An Old Portrait and an Older Portrait

Oops!

 

I totally forgot that I meant to post a charcoal portrait of my daughter in the last post! That was a major reason I did a non-art post, but I guess that's what happens when you have someone like me, posting about who-knows-what. I try to stay on topic of art, but sometimes, I gotta stray.

Portrait of Anna

 

Granted, this portrait was done years ago, and I'm painfully aware I should do an update. Plus, I have other family members who have waited patiently for their turn, but since theirs is free, they have no choice but to sit back and... wait some more.

Portrait of my Dad

 

So now we get to go down memory lane...to 20 (yes, TWENTY!) years ago. I did a portrait of my dad that I submitted and won 1st place in a Father's Day event. Looking at it now...I can honestly tell you his lips were not that "pretty". Maybe a redo is in order... ;)

It's a "stippling" portrait, made up of a bunch of dots. I did a few other drawings in the same fashion, but that's another topic... Maybe I'm not that brave to show more of my work from high school, but it might be an eye opener for some who think you gotta be born with talent. ;)

 

New Pastel Painting: Alaskan Malamute

So the original post disappeared shortly after it was highlighted on another webpage. Sorry it's taken a few weeks for me to get the energy to piece it back together. (Very strange and since I don't know WHY it happened, or even know HOW to find out why, I'm just going to add the photos back and go from there).

The beginning didn't start out the way I wanted and I quickly discovered that my sketch wasn't right. I remedied that by covering the entire panel in charcoal and then bringing out the lighter pieces with a kneaded eraser. At this stage, it's pretty loose and messy looking.

Beginning stage using vine charcoal and a kneaded eraser

Now I'm adding more detail now that I'm satisfied with the placement, but still using just charcoal and eraser. (There might be a little bit of pastel on the right ear).

Refining the detail

It becomes more obvious that I'm adding color now, mainly a soft blue - both to the background and to the fur.

Next step, adding pastels over the charcoal

Adding a second color, mostly a peach color to the fur, to play with the warm and cool sections. Blurring your eyes on the photo helps pick out different colors. I also take a piece of paper with a hole in it and hold it over the photo to identify colors. It's amazing what you see there that your eye didn't pick up before.

Adding peach

Getting into the nitty-gritty of the painting, playing with the colors and adding more local color to the nose and eyes.

Playing with the peach and blue. Also added some pink to the nose and orange to the eyes.

Is this like watching paint dry? I can't help but take tons of photos. I'm adding more black, darkening sections of the fur. I've also refined the nose a little more.

Darkening the fur and softening the nose

The final step...you can see that I've softened the fur a little. One of my favorite spots is under his chin. It's really soft there, almost as if he's shedding and you can gently pull the hair right out. (Does anyone else love to do that? I could do that to these long-haired dogs for HOURS!)

"Wooly Malamute" | 16x20 | pastel

Donkey: WIP

I've been working on my newest animal piece on pastelbord. As you've seen, I did this cow with charcoal and a kneaded eraser. (For you city folk, this is NOT the donkey...)

 I used vine charcoal only - which are the skinny ones on the left.

This eraser is my favorite...my progress stops completely if I can't find one of mine...it's called "kneaded" because...well, here's what Cheap Joe's says on their website:

"These erasers are great because they can last just about forever. Many beginning artists don’t understand just how great a kneaded eraser is because no one ever shows you how to use one.
But, here is a tip. These erasers are stretchy. This is great when you want to shape these erasers to fit into tight spaces or when you want to ball them up to eraser a swath a few inches wide. They are also kind of like silly putty in that you can shape them, then place them on an area that is a little too dark, press down and voila! You can instantly lighten an area and fix a compositional nightmare in an instant. But, here is the especially great part.
To clean these erasers just stretch them out, fold them over, stretch it again… and again. These erasers come out clean and brand new all over again. There aren’t too many art materials that are your friend and last practically forever."

 They're great stress relievers too. My kneaded erasers are usually pretty clean.

Since pastelbord has a rough surface, I also used a stump for the blending. The white of the drawing is the actual pastelbord surface in the cow drawing.

OK, so enough about the supplies. Let's talk about the new piece I have. It's a juvenile donkey from a reference photo I took while on vacation. I started off with a quick sketch...it's different than regular sketching since I wanted to preserve the white of the surface. It's pretty rough looking and reminiscent of a zebra.
 

 
I was mainly blocking in the values, but this eats up those charcoal sticks quickly! 

I added more texture to the fur and backgound.

  

 I played with this for a while, trying to get the right balance of background texture...I ended up using white pastel on the lightest areas.

 

I'm not ready to call it "done", but ready to set it aside for a day or two.

Art Updates...

The writing gene apparently did not rub off on me, which is probably why I don't post more...yep, that's my excuse. Maybe I need to write less and post more pictures.

I've been working on quite a few pieces since I last posted here, so I'm going to update everyone!

Let's see...I finished a charcoal drawing of a local dairy cow... this is 16" x 20" on pastelbord...

I finally finished the Lily of the Valley (it's a Flower of the Month for May). It's 8" x "10" on Stonehenge paper...and yes, it was white paper that I painstakingly darkened. (Reminder to myself that there are other papers to choose from!)

I also finished the tiger lilies here, that I believe is on Aquabord (Ampersand). It's 10" x 8" and is framed without glass.

The poinsettias are actually small - 4" x 4", almost coaster size, which is exactly what my family thinks it should be...

Another flower of the month, this time for June...an antique rose.

This is a 16" x 20" pastel of tropical flowers...I keep forgetting what they're called. I can't decide whether or not to leave it as is, with part of it incomplete, or work it a little more. That's why I haven't framed or named it. 

And finally, the autumn berries - on aquabord, 7" x 5", framed without glass. (I may have already added this to a post, but maybe not?)

I do have another colored pencil flower I'm working on...I promise to add this as I work instead of posting the finished product.

Tuesday's Portrait

Tina II, charcoal, 12 x 14 inches

Just in case you were wondering, last week's class was canceled. Sorry about that - I guess I could have said something, but I was in a funk. This week's model was Tina, which I was happy to hear that someone recognized to be the same model as one of my other drawings. (That always makes you feel good - that a person comes out recognizable!)

Tuesday's Portrait

I've posted the portrait I did last night from our class. You can always tell who got to the class late...because they're usually delegated to the sides and end up doing the profile portrait!

This model asked for the portrait at the end of class...I told him to come back next week since I wanted to take a photograph of it first.

Carrboro Portrait Class

OK, so I'm not sure if this will work - the picture above should be a slideshow of 7 portraits done from life. (Press Play - I had to make it into a movie). Five of them were from my last portrait class, one was done at home and the other was done at Art&Soul Studios during an opening we had in November... If it doesn't work, I'll try something else. If that doesn't work, then I'm stuck just pasting 7 images in the blog.

Tomorrow starts another session of portrait classes for me - I'm taking them with Herb Slapo at the Carrboro Arts Center. (Not to be confused with the one I'll be teaching in Mebane!) I have a really fun time going there and being with other artists and drawing from life (from a willing subject). Notice the slides above from the last session (if it works) - the first week started with the pencil portrait and I felt extremely rusty. It just wasn't clicking with me. The second week I decided to bring my charcoal and it was so much easier. Maybe it was because I loosened up a bit, maybe it was the medium, maybe both. Or, it could have been the subject. I decided to work with charcoal for the next session, then the next, etc. For me, charcoal tends to force me to stay loose. I should point out that I don't use a charcoal pencil. I use the vine or willow charcoal and tissue to blend. (The charcoal I use looks like the one 2nd from the left in the picture below).
I'll be bringing my charcoal to the next class...but I might bring some pastels too. We'll see!!!

Portrait

Leah and Ian, charcoal 11x14- WIP!

I've taken a longer break than planned, so I apologize for that. Somehow, December came in, I blinked, and it's gone. I didn't even post a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday, Happy New Year to everyone! So...yeah, what I just said.

Now that all of the holidays are over, we get back to work! I've been working on a commission since my last post. This is Ian and Leah, two beautiful children in Connecticut. It's still a Work In Progress, since I still need to smooth things out a bit. Pending the feedback I get, I should have this done this week. (I really need to start taking these photos during the day!)

Charcoal Portrait...and Travel

Lilly, 8x10, charcoal

I've been out of town this week, travelling for business. I thought I should bring along a few portrait commissions just in case I was inspired in my hotel room. The one above, of course, is a really bad picture, taken from my phone. It's a smaller one, 8x10 and was done fairly quickly. It is charcoal, so the photograph should just be black and white (no blue in real life!). Once I return home, I will prop it up and look at it again, and tweak it before giving it to the client.

I was hoping to return home yesterday, but I was among the many many people affected by the winter storm. I was trying to fly out of Providence Rhode Island. The snow is a gorgeous site for us not used to seeing it! Being from North Carolina, we see more ice than snow, and even the ice is rare...To see the snow coming down so quickly, I had mixed feelings. It was beautiful and exciting, but I was at the airport hoping to fly out. A flight that was supposed to leave at 1:30 was delayed many times and was eventually cancelled (after being boarded and waiting for the plane to de-ice twice). I was frustrated at first, but my company has a wonderful travel department that helped me with my flight and hotel. Can I say I love the Hilton? It's my favorite hotel (especially when having to stay overnight due to cancelled flights). The beds are soft, the duvet covers are silky, warm and light. My favorite part was that they had HGTV! This has become a rarity in the hotels I've stayed in. The employees at the hotel were very nice, and I'm it was a struggle with so many stranded people staying there.

Charcoal Portrait from Life

Anne, charcoal, 18x24

I decided to switch to charcoal for yesterday's portrait class (1 1/2 hours). It had been a while since I've worked with pencil - I was just too impatient last week. I prefer using willow charcoal since it allows me to block in shapes, planes, etc instead of getting distracted with the detail. I've seen artists who lay down charcoal first and pick up the highlights with the eraser. I find this fascinating, but not for me. I sketch the blueprint (nothing too detailed), then block in the shadows. At this point, it's not a pretty sight! I typically use a tissue over my index finger to blend and soften the charcoal. I push the charcoal around to create the mid tone, usually going in the direction of the contours. This really helps to build the face and allow you to see beyond the eyes, lips, nose, etc and instead, see the hills and valleys. I then take my kneaded eraser and pull out the highlights. This process is repeated as many times as it takes. I feel like a sculptor chiseling with my charcoal.

As for the portrait above, using charcoal on drawing paper really created a wash look to it. Almost like pen and ink on hot press watercolor paper. I'm not sure if I like the look, so I might bring with me some charcoal paper for my next class.

Portrait

Lavada and Ken, charcoal, 11"x14"

I feel like I've neglected this, but I guess not...it's only been 5 days or so. I think I'm getting to the final stretch with the most recent portrait, though I'm still not calling it done. It has a different feel to it than the others, but I think it has more to do with the following:

1. the source photo: the source photo was not as clear as the others, so there is less detail. Less detail in the photo=less detail in the portrait.
2. vicinity to the camera: this comes back to the # of subjects for obvious reasons.
3. # of subjects: the more people in the portrait, the less focus I can provide to each. Basically, this is the key to the whole portrait - the more subjects, the further they have to be from the camera, and the less detail it will provide.

So, really it comes down to you get what you give me. As a customer, it's up to you to tell me what you want. You are paying for a portrait and I want it to be the best that it can possibly be. That means when I ask you to give me criticism (ie, does it look like you/him/her? What about the nose that doesn't look right?). I'm perfectly fine with straying from the photo, since photographs are known to lie.

First Real Attempt at Colored Pencil...and Arlington

This is a pretty bad photograph, so I apologize for that...but I'm beginning to see how obsessive colored pencil can be. The only thing I did before this one was an ATC a month ago, but I guess I still didn't get "it". I've just been too hesitant to use just one color, thinking that it was cheating. The flower above was done using an example from the book Painting Light with Colored Pencil by Cecile Baird. The flower is a little different from the book since I didn't have the colors she listed, and I didn't worry about getting the petals like the example. However, the steps that were listed were clear enough that when I followed them with my version of colors, it turned out pretty good for my first serious attempt at CP. Since it's just a practice one, I didn't worry about the background, either. I may add it later.

As for the sketch below, this is just to prove to you guys (and me), that I'm continuing to work on different things - even if it's not finished! My brother recently travelled to Washington, DC with his wife and visited our dad in Arlington National Cemetery. This was a photo he took looking at the marker (Court 8) with the Pentagon in the background. (Well, can't you tell that already?)

Weekly Sketch

Lightbulb, charcoal, 9" x 11"

Yep, it's a lightbulb. As a part of my renewed commitment to my work, I am participating in a weekly sketch over on Wetcanvas. The great thing about this site is that it provides reference photos without any issues of copyright. The photo gallery over there is wonderful! I have spent many nights browsing the photographs, from people, animals to landscapes and machinery. However, the downside of drawing or painting from a reference photo is that you can be limited by the quality of the photo and its composition. The one thing I never thought about was that you are also limited by your printer. I printed a photo of the lightbulb and went on my merry way to begin the sketch. The shadow kept bothering me since it was cropped so harshly. Once I finished, I went back to the site to post my progress and lo and behold the original photo was different! My printer cropped the shadow more than the original. I know, it's a little irritation that can be easily remedied by adding more to the right of the sketch. Since I used vine charcoal, it's easily corrected.

Where I Am Now

So, there's a first time for everything, right? I've pondered for months whether or not to start a blog and like all bloggers, I decided to give it a try. Before, I thought I had nothing to talk about except for my kids, my husband, my family in general...and who wants to read about my life?



Well, since I am an artist, it never occured to me to talk about my art! After all, it's been quite some time since I did anything real with it. Once I graduated, (with art and history degrees), I went straight to work...in clinical research. Oh, I get the question all the time. How does one with an art degree go into clinical research? Ummm...I always wanted to be a starving artist, until I figured out that meant not having any money! Plus, it helps to have a sister that knows someone with a temp position open...Anyway, that's beside the point. It's been a while. Now, I am back, trying to pull artself back together and get serious (as serious as I can get with a full-time job and two toddlers. Oh sorry - one toddler and one pre-schooler).





<-preschooler