WIP, Color Pencil Tip of the Week & Resource of the Week

Hello all my followers!
Today is the day of my youngest daughter's senior prom. I can't believe it is her last year of highschool. I am so proud of her. She has blossomed into a caring beautiful young lady. And she plans on going to artschool in Minnesota. There is no greater joy than our children. I shall post pictures later today, after we get her all dolled up. I can't wait :)

So here is an update. Just had to share these of my daughter getting ready for prom.

My Daughter Melissa

Melissa and her friend Elise

Something I wanted to share with everyone was this quote and it is something I hope none of us artists never give up on, even us "struggling starving artists", such as myself and to all future artists.

If you can imagine it,

You can achieve it;

If you can dream it,

You can become it.

~ William Arthur Ward

EXPLORE    DREAM    DISCOVER

Work In Progress

So here is an update of my current work in progress. I am working on the clothing and background. All done in color pencil.

Mother's Day Gift

Color Pencil Tip of the Week

This week I wanted to share 6 different types of strokes I use when creating works with color pencil. The first is light pressure cross-hatching, light pressure and widely spaced stippling, circulism, circular-scrumbing, stippling closely overlapping and a soft-vertical stroke. I probably use the soft-vertical stroke and the circular-scrumbling the most, but I will use each one depending on the subject I am working on.

Resource of the Week

This week I wanted to share with everyone the Parklane Miniature Show. One of these days, when I have enough $$, I would love to participate in it. Maybe next year, if finances allow. Some beautiful works!

http://parklanegallery.com/minigallery.html

I hope you all  have a great weekend and happy creating!

Carol

Weekend Comments Pictures



New Work In Progress, Color Pencil Tip of the Week & Resource of the Week

Hey Everyone!
I hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have been having asthma problems so I haven't been going outside very much. They are plowing all the fields around us, which is making it worse.
However, I did step outside to see what God sent us the other day and today. A turkey. A Naragansett Turkey actually. It's definitley domesticated. I figure it must belong to one of the farmers nearby. Anyways, my two cats are trying to attack it, so I have been having to keep the little devils inside. I threw out some bird seed for it and it seems to like that, but I have no place to keep a turkey, other than an old run down chicken coop that is overrun by blackberry bushes. A very pretty bird. Wish I had a better camera to take a picture of it, but alas my camera bit the dust a few months back.

Work In Progress
So, I started the Mother's Day Gift piece. Doing this one completely in color pencil. I am presently working on the background right now.
 I had to scan it in two sections, as it is way to big for my scanner. So, I tried my best to get rid of the shadow in the center because of the two separate scans, but just couldn't. If anybody knows a technique to get rid of the shadow,  please let me know. I am working from pretty old photos, so I hope I can capture the likeness of each subject well.

Finished Work

So finally did the final touches to the first panel. I might make some more changes to it, as I begin to work on the second panel, to blend the two together. I will be selling them as a set.



Done in color pencil using warming board technique and eraser technique.

Color Pencil Tip of the Week

This week, I want to share with everyone the different pressures I use, when applying color pencil. I mainly use light to medium pressure, in building up my layers of colors. I wanted to show an example of what the pressures look like. As you can see from the example, the heavy pressure clearly differs from the light pressure.
The advantages of using light to medium pressure, verses medium to heavy pressure is the following:

• more control over the area you are working on
• easier to erase mistakes
• less stress on your wrists and fingers
• less wax bloom build-up

The disadvantages are the following:

• longer time in completing a work
• can lose tooth of paper, due to many layers

Resource of the Week

I stumbled upon Rhonda Bartoe's blog this past week. Be sure and check out her posts some wonderful color pencil tips

Bartoe Art - Color Pencil Mixing
http://bartoe-art.blogspot.com/2008/12/colored-pencil-color-mixing.html

Hope you all have a great week!

Hugs and Happy Creating!

Carol

Great Week Pictures



Work in Progress, Colored Pencil Tip of the Week & Resource of the Week

Hello Everyone!
Today is a beautiful day outside. So, instead of working on my current work-in-progress, I am going to work outside in the garden.  But, I am nearly done with this art piece; I have only a few more touch-ups to complete. Originally this piece was supposed to be for a ceiling mural I was going to paint for our church, but due to the age of the building and other matters, the church board decided against it. This piece was done with colored pencils on Rising Stonehenge.

Colored Pencil Tip of the Week

This week I am going to share with everyone how I layer my colors to achieve another color. For this example, I start off using light to medium pressure, applying a layer of Greyed Lavender as shown below, then on top of that layer, I add a layer of Caribbean Sea. Next, I add a layer of Slate Grey, and then I add a layer of Cool Grey 70%. I repeat the process of the same layers of colors. Sometimes I will apply as many as 3 to 4 layers of the same colors until I get the value and color I need. I always use light to medium pressure. I never use hard pressure unless I am burnishing with a light color over the top of these layers of colors. I always start with the lightest colors first and work my way up to the darker colors by building up my layers.

After I have applied these layers of colors, I usually leave them as is or apply a solvent, colorless blender marker, or pencil, depending on the subject I am creating. But as you can see, the greyed lavender shows through the other layers of colors. It's a lot like mixing paints to achieve the color you want, but you are layering different colors instead to achieve a particular color.

Resource of the Week

Pinterest
http://pinterest.com/

A social network site that has been getting more views than google+, linkedin and youtube combined.
Some huge controversy over Pinterest in regards to copyright issues though, and I can see the concerns, when artists are not given credit. I have a Pinterest account and I am using it to share my artwork and photography and to share some of my favorite artists works with credit. Pinterest is also a great way to gather some ideas and inspirations for creating some new works. Add me if you like  http://pinterest.com/mooresart/

I hope you all have a great weekend and happy creating!