WIP - Day Eight

Yesterday I thought I had finished and, as usual, I placed the piece on a small easel on our coffee table.  Every so often I look at it and think, OK its fine.  Later in the evening my husband remarked that the line on the jaw made it look like the boy was holding up a mask to his face.  I looked at it again and could clearly see what he meant, it did look more like a mask than a face! 

Taking his critique, today I worked on the jaw line and neck areas ... adding more shadowing and softening the sharp line.  Believe me, I was really concerned about overworking it and had to get up and walk away several times.  My husband and I finally agreed that this is a good as it is going to get ... so, I hope you like the subtle changes ....

I think I have decided to title this piece "Tender Young Thoughts",  what do you think?

Happy Day!

Karen Anne

WIP - Day Seven - Finis

Ended up I needed to take a day away before I could complete this illustration.  Basically, I applied about 7 or 8 layers of various shades of blue to the shirt, after which I applied a light mineral spirits wash using a paper stub.  Once I had allowed the mineral spirits to dry, I went back with a Prismacolor Soft Core black pencil and ever so lightly enforced the darkest part of the shirt shadows.

It seemed I should be done, but something just seemed to be a bit off.   I didn't want to over work the drawing so I decided to add some more indigo blue and black to the back ground because it just didn't feel right.  Figured if I correct the back ground, then maybe I'll find what is bugging me.

Once I had added the additional colors to the background, I took a Q-tip that been dipped in mineral spirits and delicately dabbed at those colors ... I wanted a bit of a smoky, shadowy look and thought this might be just the ticket.  Too my utter surprise, once I had completed this the entire picture seemed to pop out at me and say "We're done!" ....

I then sat it on a small easel and settled back to watch a re-run of "Murder She Wrote"; wanted to distract myself from the work and kinda study it every so often.  I become so involved in a piece that I really can't see it anymore, I see what I am intensely working on but not the whole piece.  I find that by distracting myself with a good TV mystery I can slowly see what I have done and where I need to go next.

After about an hour, I saw his eyes needed just a "bit" of color added ... so I took the piece and went over to my area, added just a wee bit of black shadowing and then I was happy!  I am very proud of this piece, still don't have a title but it will come, and pleased to share the final results with you at this time.

Take care, be happy, let art bring happiness into your life.
Karen Anne

PS ... The above scan just does not capture the colors, so I am adding another ... it would be great if I could show you the true colors ... but it is half way between the above and the following ...

 

This one captures the vibrancy (somewhat) of the colors ... but not the softness of the real textures ... so if you can imagine the softness of the first and the vibrancy of color in this ... you might be able to see what I actually did...

WIP - Day Six

Day Six started off slow, I visited with internet friends, got caught up on some correspondence; put a ham bone with trimmings in a pot with some onions, celery, carrots, and misc. herbs to make a stock for some Ham and Potato Chowder tomorrow night .... mmmmmm ... the house is really smelling good!

Then back to the drawing table!  Today I worked a bit on the hair and face, and then placed my full attention on the hands ... hands are hard to do, so wasn't especially anxious to get started.  Especially since I am not all to sure about a formula for skin tones.

As luck would have it, I recently met a new i-friend and today she provided me with the following which I am finding to be quite helpful and thought I would share it with all of you!


Skin Tone Groups ...
There are 6 value groups to build with. You need to move either up or down the groups but don't skip values. You should not see your strokes. Start with a light wash of
Value gr. #1: Cream then Light peach. Move on to the next group. Use light to medium pressure. (I use light)
Value gr. #2: Jasmine, Deco pink, Pink rose, Beige.
Value gr. #3: Yellow ochre, Peach, Mineral orange, Blush pink, Rosy beige.
Value gr. #4: Goldenrod, Clay rose, Pink, Light umber, Pumpkin orange, Burnt ochre.
Value gr. #5: Dark brown, Terra cotta, Henna.
Value gr. #6: Dark umber, Tuscan red, Black. You should be able to achieve any skin tone with these colors.
Don't skip over any value groups!!!!! You can skip colors within a group.

Back to the drawing board ... I followed the above from #1 to #6 and finally carefully blended all the colors together using a paper stump dipped in mineral spirits.  I think the hands came out pretty well.  Next I started layering various shades of blue to the shirt.  I began with a light blue, used a darker blue to add some shading, went over that with an even darker shade, followed by a light application of the original blue.  I'll be adding more tones of blue tomorrow and then apply the blender pencil or the mineral spirits ... or perhaps a combination of the both ... we'll see.

 

All in all, I think this piece is coming along quite nicely.  

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady

WIP - Day Five

It's hard to believe that this is Day Five!  Today I basically worked on the hair color; first I applied several layers of different shades of brown and then blended them with the colorless blending pencil.  When you use a blender pencil (or mineral spirits), colors have a tendency to change a bit, one of the dark browns I had used turned to a charcoal black when blended.  Lesson learned?  Test out your colors with a blender on a separate sheet of paper so that unwanted results don't show up on the piece you are working on.

I didn't really like the results after using the colorless blender so I turned to a paper stump dipped into mineral spirits.  This perked it up a bit, but I still felt something was amiss.  I added fine lines of tuscan red, dark brown and terra cotta (Verithin pencil) and this seemed to be helping achieve what I was striving for.  Yet still, I was not satisfied with what I was seeing.

Finally I fell back on my trusted and faithful tools ... my art illustration pens!  I used orange, light brown and dark brown, diligently applying several lines of each.  At last I was gaining the look and feel of hair.

Another nice little trick, it is always nice to see some white strands of hair in the piece, an easy way to do this is to place a piece of tracing paper over the art paper and, using a fine point ball point pen, draw the strands onto the tracing paper.  When you apply your colors these lines are deep enough that they don't pick up color and provide the light strands you may want.

Having a few minutes to spare and not wanting to work on the hair any more today, I began working on the shadowing of the hands using a soft core pencil in peach.

Here are the results of today's efforts .....

 

Oh, yeah ... I didn't like the way the eye on the left side of the sheet was looking so I "erased" what I didn't like using an X-acto knife blade with slow gentle strokes and then added some corrections with verithin pencils.  It still needs some more work, but not today!

Take care and Happy Day!

Karen Anne

WIP - Day Four

Today I remembered that I should have started with the background first (whoops!), so I switched over to that area of the picture and began layering different colors to get the effect I was looking for.  I wanted a deep black for behind his head and a lighter greenish black around his face and hands.

First I applied a layer of a mossy green over the entire area, followed that by a deep blue, then a deep red, dark brown, and finally black .... I kept the colors lighter by his face.   Then I took my Prismacolor Premier colorless blender and blended together all of these back ground layers.  (I had used a Derwent colorless blender earlier, but it is rough and doesn't blend nearly as well as the Prismacolor one.)  This provided a nicely mixed waxy base.

 The final step was to apply a mineral spirit wash to the background with a Q-tip, using small circular strokes.  For now, I feel the back ground looks well enough to focus on another area of the picture tomorrow.  I'll probably do some touch up on the background later, but it's good enough for the time being.

Oh, I did also work on the face, neck and ear shadowing just a bit; and applied some pinks to his cheeks and nose.  This time using the Prismacolor Premier colorless blender for blending.

I think this is turning into a "test different techniques" illustration, if I mess it up during the process I will have learned.  If it turns out good, well that would be great!

Til tomorrow...

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady

WIP - Day Three

On Day Three I added some more shadowing to the face, colored in the eyes, added lashes and eye brows and began working on the hair.  I have used the mineral spirits (applied with paper stumps) for all the blending, I think I am beginning to get the hang of this blending with mineral spirits.  Go slow and easy.

I was having trouble working on just the face, I needed more in other areas so that I can see where the shadowing needs more emphasis and I decided now was a good time to beginning working on other areas of the drawing.

I now think I am off to a good start .....

T

Til tomorrow ...

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady

"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

Day Twenty-four

Day twenty-four is here and I found a picture of this little guy reading a book that I thought was very sweet.  The intensity on his face was captivating and I thought it would make for a good challenge sketch. 

Being right handed, I have a very difficult time drawing anything that is facing to the right ... I never seem to get the proportions correct ... guess my mind just works that way.  Since I am challenging myself, I thought OK - I'll try ... not everything in life is easy!  But drawing a subject facing to the left is definitely easier for me .... so here is today's sketch that I have titled "Beginning Reader"....

Enjoy the day!

Karen Anne Brady