the pencil stays in place until it dries. There are matte, semi gloss and gloss versions of the spray and any of them will work, so choose the look you like best. I've used them all, and right now I am enjoying the look of the glossy finish. Today I used Grumbacher's Picture and Oil Painting Varnish in the Gloss finish which I purchased locally at Michael's. You can use other brands; I've even used Krylon's Kamar varnish from Walmart, but you need to make sure it says "Non-Yellowing" and test it first on a scrap drawing. 

When you spray, hold the can at least 8-10 inches away from your piece and only spray a fine mist at a time. If you spray a whole bunch so it pools, more colored pencil will dissolve. After spraying the whole thing in a fine mist, let it dry and do it over again. Repeat until it is evenly coated and the entire surface has a glossy wet sheen. I hold my drawing up to the light and tilt it to see if there are any dull areas that indicate missed spots. That's it, if you have a nice even finish without any exposed colored pencil purchasers of your artwork will have a protected surface that they can then wipe clean with a damp cloth  if need be. 


You might notice that the dark areas of your drawing got a little deeper or that very subtle glazes of colored pencil disappeared with the varnish. The more you varnish your colored pencil work, the more you will be able to anticipate these changes and work them into your design, As a last note... if you are going to photograph your artwork you may want to do that before you varnish so you don't have to work around the glare of the varnish finish. 


Italian Decadence and Tea with Milk are now showing at the Monadnock Fine Art Gallery in downtown Keene, NH. Call 603-352-3201 if you are interested.