Colored Pencil Artwork Updates, Colored Pencil Resource of the Week, and Art Resource of the Week

To be a colored pencil artist is not every artist's cup of tea. It is a medium that can be quite time-consuming, tedious, and requires a lot of practice. Because it takes me so long to do a colored pencil painting, I have come to a point in my art career where now I just draw and paint what interests me and brings me joy. I am not in it for the competition or to make a profit anymore. Of course, it is nice when an artist can make a sale as it can bring a smile to one's face. But now, I create works of art to share what motivates and inspires me and to help teach others what I know. It is always a joy to meet other artists from around the world, especially the artists from DA and Sketchfest. Thanks to everyone who has followed me along my art journey. I hope these blog posts and my website resources have been and continue to be educational resources and inspiration to other artists and students.

Colored Pencil Artwork Updates

The portrait, I Believe, is finally finished. The portrait was created with colored pencil and drawn on Rising Stonehenge. The meaning behind the portrait was to capture a man's emotions who truly believes in his faith and has come to a dawning moment of pure, simple joy and peace. The scan didn't pick up all the details of the clouds, but if you look real hard, you will see some images in the clouds.

Colored Pencil Resource of the Week



Colored pencil artist Revelle Taillon demonstrates and explains a wonderful technique of applying colored pencil on gesso board. Check it out here http://coloredpenciltips.blogspot.com/2013/02/colored-pencil-on-gessoed-board.html

  

Resource of the Week

As portable devices and social networking become a dominant part of most artists lives. I have discovered a valuable artist tool for my iPhone - Pose tool. It uses a 3D platform to place subjects in various poses. It has 3 point lighting and 4 different modes to place the subject in - muscle, life, mannequin and gesture. Check out the review and details here https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pose-tool-3d/id570369634 You can download it from your app store for $6.99. Well worth the cost.

Keep on Creating! 

Happy Father's Day, Updates, CP Tip of the Week and Resource of the Week

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! I have been spending the day with my family and some great friends. Father's are wonderful and it is a day to honor, to thank them and to let them know how much we love them. My father is no longer here in this world. He passed away in 2007. He is in heaven now and I miss him. But I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father, whom he is now with.
So to all the father's out there I pray that you have had a wonderful day.

Updates

Well Spring term is finally over with and I am now on summer break. It was a tough term but the Lord saw me through each step of the way. I couldn't have done it without Him. I didn't have any time to work on any drawings during this term. So I plan on picking up where I left off on my last work in progress.
Title: I Believe
Medium: Color Pencil
I still have the sky, shirt and face to work. I hope to have it finished up this week.

 

 

Color Pencil Tip of the Week

 

When working with color pencil, it is important to have a good pencil sharpener as you want to keep your points sharp. The reason why you want to keep your points sharp is due to two reasons:

1. Keeping your lead sharp gives the artist the ability to achieve better detail.
2. It helps maintain a more consistent layer of values. 

There are several types of pencil sharpeners and ways to sharpen your pencil. Most color pencil artists prefer the electric or handheld. The handheld is easy to port around if you are traveling. The blades will tend to get dull after awhile, so one will have to replace the blade or the sharpener altogether.  If one uses the electric sharpener, the points can get very sharp and one must be careful of the pencil lead breaking off in the sharpener or the sharpener eating away the pencil. There is also the sandpaper block, X-acto knife and the old hand-cranked pencil sharpener. The sandpaper block is very portable and can be used to sharpen graphite pencils as well. If one uses the X-acto knife, it is important to have sharp blades and it does take some practice to sharpen the pencil to a point. The hand-crank sharpener tends to eat away pencils, but some of the companies are starting to come out with some good ones.

 

Below are some different sharpeners that are available for color pencil artists.

 

Handheld Sharpener

     

Electric Pencil Sharpener

 

Sandpaper Block

 

X-acto Knife

Hand-Cranked Pencil Sharpener

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Resource of the Week

 

Check out color pencil master Sandra Angelo's color pencil and graphite workshops. Learn how to master pet textures and the grisaille method.

 

http://www.discoverartwithsandra.com/art-workshops-online-how-to-draw-cats-dogs-4-sessions-with-pet-master-sandra-angelo/

 

Sandra's book Exploring Color Pencil was one of the first color pencil books I added to my library.

 Hope you all have a great week and God Bless!

Happy Creating!

New Home, New Colored Pencil Works, and Colored Pencil Tip of the Week

Hey Everybody!
It's Spring Break, Winter Term is finally over with, and it has been a long time since my last post. I have been so overwhelmed with classes this last term, so many essays to write that I have had no time to pick up a pencil and draw. Then I got an eye ulcer in my eye and I wasn't able to see very well for the past two weeks. In addition, we moved out of the house we were renting and bought our first home.

Our New Home

So still have some unpacking and organizing to do, also a lot of yard work. I hope to get that done this week along with some much-needed drawing time.

Now that it is Spring Break, I plan on picking up where I left off on my latest work in progress. “I Believe” Medium: Color Pencil I am presently working on the shirt and background.



I Believe





Colored Pencil Tip of the Week

There are many ways to lift up or remove colored pencil from your work. Whichever method you choose, do so carefully, so you do not tear or ruin the surface of your paper.

Bet Borgeson illustrates two ways here http://www.mightyartdemos.com/mightyartdemosfrbkborgeson2.html
and then over at my website I explain a few ways to remove colored pencil
http://www.mooresartgallery.com/colorpencilremovaltips.html

Colored Pencil Tool of the Week

Many colored pencil artists out there use pencil extenders. Extenders are a handy little tool to extend the length of your pencil when your colored pencil becomes too short to use.
Here is one I found that you have to check out this marbled pencil extender over at Etsy  http://tinyurl.com/cp7fg84
In addition, here are some others over at Amazon.

I hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend!

Easter Pictures

Take Care and God Bless!
Keep on Creating!



Happy New Year and Updates!

Happy New Year Everyone!
It's been a long time since my last post. I apologize. I have just been so busy with school, family, the holidays, then getting sick, I have not had much time to get caught up on everything online.
I start back to school next week. I am still taking all the required classes, before I can actually begin taking the web design/computer classes. But starting spring term I will start beginning taking the design courses. Very excited about it. :)

And it looks like we might be moving again soon, as our landlord raised our rent $300 and it is killing us financially. But this time instead of renting, we are buying our first home. It seems renting a home around here, is quite a lot more expensive than buying. So things are going to be quite hectic for us in a few weeks and I am not sure how much time I will have for online, with school etc. and everything else going on.

New Works

I have some new works to share with you. Also I just posted up some new items up for sale at my etsy store https://www.etsy.com/shop/mooresart
I finished up my portrait of Frans and Trish. I just got an email from them that they received it New Year's Eve and they were so thrilled, when they saw it. I can't tell how much gladness that brought me, knowing how tickled they were to finally receive it.

Frans and Trish

Color Pencil and Watercolor Pencil



 



 

Also I just finished this up on New Year's It's called the Winter Lion. Done in Color Pencil and Watercolor Pencil.

 

 

Color Pencil Tip of the Week

I don't think I have shared this before, but it is a sample tutorial by artist Christina Langman on creating a big cat using color pencil. You can check it out here http://www.bigcatart.com/CPtutorial/

Also, there is a new blender pen out for color pencil artists. It's called the Finesse Blender Pen. I have yet to purchase it, but plan on to very soon, just to check it out. The rating is not that great on Amazon, but that is based just on two reviews. Apparently they are saying the pen dries out quickly. But from experience, I think the blender pens don't last as long as "we" artists would like them to.
There are more blender pens on market now than there use to be 5 or 10 years ago. The blender pens that I use whilst creating my works, are the Tombow Colorless Blenders and the Prismacolor Colorless Blender Marker.
There is also the Copic Sketch Marker Colorless Blender and the Sakura Colorless Blender pen. I have yet to check out either one, but plan to very soon as well. One nice thing about the Copic Sketch Marker Colorless Blender you can get ink refill replacements.

My advice is to try each one out, as each artist has different techniques and tastes, to determine which one you like the best.




Resource of the Week

If you are need of some inspiration check out http://www.portraitartist.com/ Some amazingly talented portrait artists. They have a forum, a place to sell your works and artist highlights.

I hope you all have an amazing, sucessful, blessed new year!

Best Wishes!

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