Water Splash on Black

This time out I attempted a water splash on black card stock ... only thing is, the colored paper had a bit of texture which kept complicating the drawing ... I should have just started over with a smooth sheet of black, oh well!  This one was completed using colored pencils ... the white highlights were a bit on the dull side so I took a watercolor pencil and wetted it slightly to achieve the brighter whites.

Water splashes are NOT easy to do!  But, I'll try a few more ....

"Water Splash on Black"

Again, the original is for sale in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any open or limited edition prints.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

"Big Splash In A Small Pond!"

I am now working my way around the structure of water splashes ... this first one is of a stone being tossed in a pond, you can vaguely see stones that are lying below the surface of the water ...  I have titled this first attempt ...

"Big Splash In A Small Pond!"

 

Not too bad for a first attempt ... hoping to improve as I progress.  I have listed this original ACEO for sale in my Etsy Shop , again ... only the original will be sold, no limited edition or open edition copies will be made available.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

(Off to seek some more images of water splashes to color!)

Two new "Peep" Art Cards

I'm just posting the faces of the cards .... they speak from themselves! 

We heard from our granddaughter on Sunday, she was really homesick and kinda down in the dumps.  I'm sure she is suffering from military culture shock and she just needed to hear familiar voices.   Training Camp is a LOT different than Summer Camp! 

On a whole, she is doing quite well and really likes her "Rack Mates".  They are being well fed, and kept busy from AM to PM with nary a wasted minute in between!  She really likes her "PeeP" cards and was regretful that she had extremely limited personal time to respond; we assured her we understood and that the "PeeP" attacks would a keep on a comin'!  I'm trying to send her one a day ... at the very least, one every two days....

Happy Day my friends,
Karen Anne

Two Last Water Drop ACEO Originals

I finished two more original ACEO's featuring water drops .... I think I now have the concept of water drops down.  Plus, I'm getting tired of water drops!  LOL!

"Mama Water Drop and Her Little Droplets"

 

"Water Drops on Deep Red" 

I look at this one and it looks like a clown face!  LOL!  Too funny!  I think I definitely need to move onto another subject matter!

These two originals are for sale in my Etsy Shop and again ... no limited edition or open edition prints will be made from these colored pencil ACEO's.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Oh My! More Water Droplets!

I spent a long time on the internet this morning watching and reading tutorials on how to draw water drops.  I figure a couple more days and I'll have these water drops down.  I think I have already improved .... but would like to get even better.

In my quest to learn I searched for hours and the best tutorial I found was at this link:
http://design-newyork.com/blog/2009/07/28/a-wee-tutorial-how-to-draw-a-water-droplet/
so, if you are interested in learning how to draw water drops ... check it out!

This was the best visual aid that I could locate to print out for reference; but there are several video demonstrations on YouTube that also aided me in my quest for understanding the dynamics of a water drop.

"Water Droplets on Green"

"Water Droplet on Purple"

 

The purple one actually looks more like a tear drop bead, don't you think?

The originals are for sale in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any limited edition or open edition prints of these pieces.  These are OOAK (one of a kind) pieces of artwork.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Sharing some more "Peep" Art Cards!

Uncle Pat and Darien's "Peepresentative"

Danny Boy (our min pin) and Darien's "Peepresentative"

I'm just featuring the front of the card in these images!

Happy Day to all!

Karen Anne

Water Droplets ACEO's

I had time to work on two more little ACEO Water Droplets ACEO's today ....

"Water Droplets In Black"

"Water Droplets in Red"

These original ACEO's are available for sale in my Etsy Shop ... there will be no limited or open edition copies made so they are OOAK (one of a kind) ACEO's.

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Water Droplets on Blue

I have decided I need to learn how to illustrate water droplets and here is my first attempt.  This was done on a blue colored piece of cardstock using Prismacolor Premier Pencils and Prismacolor Verithin Pencils on an ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") sized format.

"Water Droplets on Blue"

I am selling the original of this in my Etsy Shop and I will not be making any open edition or limited edition copies.  I will be creating more of these little ACEO Water Droplet ACEO's in the coming days until I finally get the hang of illustrating realistic water drops.  I will also be selling all these little originals ... so, in essence, these will all be OOAK (one of a kind) pieces with no reproductions available.

Happy day!

Karen Anne

The Traveling "Peep"

Our eldest granddaughter recently left for the Navy Recruit Training Center ... Yep!  She is a "New Recruit"!  She likes her decision to join and we are very proud of our young lady!

Over the years, she and her Papa (my Jim) have had this ongoing thing about "Peeps" (you know, the sugary marshmallows that show up every where at any holiday) ... years ago, she LOVED her Peeps!  However, her culinary tastes have developed and she doesn't appreciate these little sugary gems as she did in the past.

Now Papa still insists that she loves them and makes sure to shower her with "Peeps" at any opportunity he can .... being a loving granddaughter, she always accepts them with grace and dignity.   Prior to shipping out for training camp, Papa again showered the little dear with boxes and boxes and boxes of "Peeps".   Again, being a lady, she graciously accepted.  But, she had a sad announcement for Papa ... unfortunately, the Navy forbids any food being sent to their new recruits while they are in training.  Papa was very sad, he wouldn't be able to mail her any "Peeps".

Never the less, Papa is a very creative and imaginative individual and he figured out a way to skirt the "No Food Allowed" issue.  He could still "Peep" her with "Peep Art Cards" and a traveling "Peepresentative"!   Now he will be able to shower her with paper "Peeps"!  He is happy and so is our new little Sailor!  (As much as she dislikes the sugary delights, she would be terribly disappointed if she did not receive any Papa "Peeps".)


At Papa's request, Mema (me) set about creating a "Traveling Peep" that will go with us on all of our trips, mow our lawn and partake in many, many other activities; which we will then share with her via "Peep Art Cards".    Needless to say, I spent most of the day sewing and stuffing our new "Traveling Peep" whose picture follows here:

and this is the card that we created to send to our "New Recruit" ... isn't just too cute?

Don't you just love the strange bond between grandparents and their grandchildren?????

Happy day all,
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 12 - Final Day

Well, she is finally complete .... I did bits of detail work here and there, especially on lightening some of the driftwood pieces behind the little girl, and decided I best stop before I really do overwork this piece!

If you would like to see the step by step slideshow video I made of this piece, you can find it right here ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAlJcBqBEXs

Happy day everyone!

Karen Anne Brady aka IrelandBrady

Beach Scene -WIP - Day 11

Today we needed to drop off Danny Boy at the vets for his semi-annual wellness checkup and needed vaccines ... plus major nail clipping.  So we took advantage and did a bit of shopping ... couple thrift stores, topped off with a visit to the grocery store. 

By the time we got back to the house I had about an hour before we needed to pickup up DB so I did a bit more work on the little girl's face and began working on her hair.  With her hair I put in the shadows and highlights using various browns for the shadows and beige and goldenrod for the highlights.  After that was complete I used dark brown and a light brown ink fine tip illustrations pens to detail the strands of hair. 

Tomorrow I will touch up different parts of the illustration and, hopefully, this colored pencil painting will be completed!

Happy day everyone!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 10

I began today by finishing the hands, complete with sand!  The shoe was next followed by the feather in the sand castle.  Moving along nicely today! 

After studying the illustration awhile, I decided to darken the sand and make it a bit more grainy ... more like real sand.  I accomplished this by lightly rubbing the side of the lead (used several different colors of brown) over the sandy area and the little "hills" still remaining in the paper picked up just a tiny bit of added color and provided more of a sand look. 

Next I got one of Jim's old glass ball floats to use as a reference and noticed it has all kinds of little bubbles in the glass; so I took a piece of tracing paper and laid it over the, yet uncolored, glass float and with an ink pen I drew little circles and dots on the tracing paper which left indentations on the art paper.  I then began coloring in the float with varying colors of bluish green to deep greens, after which I used a very pale green pencil to blend all the layers together and achieve a glassy effect.    I think it looks OK, what do you think?

When I began coloring in her face I started off with my Prismacolor soft core pencils and quickly noticed the lead was a bit too soft to get the detail I was seeking.  So....out comes the museum putty and I removed the first four layers I had applied.  Put those pencils back and pulled out my Prismacolor Verithin pencils and began again.  I have about four layers on her face at this point and find these pencils are providing the softness and delicacy I am looking for.

I am finished for today and am going to kick back, relax and will be studying the drawing and plan how I want to proceed tomorrow.    Then I'll have to figure out "What's for dinner?"!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 10

Today was glorious outside!  In the low 80's .... I was so distracted I put very little time into the illustration ... I did mange to finish the jeans and begin working on the hands.

Tomorrow is back down to the low 60's so I'll most likely get a lot more accomplished....

 

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 9

I spent today working mostly on the little girl's pink sweat shirt, not sure but I may have put in too many folds.  I changed her slacks from red to jean blue, there is a section in the book "Colored Picture Portraits - Step by Step" by Ann Kullberg that provides steps to coloring jeans and I want to try it out.  I have just begun working on the jeans, will probably get them finished tomorrow and maybe have time for the hands, the feather and the shoe ... we'll see!

 

Her face and hair are still covered with the clear plastic masking paper (fisker).

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 8

I'm finished with the sand area of the scene for now, will probably add more shading once the little girl is finished.  Tomorrow I hope to begin work on her clothing and hands, I am planning to save the face and hair for the last segments of this WIP.

Company for dinner tonight so this will have to be as far as I go today!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 7

I don't know about you, but when I am working on a project my "art" area tends to turn from organized at the onset to utter chaos after several days.  Today I sat down to work on the scene and realized I had over 50 percent of my pencils spread all over the table leaving very little room for me and the drawing.  As you may have surmised by now, I spent nearly two hours cleaning and organizing ... ahhhhhhh ... I now have a fresh start midway through my project. 

Because of this little foray into organization I ended up with less time to devote to the scene than I had originally anticipated.  I did manage to color in the pail, the shovel, the cockle shell and the feather that is lying on the sand, PLUS a bit of sand shading!  We are slowly but surely working our way the to true subject of this little project.....

Here we go for this day's progress ...

 

This bit of mid-way cleaning has refreshed my spirit as well ... that is a good thing!

I don't know about your area of the country, but here in Portland it is raining buckets!  We've also been receiving more than our fair share of high winds ... here's hoping the ground doesn't get so water saturated that one of the large trees comes tumbling down ... especially not on the house!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 6

I was off to a slow start today ... primarily because I was afraid of the sand and how to do it.  So while I was thinking about how to attack the sand I completed the sand dollar leaning against the log.  One of the extra shells I wanted to eliminate kept showing up as a ghost in the sand and I couldn't seem to find a way to color over it without the initial pencil indentations showing through ... so I gave into the shell and put him back into the illustration.  Shell won that round!

I finally decided, Oh Heck!  blending and stippling for the sand just isn't working so I took my goldenrod Prismacolor Verithin pencil and using the side of the lead began making squiggly marks in varying depth of color ... it seems to be giving me the effect I was seeking!  Yes!  I have now laid a base of squiggly golden rod over the entire sand area, I think I am off to a good start there.  I needed to begin the coloring of the sand pail because I kept getting the sand color into the bucket's "space" .... he felt he was loosing ground to the sand and asked that I at least give him a color primer.  He is much happier now ....

You know when you are getting too involved in a drawing when you began to feel empathy for the objects and they begin telling you what they want done!

Til tomorrow - Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 5

Well now, I learned a really important lesson today ... NOT a good idea to do art work with dilated eyes!  I thought a layer of Jasmine would look nice over the beige color - wrong!  Made the sand too yellowish ... I should have pre-tested it on a separate sheet of paper first.  So I walked away from the piece for a couple of hours.

Once my vision started working again I went in and removed as much of the jasmine color as possible with the aid of "Miracle" tape.  Jim had suggested that I put some moss on the driftwood, so I added that to a few of the pieces.  He thought they were too pristine looking as they were and I think it was a good suggestion.

Then I noticed the dents in the paper from one of my earlier funky shells was coming through (a ghost shell) and thought I would disguise that area as a rock.  I may turn the sand dollar into a rock as well, and add a few more stones and small pieces of wood to the scene.
We'll see how I feel about that tomorrow....

Not much to show today ..... I look forward to getting an early start tomorrow!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne

Beach Scene WIP - Day 4

Well today began with a visit to the dentist, followed by "Bills" (ever notice how "rich" you feel before you begin paying your bills, then you slide down into "poor" as the balance slowly decreases...), take Danny Boy for a short walk ... and finally back to my drawing!  Yes!

All of the original driftwood pieces are now complete (I may add more random pieces in the picture and for now I removed the two odd shells on the left side - Jim pointed out they were distracting from the subject and I agreed).  After this I sprayed a light layer of workable fixative over the finished area to protect it from smudging as I begin working on other areas.

Next I used an X-acto knife blade and gently traced around the little girl and her sand castle, removed the excess fisker masking plastic and exposed the beach area; leaving the little girl still protected with the remaining fisker. 

In this newly exposed area I began by laying down a light layer of beige over all the areas that are sand.  I am keeping a list of the colors I use for the sand so that when I work on the sand castle I'll remember the colors used in the sand, otherwise the little castle might turn out a completely different color.  I plan to use quite a bit of stippling in the sandy area to give the impression of sand.

So, for today we now have .....

 Happy Day!
Karen Anne Brady