A Christmas Gift

Awhile back, I made this drawing of Mesa Arch (in Canyonlands).

Jeff liked it and asked if he could put it in his office. It seemed kind of lonely on his wall in his office, so I told him I would do two more drawings - one for each side, or two to go underneath it. And then it didn't happen, and didn't happen. So finally, a few weeks ago, I had to go to his office when he wasn't there, so I snuck in and took some measurements and decided what would work best. Then, I came home and got to work.
I wanted to keep with the Southern Utah theme - the red rocks. So, I looked through my best photos, did some cropping, and picked two that would work the best. I started one, and then had to wait about a week before I got to it again. And suddenly it was getting very close to Christmas, so I begged the kids to let me work on it while they were home (this was after school was out for the break), and I also did some early morning and late night drawing, which was a little tricky if Jeff was around. But, miraculously, I was able to pull it together and finish them, and even get frames to fit them.

These are the two drawings:

 Faux Falls in Moab

Natural Bridge in Bryce Canyon

This is the idea of what they would look like together, but they will be in frames and won't be quite so close to each other.

I realize that in these photos the colors don't really match the Mesa Arch drawing. I hope it is just because of the lighting when I took the photos. I made the first drawing with a different pastel set than these other two, so the colors were different to start with.

I am happy with these two new drawings though. I love the colors of the red rock in Southern Utah, so it was fun to try to recreate that on paper.

A portrait from spring

One of the main reasons I decided to go into portraiture is that I love being able to give someone something meaningful. The thing that started this was a big desire to have portraits drawn of my children. I had wanted it for years and it didn't occur to me that I could draw it myself until a couple of years ago. And then, as I started making portraits for people and I saw how much they love having drawings of their loved ones, I realized that it felt great to give someone something that had such great meaning to them. 
This past March, one of my husband's partners from work passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly. He was our age, and it was quite a shock. He has a wife and four children who are almost the same exact ages as our four children. When he died, Jeff asked if I might want to draw a portrait of him, since I had done one of our friend who had passed away in November last year.  I debated, but didn't know if I would be able to do it, since I didn't know Greg (the partner) as well and wondered if I could pull it off effectively. Then, after a couple of months, I decided to give it a try. I figured that if it looked horrible, I just wouldn't give it to his wife, and nobody would even know I had tried. I went through some photos of him that we had gotten from his wife for a news report. I actually started with his professional work photo, but he normally wore glasses and this work photo had him without glasses. And, the drawing just really didn't look like him. So, I scrapped that, and tried again. I found a photo of him with his kids that I thought looked like the Greg I remembered. I enlarged it, but it had a fairly low resolution, which made it hard to see the details. But, I got started and it went pretty well. I went to my art teacher who helped me with some details and, by piecing other photos together, with the one I was using, I was able to get the drawing done to look like him. I even had Jeff take it to work and ask people if they thought it looked like him, because I wanted to be sure it really did before I gave it to his family.
I framed it and gave it to his family, and they like it, and they say it looks like him, so it worked out just fine. I was nervous, as I always am presenting a drawing to someone, but my  nerves were calmed by their positive reaction to it. I wanted to get his wife's approval before posting about it on the blog, and even after I did, I forgot to post this. I saw her again last night and figured I had better do it before I forgot again. The photograph is a little dark, but it is the best one I have, and you can still get the idea. I am glad I did the portrait though. I was nervous, but in the end, it was worth it.  :)

Another Southwest Quilt

I think this is one of my favorite quilts so far, for a number of reasons. It is a commission of sorts (no, I am not starting a quilting business), and I was asked to make a southwest style quilt. I was shown some coasters that the person had in their home and I tried to make a design that followed those patterns and designs. This is the design I made in photoshop:

I used pictures of the material I hoped to use and came up with a few tentative designs with various color patterns. This is the one we picked. (Blogger seems to want to put streaks across my photos lately, so sorry for the one across the bottom - it isn't in the original).

After making all of the measurements and calculations (I have to thank my sister-in-law, Christine, who helped me with the math on the triangles), I got the material and put it together. It went remarkably well - probably my best quilt with triangles to date. They actually lined up and I didn't sew the points off this time. :)
 But, I put it together, pinned the whole thing, started doing the machine quilting, and then (yes, it took this long) realized that I put it together wrong.  The part with the green triangles (just to the right and left of the center strip) had one of them going the wrong way so instead of an "X" like formation, it was more like stairs going all the same direction. Hard to explain, and my photo is on my ipad, not this computer, but basically I had to do a lot of redoing and the stitch remover became my friend. Remarkably, I was able to get it all fixed with minimal damage and I finished the quilt. I love this quilt. I was tempted to keep it for myself. I actually bought similar material and I am going to make a different quilt with that.

This is the final product:

up close on the middle (my favorite part, and probably the most complex part too)
And, no, there isn't pink on the bottom in real life, just what the computer wants to do

Upright - I actually uploaded this photo four times, and this is the best Blogger would do for me. UGH! But, you get the idea. Maybe some day I can replace it with the actual decent photo that was taken.

From above, sort of.

 I forgot to take a photo of the backing - but it is just dark brown (and super soft) minky.

Christmas Crafts

There are two things I have wanted to make for Christmas for a looooong time.  One is an advent calendar. I have looked at many, thought of buying different ones, but so many have teeny tiny drawers or they are the fabric kind which I didn't quite like, so after much searching, looking at reviews of some build it yourself kinds and finding out you have to sand down every drawer extensively, and other such annoyances, I ran into a handy little idea in the tool section of a store. I put it together, pulled out what little actual scrapbook paper I have left, and my acrylic stamps and old stickers and such, and put this together:

 It is made from one of those tool boxes that hold little screws and other small items. The drawers were the perfect size and I even have five extra to hide fun little goodies from time to time.  It isn't professional quality, but I don't care. I like it, and the kids have had fun with it so far (the two whole days we have done it).

The other project I have wanted to do for a while, and especially in the past few years was a tree skirt. I made one when Jeff and I were first married, but it seems kind of small and boring. So, last year I got around to finally buying material and I found a pattern, cut the pieces, and made the top. Then, as Christmas time usually goes, my life exploded into craziness and I never finished it. After staring at it for months I packed it away and almost forgot about it. Then, last week as we started getting our Christmas decorations out, I remembered the skirt. So, I pulled it out and over a couple of days I finished putting the bottom on, quilted it, and added a binding.

Sorry the photo is so dark - this kind of shows the view with the tree.

The binding from above

Up close on the binding - this is my favorite part - my machine can do these pretty stitches and I actually figured out how to do them (that is half the battle with me).

The view if you were laying down by the tree (you know, because we always do that, right? )

So, I am pretty happy that I have finally done these two projects. Now, if I can only finish the 20 other things I have on my list... :)

Wedding gift

This is a quilt that I promised my sister as a wedding gift. Her wedding was a year and a half ago.  Sigh... Sometimes I take forever to get things done. But, it is finally finished, and shipped to her. Yay!  This was the largest quilt I have done so far - a queen size. It was really fun though - very different from other quilts I have done.
I used the material that she used for tablecloth squares on her tables at her wedding, so they are her wedding colors. And then I found backing that coordinated perfectly, and it worked out great. I found it just in time too, because it was out of stock in most stores online.

This shows what the backing material looks like (not sure why there are streaks across the photo)

The design from above

This is the picture my sister took and posted on facebook - it looks great in their room - and is a much better photo than the ones I took :)

Two new portraits

I finished this first portrait a few weeks ago, but I wanted to show his parents the painting first. It was a fun one to do. I like his little toothless smile.  :)

Benjamin

This weekend I have had some time to do another portrait. This is my nephew. I did his brother back in May and kept thinking I would get around to doing him, and it kept getting put off. But, I am happy to say that I have finally done it.  It also went fairly well, which is always nice :)  I haven't seen him since Christmas, and he has changed a lot since then. I found some more recent photos and this one grabbed me the most. It is just a little harder doing a portrait of someone I haven't seen in awhile.  I will say that doing this portrait style was a lot easier the second time around. Maybe I am starting to get the hang of this :).

Theo

Progress

I think I have figured out how to find a little time to do some art and quilting. So, I may actually be posting more on here again. I hope. 

Here is what I have been up to:

This is the storm at sea quilt I mentioned in a couple of posts. Fortunately, in this photo, you can't see all the places where things don't line up.  :)  I am not done. I am actually putting it on hold while I do some other projects.  I plan to put a border around it, and of course I have to do a backing and quilt it and put on a binding. But, honestly, the hardest part is done.  There are 1297 pieces that I put together to make this. The bulk of the cutting and a lot of the piecing was done awhile back. I just finally got around to finishing the piecing and putting it all together. It makes me happy.  :)

Storm at Sea

Work in progress

This is the current quilt I am working on.  It is a wedding gift for my sister (a year and a half later...). We are using the material that she used for table centerpieces so it is all in her colors.  I have all of the pieces cut and laid out, and now it is time to assemble.  Unfortunately, I had a little accident with my rotary cutter (not doing quilts, ironically) and I can't sew little pieces together very well due to lack of function with my index finger, so I will have to put this on hold for a couple of weeks.

I can still draw though.  I finished a portrait, which I will post as soon as I have had a chance to show the people who commissioned it.   It went remarkably well, and it gives me hope that I really can do this more often.   It has been three months since the last portrait.  Too long.

That is what I have been up to in between all of the other normal day to day tasks of life. I have felt happier and calmer since I started getting back into creating things. It is a therapy of sorts for me, and I hope to do more.

I finished something

On my phone, I keep a to do list. In fact, it has several lists. I have house projects, art projects, quilts, sewing projects (non-quilt) etc.  This is so, when I find I have time to do something, I scroll down my list to see what I feel like working on. It is also my way of seeing what I have actually accomplished because I keep the items on the list, just with a strike going through them. That list barely changed all summer. Then, school started, and my life turned into an explosion of chaos. It hasn't been the freedom I had hoped for. I am trying to accept the fact that I feel like I have less time to myself than in the past few years. I try not to fall into the "this isn't what I thought it would be like" trap. So, I made a decision to make the entire hour and 15 minutes of my "free" time dedicated to me. It means I am not getting much of anything else done (because the rest of the day I have at least one child by my side), but it is keeping me sane. So far.
I have kind of been in an art funk for awhile. I am not fully sure what the deal is, but I decided that I needed to first get my brain thinking in a creative artistic way again.  So, I looked at my phone to-do list and I decided to work on a quilt. I started this quilt back in February. In fact, I was almost done with the top of it, and then it sat for a long time. so, I decided to finish it. My son needed a not-so-girlish quilt on his bed, so I  made this one. It is smaller than I had originally hoped, but that is okay. He doesn't use most of his bed anyway, and he does have a large soft blanket if he gets cold. I showed him the material I had to work with, and he made up the design. The quilt isn't stellar. It wouldn't win an award (except, maybe, "how not to do a quilt") but I finished it, and there is a lot of satisfaction in that.  here is a photo:

And, now that I have finished something that requires a bit of creativity, my brain is starting to feel a little more artistic. I started a sketch of a portrait I am going to do next. And, I finally put all of the pieces together for the storm at sea quilt that I  mentioned many many posts ago. Now I just need to assemble the blocks and put the top together. I also have two-three other quilts I have lined up, so there is no shortage of projects on my list. I am glad to finally have a little time to work on these things, despite my disappointment of having less time than I planned. And, maybe, just maybe, I can survive this school year.

Mirror Lake in the Uintas

Mirror Lake

It has been really hard this summer to find time to draw. There always seems to be someone who needs me, and I haven't made it down to my art room in awhile.  Until the past few days. When I finally was at the end of my sanity, I locked myself in my room for just one hour, and started this drawing. I felt SO much better afterwards. It was amazing. I could deal with all the things going on again and didn't feel so overwhelmed. Lesson to myself - drawing is therapy and I need to get proper doses of it.  Because I have done so many portraits lately, I decided to take a break and do something totally fun with no pressure. I wasn't kidding when I said I thought landscapes would be easier. I can't believe how much easier they seem. That being said, I see things I want to change or try next time, now that I am looking at this, but it was kind of a free exercise to see what I could do with my newer pastels and all of the techniques I have learned.  And, strangely enough, some of the techniques I learned for portraits helped with this. 

It took me a few days of locking myself in my room to get this done, but I did it. This is from a photo of Mirror Lake in the Uintas.  I took the photo 3 years ago and have wanted to draw it for a long time. I think it was a good one to try. 

Now I just have to decide what is next.  Portrait, landscape, or something else? 

My latest commission

This is what I have been working on lately. I have found that it is quite tricky finding time to draw now that my children are home all day. I have made a few arrangements that have helped, but I definitely get more done during the school year.  That being said, I enjoyed drawing these four children. We have known them from before the oldest was born. In some ways that makes it harder because I keep saying, "no, that isn't quite them yet... no, I don't think the eyes are right.... hmmm... that one looks too old..." etc. I actually got on an artist website (wetcanvas.com) and posted one of the drawings to get some feedback.  It was incredibly helpful, so I plan to post more on that site in the future.  It helps to get other eyes looking at it, and I had about 10 people comment with suggestions.

As for the rest of the summer, I don't plan to do as much art.  I will still welcome commissions, but I may not start them until mid August. That could change and surprise me, but we have a lot of  plans coming up and I don't really want deadlines at the moment. I have one other commission that is lined up, but I also have some projects of my own I want to try.  There is a landscape I want to try drawing.  Now that I have done faces, landscapes seem easy.  I don't say that to downplay landscapes, it is just that if you make the branch of a tree go at a slightly different angle, it still looks like a tree.  If you make eyes go at the wrong angle, it looks like a Picasso.  :)

Maybe I will work on some quilts this summer and post them here, or maybe I will post photographs from our adventures. We shall see... when I started this blog, I planned on posting all of my creative outlets.  I haven't done that for awhile. 

My Mother

This is a drawing of my Mother.  She passed away about four years ago.  I was trying to decide who to draw for this medium (I wanted to try charcoal and white) and she seemed like the perfect subject. I also have some old photos of her that I think would be fun to draw - from her college days.  But, this is how I remember her - before she got sick, before she lost weight.  This kind of captures her - the beads (she wore beaded necklaces a lot) and the big smile - she so often had a big smile on her face.
When I started this drawing, it looked like a man with a helmet.  I would walk by it and think, "how is this ever going to look like my Mom?"  But it evolved and then there was a point where I suddenly looked at it and said, "oh, there she is!" and it was finally her. It was kind of cool for her to suddenly be right there in front of me, as lines and shapes suddenly became more than that, and became my Mother.  Maybe she helped me with it a little :)

Summer is here

Summer has officially started. My kids are out of school. And, despite the fact that I tried not to overschedule my summer, I am finding it to be very hard to get time to draw.  This happened to me last summer, and it wasn't good for me. Doing art is my outlet, my serenity.
I am currently working on, oh, at least six portraits. I have a big list of other things I want to draw too. I want to try another landscape - I haven't done one in awhile. I want to do another one of my "moments" drawings. But, really, I need to just finish something.  One drawing is going pretty well so far. Another one is causing me enough anguish to make me want to tear it up and start over. Others are just sketched out, and one is just barely getting started.
My art class is going well. I am bummed though - my teacher is moving at the end of July. She has been great - I have learned so much from her.  I kick myself for not going in and starting classes sooner, but what can I do now, except to try to fit in what I can before she moves.  My next assignment, I think, is going to be a self portrait done by looking in the mirror. It ought to be interesting. I have kind of put off doing myself. I don't know if I want to examine my face that closely - all the wrinkles, etc. :)  But, it would be good for me to try it, so I will.
Hopefully I will figure out how to get more time to do art. Otherwise, this site may be quite sparse this summer. We shall see. I did say I would post photographs on here too. (As in pretty pictures I took with my camera, not photographs of my art). Maybe I will get some nice ones of the Oregon coast or Yosemite.  We shall see....

New portrait

"Henson"

Trying something new...

Lyle

One day in my art class, the teacher, Anna, and I were talking about different styles of portraits and she was showing me various pieces that she or others had done. She showed me this style, and I really liked it. The next week she showed up with illustration board and sepia charcoal, and she taught me how to do this. 

You start by rubbing the chalk all over the paper. Then, you rub it in to get a more solid background. Then, you sketch in the person you are drawing, and then you start lifting color out by erasing. And as you go, you add in darks and erase out lights until you get the right look. So, it is kind of like working backwards.  It takes a different way of thinking and it was a really good exercise for me. 

I think this was probably one of the more challenging pieces I have done because it was a new way of working, but I also learned a ton, and I learned a lot about shaping the face using the lights and darks, and I learned a lot about different shadows and proportions and seeing shapes better.

I will have to try this again soon. Lyle has a brother, so I want to try a matching set. We will see how it goes...

New Pastels

One of the things that I have been mourning lately is the lack of a really good art supply store near where I live. We have some smaller ones here but they don't carry a huge variety, and they are often more expensive than online stores. There is a great store called Blicks that I love and I really wish they would consider starting a store here.  I have been there once, in Ohio. But, it was when I was first getting back into art, and I didn't appreciate the magnitude of their supplies then.
Now that I am getting more into portrait drawing, I decided I wanted to try some of the higher end "artist grade" pastels. I looked at all kinds of reviews, but it really comes down to personal preference. I found a couple of online stores that will send a sample of their top selling pastels to try, though, and that is what I did. I am so glad I tried it. First of all, it was really fun. And it was very helpful. My kids kind of laughed at me "ooh"ing and "aaah"ing at the various consistencies. They were good sports when I had them try it too - to see what I was so excited about.

This is what my kitchen table looked like yesterday. I pulled out all of my types of papers, including the new pad I just bought (called Pastelmat - great ratings on this, so I figured I had better check it out). I had 14 pastels to try. Some I immediately did not like - including a brand that is supposedly the most primo and most expensive brand out there. It was really gritty and I just didn't like it at all. But some were SO smooth. If you have never used pastels, it is hard to explain the difference. Some were gritty, some barely "caught" on the paper, making a really rough textured look, some felt very chalky, and some just felt amazing. There is one brand in particular that I truly love. When I drew with it, I immediately said, "oh wow!" Unfortunately, it is about twice the cost as most because it comes in half sticks instead of full sticks, but costs roughly the same as the others. And, because it is so unbelievably soft, I am afraid they would get used up really fast.  Maybe if my business really takes off....
In the mean time, I  narrowed it down to four brands. Then I looked at prices and color availability and decided on Sennelier. Supposedly the guy who designed them, Mr. Sennelier himself, made them for Degas back in 1887, and they kept the same formula. Of course, some other pastel company claimed something similar, so I don't really know if it is true.
I also plan to get some nupastels - a mid-level harder pastel that is also a good brand (and more affordable).
And the paper - wow - what a difference. This new paper is beautiful. Again, unless you have used them, it may be harder to tell a difference, but this paper absorbs the pastels into the paper and makes a smooth vibrant color come through. I love it.
I am excited to try out these new supplies and see how it really is doing a portrait with them!  Fun stuff!

You know I had to try drawing him...

I drew the kids, and then people (including  Jeff) have asked when I was going to do Jeff.  Well, I did it. I put if off for awhile because it kind of intimidated me. I didn't want him saying, "oh... do I look like THAT?" if I did something like made him look bald or fat (in fact, I had the hairline way wrong at first - making him look like he had a seriously receding hair line - good thing I caught it!)
I had fun doing this one - it had some good challenges (five o'clock shadows are always tricky). This photo of it makes it look like he has a white line across his cheek, but it doesn't in real life. One of these days I will figure out a better way to take photos.
Now.. I probably need to do a self portrait to complete the family. Hmm.... I don't know if I am ready to examine my face (translate wrinkles) that closely.  :)

It's Official

After much thought and consideration, after getting more requests for portraits drawn, and after a lot of time doing research in person and online, I have made the decision to officially  start doing commissioned portraits.

It is a little scary and a little exciting all at the same time. I have set up a new blog which basically runs as a website (meaning, I won't post regular entries like I do on this blog).  It links to this blog and I will still post my updates on art here.  The new website is racheljensenportraits.blogspot.com. 

As I have done more and more portraits, for me and for other people, I realized that I really like doing it.  And, as I learn more, my technique is improving, and I hope to continue to develop that skill. I just got to where I was getting enough requests that I figured I needed to be organized and set up an official "business" if you call it that.  I have no idea how this will all work out. I will probably do a lot of tweaking to the website and to my policies and procedures as I go until I figure out how to work this. I have gotten a lot of ideas from other portrait artists though, and I think I have a good start.

So, wish me luck.  :)

I am working on three portraits at the moment, so hopefully I will be posting some new entries soon. Getting the website set up this last week occupied most of my art time, and now I am ready to get drawing!

Family portraits

I really liked doing the pastel portrait of Jonathan, so I decided to try it again, this time with my friend's family of four kids.  I learned that freckles are pretty tricky, red hair is really fun - so many colors in it, and that it is hard to get skin tone to match from one portrait to another. It is also interesting to draw people from the same family - I see patterns in features - like the eyes or noses are similar, or they all have a thin upper lip, or something like that. 

 I was originally going to have them on a blank background, but the paper I chose was a tan color, and it didn't allow the faces to stand out much. The skin kind of blended in. So, because these were from outdoor portraits, I put in a green, nature-ish kind of background, again having a hard time getting it to match from one portrait to the next.

 But, all in all,  I really like the portraits.  I think they look pretty close to the actual kids (I hope so) and I feel like I learned a lot along the way.  The baby is the youngest child I have drawn so far, and that was a fun new challenge.

A fun little discovery

Today I went to my art class and, partly because I didn't have what I needed, I spent the time learning a little about the internet art world.  And, then I spent the rest of the afternoon online, having a great time!  (oops, so much for getting anything done) Anna introduced me to Flickr. I thought it was just a place where you can put your photos online and then email your family to have them look at it (like photobucket or shutterfly).  Well, you can do that, but then there are also groups you can join. And, there are a bunch of artists groups.   For example, I joined a group that is called "Artists - show us your pastels" and a bunch of people have posted their pastel paintings (I learned today that people generally call them paintings, even though they are not done with a brush - it is because you are mixing pigments on a surface - who knew?).  I posted some of mine, and I even got a comment on one (It is funny the things that can get a person excited).  I was able to find several groups I like and to see artists whose style I like. And, it can help me with ideas and trying new styles and techniques. Some of the groups have forums where you can ask questions and get ideas and tips. 

In addition to Flickr, one of the groups had a link to a wonderful website called wetcanvas.com.  I have just barely scratched the surface of it, but it is this huge site where you can get information about any kind of art that you want - any style, medium, etc.  They have places where you can post your work and get people to critique it and you can view other work. In just the short time I skimmed, I learned about various types of pastel paper, how to improve how photos of pencil drawings look when posting, and a good fixative to use for my art that won't darken the color. SO cool!  I need more time to explore and figure out how the site works. It has so much on it I felt my brain expanding as I looked at it (hee hee).

I am really excited to find these sites, and hopefully it can open up my art world a little.  Fun stuff!

Lindy

I have decided I need a way to get nice bright lighting in my house for taking photos of my art. My nice camera was having a problem with the flash, so it has been shipped out for repairs. And, I guess I had forgotten how dark photos are with my old camera, because I was surprised at how much I had to adjust levels in photoshop to get this to a decent brightness. But, the adjustments make the drawing look grainy.  I like the drawing though. It is the last of three in a family (my nieces and nephew)

Now... on to my next project  :)

A new favorite

This is one of my favorite drawings so far. It is the one I have been working on for a long time, and I think I am finally finished.  It has been really fun to do and I have learned a lot. For the fun of it, I posted below about the process I went through to draw it.

The process of making a drawing...

 
 I really wanted to try doing a pastel portrait - as in a person's head only kind of portrait. (Different from the other pastel drawings of people that I have done). So, for my art class I got some good help and guidance from the teacher (her blog is on the right - Anna Peterson)  She is a portrait artist and she gave me some great tips. Because I haven't drawn  portraits in the past (meaning back in the college and pre-college days), I never have had any formal instruction on how to do it. So, I am learning a lot. I really love the drawing I did with her help. I love the photo in the first place, and I love the contrast of lights and darks in the drawing. I thought for fun I would take pictures of the process that I went through to complete the drawing.
I started with this photo:

 Then, I carefully (with lots of revisions) made up a sketch of his face on the paper with chalks. I don't think this photo shows the final sketch, but it might. I don't remember.

 Then I started filling in with color. This picture looks a little freaky because I hadn't put in details of eyes and mouth yet because I was mainly working on skin tones.

 Then, I went back to my class and started filling in more details and putting the dark contrast  of the background in. The difference in the drawing once that dark background was put in was really amazing. Anna also taught me a cool trick for toning down skin color, and she helped me learn how to blend the colors to get the mouth to look like a mouth color, not lipstick. (When you only have so many colors to work with, you have to do a lot of blending. I was surprised at some of the combinations of colors, but it really works - for example, you wouldn't know that I used purple on his face here below).

I thought I was just about done at this point (above). I took the drawing in, and that is when I posted about color and all that I had discovered in my lesson about the colors in the face and the things I learned to improve the drawing.  So, I came home and worked on it some more, adding purples and greens, yellows, reds, oranges, and more. I was amazed at how much it brought life into the drawing. I liked it before, but I like it even better now. (If you look at the drawing above, you can maybe see how brown his face was. The real life thing is much easier to see than a photograph, unfortunately)

And then I went to class again and added more contrast and color, and I finally got to where, if I did anything else to it, I was starting to mess it up worse than fixing it anymore, which is when it is time to stop. I fixed a few details, looked over all of it, and finally decided that I needed to be finished with it.

Here is the final drawing (the same as the one posted above).

The reason why it is one of my favorite drawings so far is that I really put a lot of thought and effort into it. I feel like I really stepped into the world of color more, I loved putting more contrast into the drawing (and hope to be able to do that more in the future) and I just love the photo it came from in the first place. Now, of course, I want to do color portraits of all of my kids. However, my "to do" art list is very long right now. I definitely want to do more of this though. It was really fun.

"Benji"

Well, I snapped out of my funk enough to try drawing something.  Maybe I will get back in my groove again...

Flashback - color

I have been in a bit of an art funk lately. I had that great lesson last week and was all motivated and then I had a crazy week and couldn't get to my art at all, and now that I do have a little time, my brain just doesn't want to go there. I feel like I have a bit of a block at the moment. And, probably the best thing to do is to try drawing something to get over it. I just feel a little stuck. So, in the mean time, here is my last "flashback" post.

A lot of my art is done in pencil and is therefore black and white. I like that medium a lot, and I like the simple contrasts of blacks and whites and grays. Since I have gotten to know how to use pastels, I am venturing into the world of color a little more. It adds a whole new dimension to the art, and the approach is different. Back in my high school days, I experimented a bit with painting. I never did oils - there was never the budget at home or at school for oil paints, and to this day I have not yet painted with oils. But, honestly, I don't love painting. It can be fun at times, but it isn't where my interest lies. That being said, I have a few paintings (and one colored pencil drawing) that I did during High School. I look at them now and I see all the things that I did wrong, but hey, I was just getting started at this point.

 This first one is a pencil drawing of my brother. It isn't my greatest portrait, and it doesn't really look like him very much - more the essence of him than really him. The paper got wrinkled, thus the funny shadows. But, it was one of only a few drawings I did in colored pencil.  I still like pastels better. Colored pencil doesn't blend the way pencils and chalks do. There is more layering than blending to get the colors you want.

 This second picture is a study, probably from a magazine ad. I had to take the picture, do a line drawing, a black and white painting, and a color painting of the same picture. It was an interesting task, and it was a good challenge to see how well I could duplicate the same thing. I decided I shouldn't be an animator - my characters would look different every time :).

 This is from a photo I had of sailboats in Mission Bay in San Diego. It has a very "beginner" look to me, but this may be the first time I attempted water.  I was in love with the ocean and all things related to it at the time. (Well, I still love the ocean, I am just not as obsessed as I was then).

Speaking of ocean, this is from a photo of a beach house I stayed in in South Carolina. I have fun memories from that place - it was beautiful. I have found that green is a hard color to mix - whether with paint or pastels - it is tricky to get the right kind. The fluorescent green grass in this has always bothered me, but I love the building. I remember actually painting this, remembering the fun times I had there.

Color

Today I went to my art class and I loved it!  I have been working on a pastel drawing of Jonathan. It is from a photo that I love. I thought I was getting pretty close to getting it done. There were just some parts that I couldn't get right and I had some questions about it. My teacher, Anna, is SO helpful. We talked about portraiture and then looked at my drawing to see what needed to be done with it. The face (I now realize) was really brown. I need to darken some parts of it to create shadows that are more accurate, but I was afraid that adding brown or black would just make it look more muddy. So, she showed me that, in the photo, if you look up close,  you can see purples and greens and reds - not brown. Sure enough - you can. She showed me some other helpful tips to help me see the colors I need. So, I added purples and greens and reds and yellows to the brown face, and wow! It made a difference. I love the depth that the colors add. If I had been working on this on my own I would have, first of all, missed certain details and proportions that I just didn't see, and second, I would have been satisfied with the brown face and never would have known to add color this way. It wasn't bad, but now that I have added color, I love seeing the difference. When I do finally finish this piece, I plan to post photos of the process to show the different steps I took and what I learned along the way. I am really excited for this class.  Anna is a good teacher, and I am learning so much!