"Bowl Of Cherries" Day Six ... Finis!

Today mark's the completion of my "Bowl Of Cherries" illustration.  It has been an interesting, challenging and educational journey that I have thoroughly enjoyed!

Last night, using masking fluid, I placed a small spot on each cherry so that when I began to color in the morning the dried masking fluid would leave white areas on each cherry as a highlight.  I was so intent on getting the spots on correctly that I also spilled a nice dollop onto the deck rail (whoops!) but not to worry .... I just let it sit to dry and then lifted it off, all the while hoping I had not damaged the illustration.  Thankfully, it did not!

For the cherries I started out with a base of yellow, followed by different shades of oranges, and reds. burnishing each with a canary yellow Prisma Premier pencil.  Once I was satisfied with the colors I removed the masking fluid and revealed the highlights, they made a big difference!  All in all, I think this picture turned out pretty well, at least I am happy with the results.

 

I want to thank each of you who has followed me on this colored pencil adventure, I have very much enjoyed your company.

Finally, if you'd like to learn this and many more colored pencil techniques, pick up a copy of  "Colored Pencil Painting Bible" (Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Unltrarealistic Effects) by Alyona Nickelsen at BrushAndPencil.com.  It is certainly one of my better investments and I highly recommend it to all colored pencil artists!

Happy Day All!

Karen Anne Brady

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

Some New Colored Pencil ACEO's

I am learning some new colored pencil techniques from a book I recently purchased titled "Colored Pencil Painting Bible" by Alyona Nickelsen.   Ms. Nickelsen brings the dynamics of colored pencils to a wonderful new level.  I know I will never be able to accomplish work like hers ... but I am certain I will learn to improve!

"Cherries"