Caulfield Dairy

Caulfield Dairy Milk Bottle

8" x 8"

Colored Pencil and solvent on Pastelbord

Toast

Good Morning Toast!

8" x 8" Colored Pencil on Pastelbord

$200 email nicolecaulfield@gmail.com

Percolator

Percolator

8" x 8"

Colored Pencil on Patelbord

$200

email me if you are interested nicolecaulfield@gmail.com

Mix Tapes i Vintage/Retro inspired

Mix Tapes 

8" x 8" Coloursofts on Pastelbord

The second of my vintage/retro square series.

They are both $200 each. If you are interested email me at nicolecaulfield@gmail.com 

More to come soon!

Talk To Me

I am in the mood for some small pieces! This little guy (8x8) is an experiment with the pattern in the background as well as the square format. I always avoided the square format but after having to use square photos to submit photos from my food blog I am brave enough to try some. The trick seems to be crop, crop, crop, and don't do things straight!

Talk To Me

8" x 8"

Coloursofts on Grey Pastelbord

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

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

Still-life with Moo-cow

I bought this cow creamer a while ago, but had trouble fitting its long shape into a still-life. Putting the tipped over cup behind it offered the composition a similar shape which I think makes it work. That same cup with the spoon sticking out of it plus the curving and waving fabric added a lot of movement to the composition which was a lot of fun. That movement almost animates the rest of the objects, which makes it seem like the cow creamer is threatening to walk out of the composition. Which makes me think... if personification is "the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects" then is this animalification?

I  tried something of a new technique on the background. Since I was using a grey board and I wanted a grey background, I laid down a colored pencil the same color as the board: Dove Grey Coloursoft. This gave me a smooth texture to smudge other greys into by first scribbling them on, then swirling them around with a 1/2 inch bristle brush. I like the effect and it took less time than usual. 

Sorry for the blurry photographs (like usual) and you can click on them to see it larger. 

Good Luck

Good Luck

12" x 12"

Coloursofts and Prismas on Fisher 400 paper

I just finished my Good Luck still-life. I should have photographed it before I varnished it as it glares all over it. It still needs to be mounted then I'll bring it in to the gallery.

Bird's Eye View

Bird's Eye View

8" x 10"

Prismacolors and Solvent on Fisher 400 paper

I need to go in and touch some things up on this but I am impatient to post it. 

My daughter and I picked these lovely flowers on the side of the road. I think I need to go back and just get a whole vase full of the black-eyed Susans! They were really fun to do.

A Fish Out of Water

A Fish Out of Water

8" x 10"

Prismacolors of Fisher 400 paper

I could do loads of these... I am such a fan of kitsch! 

Back to Autumn and portrait commission finished

Remember I said that the autumn still-life was put on hold? Well there was a little misunderstanding in the initial instructions which is a little humorous. I was told it should have some gourds, a jack-o-lantern in a white pitcher, a pumpkin, some chinese lanterns and maybe flowers. Well I did think the jack-o-lantern in a vase was a little odd... and soon found out it was supposed to be chinese lanterns in a pitcher! Too funny. I do like some of the compositions I came up with with a pumpkin in the pitcher though!

Anyway, the client lent me her majolica pitcher for the chinese lanterns and here is where I'm at. Actually I got a little further than this today but didn't take another photo.

& I have some good newsand some bad news... I am going to be able to work on this tomorrow and tentatively finish it... the bad news - I have the time towork on it tomorrow because my six year old has the flu and I can't go to work because I will be home with her. So I brought home my supplies and while she's vegging on the couch, I'll hopefully have this finished.

Below is my portrait tromp l'oeil comission. Its finished except for the okay from the client. Enjoy!

Update and pumpkins

Here is an update on the portrait commission. I think I owe it an explanation. The client had his and his wife's school photos from 2nd grade.. and asked if I cold draw him pushing her on a swing or something. It wasn't really possible with the little frontal view school portraits so I said no... but I could make a tromp l'oiel with the school photos on a desk with some kid stuff along with them. I asked him what he and his wife were into as kids and incorporated them on the table. I kept the 70's feel of the faded photographs and added a harvest gold tabletop.

The result: one wacky looking non-traditional portrait! I love it... but I have a very warped sense of humour. My favorite part is where the lines above the bee logo match up with the kick lines from snoopy. :-) Oh and the glue heart... who wouldn't like that?

There's loads to do still... and right before I left the studio today I messed up her poor little chin! It will be fixed tomorrow.

I have so much less time lately that while I was waiting for my paper to be mounted to a board by Creative Encounters, I started one of the compositions from that autumn movie I posted.

Cherry Pop!

Cherry Pop!
12" X 16"
Coloured Pencil on Pastelbord

Thanks Gayle for the name idea!
There is some distortion as usual from my wide angle lens, which is always really noticeable with the box ones.

I used my usual recipe for Pastelbord. I worked up 90% of the image using Derwent Coloursofts which cover the surface faster than other pencils and then, like icing on a cake, I finished the last 10% with Caran D'Ache Luminance pencils. Yum. That frosting is good. The Luminance pencils help me brighten the colors of the Coloursofts, blend a bit more, and basically burnish the surface.

Illusion in Yellow and Blue finished

Thanks for the comments on the photography post. I just wrote a few things I have learned since I've been trying to make my own reference photographs. Its one of those things where you try something and it works so you add it to your usual way of doing things. I'm sure there are more professional and tidy ways of doing things if you have a dedicated space for setting up still-lifes to photograph, but this way works very well for me. I do always have to fix things here or there or omit things I can't get out of the way like the shelf in the background on the photo of the pitcher, but the lighting and colors work which is the most important thing in my opinion for reference photographs. By the way the light bulbs that I used in my pole lamp are simple GE Reveal light bulbs I picked up at Home Depot which are supposed to be closer to natural light than regular light bulbs but are not expensive like OTT type bulbs.

So here is my finished hanging apple piece which I'm naming "Illusion in Yellow and Blue" which was influenced by the titles that Whistler used such as "Arrangement in Black and Grey." As I said before this piece was made for a show I am in with my friends from Fine Line Artists. Gordon Leverton is hosting a show of our works at the Jitterbug Cafe & Roasting Co. Waterdown, Ontario, Canada in the month of June. We are doing a theme of Portals: or windows and doors if you will. Of course it is any interpretation of this theme. I so enjoy doing these hanging fruits. They turn out very decorative with the bold colors as well as surreal. They also are a very good study - as yellow fruits I always find difficult. I need to send two pieces in to this show so if I have enough time I'm going to make a matching piece that I can further practice doing yellow fruit on... I'm thinking a banana... I've always wanted to draw a banana so why not a hanging one?!

Cans 2 Post 3

This is the absolute slowest I have ever been. I can usually finish a 6 x 18" in one long day but here I am at day 3 and not even half way finished.

The reason why is I can't sit or stand in one place too long. I seemed to have overdone it while jogging and my hips are so sore. Not my knees like most normal people, but my hips. Nothing seems to help it, even rest. I'm sure it will get better, but for now its hard to concentrate while drawing. If I sit they really start to hurt. I found that kneeling helps, but then I have to take breaks when my feet fall asleep and standing in one spot is just as bad as sitting.

So this piece is taking forever. My productivity relies on drawing for long stretches at once usually 12 hours in a day and I have only been aboe to get in 1 maybe 2.

It is also looking a bit different than usual. I just can't get myslef to lay the pencil down as evenly as I usually do and I am not finding the patience to go back and tidy up the pencil strokes. SO I just decided ot give up on the clean look and go for a bit of edge. Or as Simon said on American Idol last night a bit of "grit." Which is perfect I figure for these cans anyway. Why would I want a completely clean technique for dirty crushed cans anyway, they deserve a bit of "grit" as did the songs on American Idol last night - so many were sung perfectly but lacked the edge/grit that they so needed to be pulled off.