Getting my colored pencil groove back

This hydrangea is an exercise from "Botanical Illustration Course with the Eden Project."  It has helped restore my confidence in my ability to create good color with colored pencil.  This is on Fabriano Studio 140# hot press watercolor paper.  I found that it really does not have enough tooth for this medium.  Since I bought a 50 sheet pad, I'm hoping I will like it better with watercolors.

Eventually I will be trying the same hydrangea with watercolors.  Have signed up for a watercolor course with CityArt here in Columbia.  Six weeks beginning January 17.  Everybody says it is a very difficult medium, but I plan to give it a try.

Working on Roots

If you're going to focus on plants, you can't just do the flowers or the fruits (I'm learning) you have to be able to do roots.  Here are some beets, 'cause they have great roots!

Camellias About to Bloom!

The Camellia japonica outside my screened porch is loaded with buds, some showing quite a bit of color.  I had to collect a specimen to add to my sketchbook work.

December Challenge

This photo of my sister Dianne and me was taken in 1949 (I think at Easter time).  I've redrawn and enlarged it using graphite. The original was colorized--not sure what process was used at the time--so I added a water color wash to make the dresses and our cheeks pink.

Work in Progress

After a couple months working in graphite, I thought I had totally lost my colored pencil skills.  First three efforts went straight into the bin.  So I decided to try something very small, just to sort of get the feel of it again.  This is the state of it so far. Lots of work left to do, but I think it will turn out.

Check out my Google+ Page

I've just started a collection entitled Botanical Artists and have posted the work of some whom I admire..make that worship.  It's easy to follow it and you can see all these beautiful works there.
Marsha's Botanical Artists collection

Finished my class with high marks!

This morning I submitted my drawing for final assessment in my natural history illustration course.  After muffing one assignment and just not being very good on two others it was rewarding to get "excellent" across the board on this one.

About working in graphite:  it is a lot more forgiving than colored pencil.   You can lift off some of the graphite to lighten an area, seeing values is much easier in black and white.  But it is easy to polish the graphite and get a very undesirable shine.  And, frankly, it is messy.  No matter how hard I tried to keep my work covered and protected I kept finding smudges that needed cleaning up.  I swear the stuff was migrating outside the lines and messing with my paper.  Constant hand washing has left me with hands like sand paper.

All in all, I am pleased with everything about the final result except the composition.  Wish I had spent more front-end time planning where everything was to go.  It's hard not to be hyper critical of your own work.  Easy to get discouraged when comparing with truly skilled artists, the work of a couple I plan to post here in a bit.

Blackberry:

A Day for Experimenting

These two are very different from any of my previous work.  Using Canson Mi Tientes blue and Artagain black.

A Christmas Card

My brother is a fan of the Victorian illustrations of Frances Brundage.  I created this one of one of her classics as a Christmas card for him.

Acorn Squash

Of all the pieces I've done, I believe this is my favorite.  I drew it by hand, used masking fluid to preserve the highlights and underpainted the entire squash with colored pencil to which I applied Gamsol (solvent) to remove the wax binder.  I then used graphite pencil to shade the values.  There is only one color of green (the lightest) on this entire painting.  Love it!

Fall Landscape

Done as Lachri's November challenge.  I don't think I enjoy doing landscapes.  This was done with a watercolor underpainting.

A Course in Drawing the Natural World

I am taking a MOOC with Newcastle University in Australia.  What is a MOOC?  A Massive Open Online Course.  The course is to teach accurate drawing of nature: plants, animals, insects, rocks, etc.  According to a podcast the BBC produced about this MOOC, it is the first of its kind for an artistic subject.  There are about 12000 students. Overwhelming.  However, I've found a Facebook group with only about 350 people in it and it is easier to share and engage with this smaller group.  Here are some of the exercises/assignments for the first four weeks.

There's  a lot of emphasis on keeping a field journal and painting while observing specimens. I don't plan to do much of this.  I sort of buy the value of working from the actual item, but as I am not doing this for science I think I'll just take a picture and work from that.  The flower I picked while in Florida at Bud and Pat's was wilted before I had got my beer and settled in to draw it.

But if it makes me more observant, it should also make me a better artist.

PS.  To get permission to cut a piece off this Cassia Pat introduced me to the homeowner saying that I am an artist.  I didn't correct her, but it still doesn't sound true.

Drawing Nature

I am in my second week of a Newcastle University (Australia) course on drawing natural history.  We are working at this stage on accurately drawing what is seen using pencil only.  My first assignment got a pretty poor (but passing) grade.  I am hoping to do better on the next one.  Here's what I've done so far.

The Pangolin in the center is actually the latest one and the bottom one was my first effort.  The pencil sharpener is the answer to 'Which of things is not like the others?'

Two for Fall.

A Parrot

B is for Birds

This is the title of a community on Google+ with the most amazing and delightful bird photos and videos.  Anyone can join and enjoy.  This photo in particular caught my imagination.  The young girl, we discovered by using Google, is a member of the Yanomami tribe who live nearly isolated from the rest of the world on the Amazon.  Yet she allowed someone to photograph her, and this is the result.  I did her in colored pencil on Stonehenge.

What I've been doing lately

The picture of Winston was done as part of a challenge by Lisa, the artist I support.  She asked us to draw/paint our studio assistant(s). I titled mine "Winston would rather take a walk."

I've finished a few others that I've not yet photographed, so those will have to get posted after a while.

Winston

To Be Free

Greetings!

That's what I call this one.  It was fun!

Sarah Shahi Portrait

Finished this portrait of Sarah (Person of Interest) yesterday and published it in the Google+ community.  Got lots of likes and positive comments.  I think I will put portraits aside for awhile now and do something different.  But here she is.  I like how she turned out.  Done on steel grey paper.

Progress!

Today I joined a Google+ community where artists can participate in group art challenges sponsored by Lachri (the artist I am supporting on Patreon).  The August challenge is to redo something you did earlier to see if there is improvement.  Here are my two Brown-headed Nuthatches, one from my earliest attempts last year and the second done just the last 2 weeks.

2015

August 2016

Celeb Portraits

I continue to have an interest in portraits and received some very useful advice recently.  Here's the gist:  most photos of our friends are taken with cell phones and do not have adequate lighting to create a good portrait, leading usually to unsatisfying results.  Lachri, an artist I support through Patreon, suggests that we work with celebrity photos as these are always professionally done.  So recently I have nearly completed two:  Tea Leoni and Catriona Balfe.  I think they show significant improvement over my earlier attempts.  Then when you feel confident with skin tones and textures you can switch to the lesser photographs with a better idea of how to improve them.

Recent Work

Wow!  I'm amazed at how much time has gone by since the last time I posted anything here.  Since June I've completed a portrait of my cat Buddy sleeping and two more Great Blue Heron pieces.  Here they are.

Portrait Eduction

Got a magazine with a wonderful tutorial on making smooth skin tones.  Here's the materials list the artist recommends.

And here's the portrait she did on gray paper.

Self Portrait

Bryn says it doesn't look like me. I don't think I'm a good judge.

Colored Pencil Shortage!

There is a global shortage of colored pencils, brought on (supposedly) by the surge in popularity of adult coloring books.  The shortage began with standard colored pencils and has now spread to the expensive artist grades as well including Prismacolor Premier and Faber-Castell Polychromos.  Most of my sources say their pencil supplies will not be replaced until mid- to late-June.  In the meantime I (and hundreds of real artists) are stuck.  I could end up using the colors I don't really like.  Imagine purple sheep and bright orange people and gray fruit.

Portraits Update

Gwendolyn didn't work out.  That was an exercise in frustration.  After several attempts it became clear that the photo was simply not of sufficient quality to get skin tones.  Oh, well.

So I moved on to this adorable school photo of Bryn in second grade.  Other than being dressed funny (he says totally my fault)  I think he looks great.

Click to enlarge.

Sea Creatures

And then some fish...

Bluegill

Trigla Volitans (Flying Fish)

Botanicals

After trying my hand at birds and houses and some fruit, I practiced with a book and some online tutorials and discovered that I loved doing botanicals in the antique style.  Creating enough to cover an entire wall in the kitchen occupied me for several months.  Hanging them was almost as difficult, but they turned out quite well.

The collection includes three birds, two fruits and four flowers.  Probably should have thought to scan them individually before framing.

Great Blue Heron

Pat and Bud have purchased a home in Florida.  While visiting them recently they introduced me to Aaron the Heron, a Great Blue that seemed never to move from his corner of a pond/lake near their home.  Pat later asked me to consider doing a heron for her. The new home needs artwork, and (she would never say this) I work cheap.  She has not seen the finished product yet.

Portraits

Gwen is not my first portrait attempt.  Late last year I made my first attempt of my dear friend Pat.  Looking at it now, I'm a bit surprised I chose to share it with her.  My skills with colored pencil, while still placing me in the novice category, have vastly improved.  My portraits of my niece Meghan's children Bernie and Zach (Buddy) are two of my pieces of which I am most proud.

Pat in Harbor Springs

Bernie

Zach

Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn is my nephew Mack's first child.  She is possibly the happiest baby I have ever seen.  Mack is an over-the-moon father and regularly sends pictures of his adorable daughter.  This week he sent one that is destined to be a portrait and the work is underway.  Here is the reference photo.

In a few days I'll post the portrait in progress.