Lil' Dragon - Pyro Training ... Day 3

In addition to five loads of laundry and walking the doggie, I also managed to get the background watercolors painted.  I can already see how the colors are going to dictate the ink work I add to the piece tomorrow ... hope it turns out as well as I am seeing it in my mind!

I have covered Lil' Dragon and the fire with frisket film to protect that portion of the drawing while I am working on the background.  The hardest part with the frisket film is cutting around the protected area with an X-acto knife then removing the excess film, tedious and time consuming work.

I have to tell you, working with watercolors on Stonehenge paper is terrific!  I literally had this piece of paper sopping wet today, I had applied too much dark paint and I was dunking paper towels into water and sopping up excess paint; I am just amazed that there is only a slight curve to the dried paper.  Amazing!

So much for all the technical chit chat ... here is day 3 progress:

Take care and be happy!
Karen Anne

Pyro in Training in Ink ...

Today I transferred the pencil sketch to Stonehenge Paper in ink.  I am pleased with how it turned out and look forward to beginning the coloring process.  I am also saving copies of the ink drawings for coloring pages, it is always fun to surprise neighborhood kids with a fun page to color!

I'm going for a similar background as I did with the first Lil' Dragon but am inclined to doing him in blues, lavenders, reds and possibly green this time ..... we'll see!

Take care and happy day!

Karen Anne

Tuesday Progress on Lil' Dragon

I had a bit of time after all the other stuff that needed tending today so I was actually able to work a bit on the Lil' Dragon.  Today his face and arm/hand holding the Dragon Pop have been completed and I started shadowing on the yellow part of his torso ... I think I may just complete this lil' guy tomorrow!

PS  Today I received two lovely comments from Oma Linda and Lise ... would you believe, I hit the "Delete" button instead of the "Publish" button!  I just want you both to know I received you comments, and I loved them ... that Delete button is just too darn close to the Publish button!  Sorry Oma Linda and Lise!  

"Dancing Dragonflies"

"Dancing Dragonflies" is my latest illustration.  This drawing was inspired by a couple who are getting married in October, their theme is dragonflies and their colors are deep violet and cranberry red.  For some reason I kept seeing two dragonflies in my mind and just had to get the design down on paper ... and the color combination of violet and red was a great plus!

The dragonflies took about two days to complete, during which time I kept mulling over in my mind what should I do with the background?  Leaves kept popping up ... so, once I had completed the two dragonflies I made a copy and began experimenting ...since leaves predominated my mind, I started there, grabbed a green art pen and started randomly putting them down on paper.  I liked the effect it was having and grabbed the original and spent the next two days drawing green leaves!

I think this drawing really turned out quite nice and am happy to share it with you today, so... here is

"Dancing Dragonflies"

This illustration is now available in my Etsy Shop as an authorized art print (your choice of print size up to 8.5" x 11") and as an open edition ACEO (size 2.5" x 3.5").

I was really surprised when I made my first print of the original ... the print actually looked better than the original!  That's a first and quite a nice surprise!

Happy Day All!

Karen Anne

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

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

Beach Scene WIP - Day 3

Most of the driftwood has now been completed, just the large piece behind the little girl and a small piece sticking out from under remain unfinished and they should be completed tomorrow.  I did manage to work in the ocean and blend it into the sky, and I think I'll keep it!  I have never before attempted ocean waves but these look pretty good to me, glad they were distant waves!

Guess you can now see that I am pretty much committed to sharing this work in progress with all of you.  I want to thank all you for your input and encouraging me to do so.  Gosh, I certainly have some really nice friends!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady 

PS  Did you notice the extra piece of driftwood that I added to the pile??? 8~D

Beach Scene - WIP - Day 2

On this day I took the tracing paper drawing and transferred it to Stonehenge paper (size 9" x 12") with the aid of my trusting, old, dependable light table.  This time I used a terra cotta color pencil to transfer the drawing, it's a bit on the pale side but at least this color will not interfere with the colors I add.

Over the area with the little girl and the sand I placed a sheet of clear fisker plastic, so that I won't be rubbing off skin oils or smudge that part while I am working on the driftwood pieces portion.  I am deviating from the colors in the photo because I like all the different hues and tones of driftwood (I love to collect odd twisted pieces of driftwood when I'm at the coast ... they remind me of beautiful works of art created by Mother Nature).  Some pieces are relatively new and hold some of their original color, whilst other pieces have turned wonderful shades of grey and whitened in light of the sun.   Others have been used in relation to a cozy beach fire and display charred pieces of varying degrees of charcoal and deepest black.  They are each, like us, unique in their shapes, forms and degrees of character.

I began with the first piece of wood and traversed across the page until six pieces have been completed.  Tomorrow is sure to see the addition of more pieces and perhaps the first indications of the ocean in the background.  I figure if I don't do well on the ocean, I can always turn it into a pile of sand!

Happy day!
Karen Anne Brady

Question ....

I am beginning work on a new illustration and I was wondering if I have done too many works in progress (WIP) on my blog?  Would you like me to post daily pictures of this piece, or wait until I have finished it, made it into a slideshow video and then post that?

Your comments will help me determine which way to go ....

In the meantime, here is the sketch I worked up on tracing paper ... this is a beach scene.  I want to work mostly on back ground in this illustration and this sketch is loaded with beach treasures and driftwood and lots of sand!

These are the two photos I am working from,  I like the way the little girl is positioned in the first one and the driftwood in the second photo has a lot of character.....

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Here is the sketch I created using these two photos and then adding more "stuff" to the overall drawing ...

Thanks for your input on whether you prefer daily postings or a slide show video when this project is completed!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne Brady

The little girl is completed and I have decided an apt title for this piece is "Little Daydream Believer".    The shirt and hands were finished today as well as another technique I decided to try out for a deep black background. 

I applied a layer of intense black marker pen to the background, but found that it was a bit uneven ... so I grabbed my trusty old bottle of India Ink and a flat broad water color brush and applied two layers of ink over the marker pen.  That did the trick and achieved the deep black background I was hoping for.

 

Since I finished a bit early I also added the photos of the progress on this illustration to a slideshow I am working on that features my past few works in progress.  If you'd like to see the slideshow video it is now available on YouTube at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b2dQPrU3_M

Happy day!

Karen Anne Brady

PS  I am using techniques I have learned and am learning from the book "Colored Pencil Portraits - Step by Step" by Ann Kullberg and my other favorite book, by Alyona Nickelsen in her book "The Colored Pencil Painting Bible".

Little Girl WIP - Day Six

This day found me working on my little girl's hands and shirt, yep - I decided I like lavender!   Right now I have about 5 or 6 layers on the shirt of different shades of lavender and purple, I finished off today by using a paper stump to softly blend these colors together.

I am sure to be doing quite a bit more work on the shirt tomorrow and probably the hands as well.  For now, I am pleased with the way the progress is going.  Maybe tomorrow I will have a completed illustration for you?  We'll see ....

 

 I cleaned out my freezer earlier today (tomorrow is recycle/trash day) and found two nice New York steaks buried in there, so guess what I'll be popping onto the old BBQ tonight!  Right now they are nicely marinating away in some Kalbi (Korean) Marinade - Yum!   That, along with some Rice-A-Roni Fried Rice on the side plus a loaf of crusty french bread should prove to be a tasty dinner!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne Brady


PS  I am using techniques I have learned and am learning from the book "Colored Pencil Portraits - Step by Step" by Ann Kullberg and my other favorite book, by Alyona Nickelsen in her book "The Colored Pencil Painting Bible".