Exercise in Shading and Highlights

This was a simple lesson in shading and highlights, but, I think it turned out well.  Graphite on Blick Studio by Fabriano 140 lb cold press watercolor paper. 9.5 inches high by 6.5 inches wide.  Mock framing done in Paintshop Pro. After looking at the first version - that on the left - I decided that it needed something, so I worked on the darks a bit more... I like the way it looks now, especially since the watercolor paper gives this drawing a bit of depth that I didn't have to work hard to achieve.  As is most often the case, clicking the small version takes you to the full-size drawing.  The original piece looks much better than either of these scans.

Colored Pencil Drawing

Prismacolor Verithin Colored Pencil on coldpress watercolor paper. My finished piece is 9 inches wide by 6 inches high, yet would also work as a vertical display. The basic line drawing I used here was inspired in part by a lesson from Watercolor Painting for Dummies by Colette Pitcher, although I didn't trace, so my freehand drawn start is different than hers... and of course, I listened to my own muse rather than following the instructions given in the book... I like how this turned out. As with most of my blog entries, you can click this image to see the full sized version.

Notes: 

1. The background appears darker here than on my original... darned scanner.
2. For those who haven't used them, it should also be noted that Verithin pencils are harder and sharpen to a finer point than the basic Prismacolors do, hence the appearance of scratch-marks near the center of this piece.

The Village

The outline to this painting came from Terry Madden's Watercolor Workshop 1100 series Volume 1... but instead of following instructions given in the book, I decided to pretty much do my own thing... playing with colors.  My original version of this painting hangs in my living room.

13 x 9.5 inches watercolor on Blick Studio Fabriano watercolor paper.

Handy Rose

One attempt at a mixed media piece. Basic drawing in colored pencil, chromatic black background in watercolor paint. The rose is one of an artificial bunch I bought a couple years ago... the hand is my trusty manniquin hand I purchased for just such purposes.  Glad I was able to find the hand used; it's not nearly as flexible as I had hoped, which strictly limits the positions in which it can be posed.

Colored pencil and watercolor on Bristol Board. 7 x 11 inches.

Poppy

There's a number of things wrong with this, the shape of the flower being just one of them... but there's something else, too. The longer I look, the more I like this poppy.  The original sketch was done based on a photo of a flower, but done in the style of Georgia O'keef - where the flower was enlarged to occupy nearly the entire paper.

Watercolor on Strathmore Cold Press Watercolor paper. 7 x 11 inches

The River

Once again, the trees here look nothing like the photo reference used to create them.  This one was fun, though I probably should have tried putting a boat on the water.

Abandoned

I love old barns.  I used a photo reference for the basic shape of the barn, but I didn't try to replicate much other detail in that photo... Watercolor again...

Bottle Blues

Called Bottle Blues for obvious reasons, this watercolor painting was a class assignment that, I think, turned out well. This picture was painted from a still life setup; only four of the bottles were in the setup, I added the others...

Beach Scene

The use of photos to get shapes right is one thing, making a direct copy is another. My chair in this painting doesn't look much like the chair in the photo I used as a reference... but it does look like a chair.

The Path

I've now been working with watercolors for about three months... these next pictures are my attempts at getting something artistic onto the paper... 

Stuff You Can Learn From Kids' Paints

I'm painting now, with watercolors... but one of the first experiments was with Tempra paints.

Sharpie markers - like you can buy at most office supply stores in the US, and Tempra paints - some of you might remember those from school. Three primary colors, three secondary colors, plus black and white... or essentially the colors you'd get in a box of 8 crayons. Some of what you see below is mixed colors, and some colors straight from the factory-mixed bottles. I learned that small amounts of a darker color added to a lighter color change the hue much more than you might think.

Signing your name with a paint brush is an acquired skill that has not much to do with how well you can write with a pen or pencil... My signature was cloned out of the graphic below both for asthetic purposes (it's horribly sloppy)... and because I don't like posting my real name online.

Medieval Fantasy

My Latest Sketch.  The frame and mat seen here were digitally created.  The original hung in my livingroom for awhile, but has been given to my mother-in-law, and now hangs in her livingroom. I worked on this sketch for quite awhile during March and April.  Click picture for larger view.

Quickie Sketches

 

 

Here's a couple of the quick sketches I did this week. Lessons from About.com  Sea Turtle and, Dog. I used Derwent Studio Colored Pencils and Pro-Art, 90# [147gsm] paper. On one 9 X 12 sheet, both of these sketches and room for a few others... No, they're not large at all.

Pirate Sketch

Those of you who are old enough may remember the little characters sometimes seen on matchbook covers... where you were invited to draw the character and then submit your drawing for evaluation. This pirate is one of those characters, provided by Art Instruction schools.  No, I didn't submit my drawing to them... I really can't afford to pay for their courses.

Finished Wren

Here's the finished bird... I think I enjoy the drawing more than painting... not sure yet though.  The painting was finished in February, 2009. It was shown in March for one week, and in a different location in April for less than one week... during it's showing in April, this painting sold for $65.00 framed, less than two months after it was finished.

For The Birds

This bird might be a little difficult to see. Some of my lines aren't as dark as others... but that's okay at this stage, since it's an in-progress scan of a sketch I plan to paint. As usual, I've drawn a subject from drawspace.com. Lesson J07 is about using a grid to establish proportions in your drawing - which is what I attempted to do here; only I liked the little bird in the lesson so much I wanted to draw him... so I did the best I could...

In my search for a wren with similar markings, I ran across this blog with a photo of an absolutely perfect specimen of a male Superb Blue Fairy Wren.  Curious as to what the female looks like, I took a look at some of the other entries on the same blog. I knew she wouldn't be as colorful, but thought she might still make interesting sketch material.

Rat Tales

This little critter looks like he's got a story to tell (well, he does to me) so I called this sketch "Rat Tales".  It's from Drawspace.com Lesson # I07 - Rocky Rodent.   I'm still not too hot with the fur and shading... but I suppose it's progress. My original is done on 9X12 inch, 90lb Canson Classic Cream drawing paper. Heavyweight, medium tooth surface good for charcoal, pastel, pencil and pen. So says Canson anyway. My sig, date, etc. in the corner was done with PSP X2 after I edited the scan for brighness, contrast, fading and clarity - not to mention that I had to remove unwanted shadows - again. The only way to not have the darned shadows would be to scan the page after removing it from the sketch pad. I don't have any good place to store loose sketches, so I don't do many of them like that.

Three Skulls, after Cézanne

My version of Cézanne's famous painting. You can see the original here: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/80336 (well, okay, that's really just a more accurate reproduction of the famous painting), you'd have to go to Chicago to see the real deal. Mine is Graphite on Mead Academie heavyweight sketchbook paper. Roughly 7.25 inches high by 11 inches wide.

My brain must have been on vacation when I watermarked this... It's among drawings I did late in 2008, not a 2009 effort.  My sketch book tells the truth... when I bother to date the work.

Scruffy Puppy

This lesson builds on the lesson in the previous post. For comparison purposes, here's my finished sketch.  My husband says he looks like a scruffy puppy, so I called this sketch "Scruffy". The original is 9 inches X 9 inches, graphite on 45lb paper.... yep another page in the same sketch book I used for the first sketch.  To preserve the integrity of my first sketch, I made a photo copy of that sketch and then traced it onto another page and then continued with the advanced lesson T05  Isaac from Drawspace.com.  He's cute - and looks like a dog somewhat, but certainly not like little Isaac in the lesson... And instead of bothering with color for this sketch, I think I'll move on to something different... maybe try Isaac some other time, after my skill set has been enhanced by other lessons.

Drawing A Dog

In Progress Sketch

The dog is from Drawspace lesson B08 - Seeing Shapes in a Photo of a Dog's Head.

This scan still isn't as clean as I would like (lots of black spots were removed in PSP that are NOT on my sketch).... Guess that means it's time to clean the scanner glass again. :(  Otherwise, I'm happy with this sketch - as far as it goes.  I plan to develop the subject a bit more and transfer the drawing to watercolor paper to add color.  Right now, it's just in my cheap sketchbook that I got from Office Depot.  The paper is 9 inches square, 45lb., acid free with a small amount of texture to it.  Very pleasant to work with - takes the eraser better than some of the more expensive papers? - Go figure. Sketch pad has brand name of FORAY on it - the capital letters are theirs, not mine. Paper is white but my scanner wanted to read it as grey.  I had to play with brighness and contrast to get the scan to resemble my sketch... and now it does - except the lines I drew aren't quite as dark as they appear on the scanned copy... and, of course, I may not have removed all the extraneous black spots.