80's Makeover & Smurf study

I finished!  Here's my 80's still-life all finished. I think I'll name it "80's Makeover" instead of Heartbeat City. I hope you enjoy it. 

80's Makeover

6" x 18"

Coloursofts on Pastelbord

& a Bonus little study up for a "Buy It Now" auction below. 

I decided to make a companion little 4x6 drawing of a smurf. It is Derwent Coloursofts on Fisher 400 mounted on board.  If you are interested the price is $30 with free shipping and the auction is here: http://bit.ly/eUKqGI

http://bit.ly/eUKqGI

Update on 80's Still-life

I've gotten a bit further, but will have to put it on hold for a bit to do another project that has come up and has a deadline soon. 

I've added my own 80's picture which is authentic eighties, although I did not have pink hair. Also added in is my 8year old in the very large for for her sunglasses and a teddy bear rainbow pin. The beads had to be rethought as what I have is a silver bead mardi gras necklace. I rendered them silver and it did not look right so I am trying to make them into pearls ala the Material Girl... they are still in progress.

Enjoy!

Heartbeat City - 80's Themed Still-Life

I have been following the UKCPS (United Kingdom Coloured Pencil Society) for a while because I like seeing new and different colored pencil drawings. BUT recently I saw a blog post there that mentioned there would be an "Eighties Themed Prize" at their next member's show. I couldn't contain myself and joined the UKCPS even though I am a bazillion miles away, just so I had an excuse to make an 80's piece!

I've gone for the early eighties, even though I was young in the early eighties, because that is what people think of as "80's" now. I think my young age then has influenced what I chose for props however! I went on an eighties search for props in town and ended up buying this old Polaroid camera at the Salvation Army. I LOVED the rainbow on the front of it and that set the whole theme of the still-life. My daughters did an eighties makeover day with glasses, pink hair, and loads of eye makeup and I spruced up an authentic photograph of me in the late eighties (which will be seen soon). I've added a few other little eighties props, lipstick, those gasket-like rubber bracelets (I remember Madonna wearing) an authentic 80's  rainbow teddy bear pin (my sister sent), a beaded necklace, a smurf, and the Cars cassette Heartbeat City. Like I said this still-life might be influenced by my young age in the early eighties. I did leave out the scratch-and-sniff stickers... but not much else.

 I decided to do it on Pastelbord in case it does get in the show, so I don't have to send a picture under glass. As you all know my works on Pastelbord get varnished instead of sealed under glass. This will make it cheaper to ship and I won't worry about glass breaking along the way. 

The short side of doing this on Pastelbord is that I don't like the way portraits look on Pastelbord with the graininess of the board and the inability to get really subtle changes in value/color or details for that matter. It is also hard to make corrections on - which I always need doing portraits to get the likeness just right. I'm plugging my way through however as the picture is so much fun. 

If you want to enter this contest and join the UKCPS to do so, you can on their site (links below). The  closing date for entry is 23rd April 2011 and they are only selecting 24 pieces! Eek!

http://www.ukcps.co.uk/ukcps/membership.php

entry rules: http://www.ukcps.co.uk/keswick_2011/Keswick_2011_entry_form.pdf

Work in Progress! 

Heartbeat City

6" x 18"

Coloursofts and Prismas on Pastelbord

Derwent Coloursoft Tin

Okay so now for the big news. I've been waiting a long time to tell you all about this. Last year  Derwent   commissioned me to make a drawing that "may or may not" be used on their new Coloursoft tin. They wanted fruit on fabric - that's all I was really told.

 The big news is they decided to use it for the tin. I don't think the tin is out yet but a picture of it is on the Derwent website on the Coloursoft product page and it was spotted in a UK artist magazine ad (I'm not sure which one). It's interesting to see the actual artwork and how they cropped it and changed it up a bit to work on the tin. I think they did a fabulous job and I can't wait to see the tin in person!

Just for the other colored pencil nerds... I did the drawing with all Coloursofts on Fisher 400 paper.

Fossil, Trace, or Impressions Finished

Okay I think this is finished now.

I'm really pleased with the addition of the ferns on the wall face. As part of the Zen series, I wanted the wall as much a part of the picture as the girl. I see the surroundings she is in as an abstract expressionist painting - all about the surface, like a Pollack or Rothko.  The wall face is brought to the surface of the painting by being cropped off, by the texture, and by the decorative fern pattern. I think bringing this pattern to the surface matches what we do when we decide to pay attention to the beauty of nature.

I plan on getting this professionally photographed so I will repost it in a couple of weeks when I get it back.

Oh and any opinions on the title? "Fossil," "Trace," or "Impressions."