Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Bowl of Cherries - A Colored Pencil Illustration in Progress

A BIG HI to everyone!  I want to try another colored pencil illustration and for the subject I have chosen an old photo (circa 1993) from our family album of my grandson when he was about 3 years old outside on the back deck.  I had just taught him how to make earrings out of cherries, something fun I used to do when I was a young child.

What I am going to do is, at the end of each day I will share with you what I have accomplished for that day.  Today I made a rough sketch and then refined it by placing a piece of tracing paper over and traced the basic lines I wanted (I would have shown the pre-sketch but it had so many erasures and smudges that I could not get a decent scanned copy); then I flipped it over and saw some of the drawing  didn't look right, so I flipped the paper back over and erased the parts I didn't like, then I flipped the piece over again and redrew the areas I didn't like on the back, when I flipped it back ... the parts I hadn't liked looked good!  Nice new little tool ... use tracing paper (front and back) to get proportions relatively correct!

Once that was completed, I took the tracing paper drawing and taped it to the back of my art paper then traced the drawing (using a dark brown Prisma Verithin pencil) onto the good piece with the aid of a light table.  I used dark brown colored pencil to eliminate any problems that might occur if I had used a graphite pencil.  I also made a tracing of the boy and the deck rail on some masking (I think is called fisker paper?) paper so that I could protect the tracing from smudges while working on the back ground.

So .... first I will show you the photo I am working from, followed by the tracing paper sketch that I applied to my piece of art paper .....

"Bowl of Cherries" subject photo

"Bowl of Cherries" Tracing Paper Sketch
As you can see, even the tracing paper sketch is pretty smudged too!

My goal with this project is not to try to attain a photo like rendering, but rather a good semi-realistic illustration with vibrant colors using a fun subject.  As you can see in this sketch, I have added a shirt, a cherry in his once empty hand, plus a "Bowl of Cherries" on a table in front of the little guy.  "Artistic License"?

I hope you will enjoy going along with me on this learning journey.

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

7 comments:

  1. You are a very talented artist! Your drawing skills really shine!

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  2. Well, thank you very much Whyte! That is a wonderful compliment and I cherish it....

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  3. Karen Anne, I don't know how you do it! This was a lot for one day! It's turning out really well ;o) I think people don't realize how much truly goes into creating something homemade! The picture is darling and your pencil illustration is darling too! I want to know how to make the cherry earrings ;o) Hugs ;o)

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  4. Great start, and I will be anxious to check on your progress each day!
    It is going to be a sweet picture!

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  5. Hey Stacy, to make cherry earring you get two cherries that are connected at the stem ending and hang them over your ear! LOL! When I was little, I thought I was really styling with cherry earrings!

    Hey Debbie, I am working on the shrubbery behind the deck right now and it is actually coming out way better than I expected! With any luck I'll have it finished soon and be able to start working on the deck rail....looking forward to sharing the progress with you all later on in the day!

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  6. Very styling ;o) I have to try it out and take a picture ;o) LOL!

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  7. Oh, Stacy ... that would be just tooooooo much fun! Looking forward to seeing you in stylin' cherry earrings!

    You may have to wait for cherry season though ... I'll just have to remind you! LOL! Fun!

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