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: