Celebrate Oz Blog Party is getting closer and closer...

The Celebrate Oz Blog Party is now just around three weeks away!  If you would like to join in on the fun, fly away to Oma Linda's "Olde Baggs 'n Stuffed Shirts" to sign up for the fun!

I have been enjoying creating Oz character ACEO's for the past couple of weeks and have a few more ideas I want illustrate .... in the meantime I thought it would be fun to do some "eye spying"!   Following are the eyes of several Oz characters ... can you tell who the eyes belong to?

Looking forward to your response comments!   "Eye Spy" a Winkie!  Can you?????

Happy "Eye Spying"!
Karen Anne

Mom and Dad in 1973

I was visiting my Mom the other day and as I was leaving she handed me a part of a page from "The Hayden Island Yacht Club Roster" that had photos of each of them back in 1973.  At that time Dad and Mom owned a nice little cabin cruiser that they christened the "HannaKane".    Mom's name was Johanna and Dad's, Rickane ... so they combined their two names, hence the unusual and unique name!

She asked me if I could fiddle around on my computer and make it look the two photos were actually one photo.  Of course I said, "Sure Mom!  Happy to do it for you!".  Well, I know diddely about combining two photos but I spent several frustrating hours in PhotoShop trying to fulfill her simple request.  Finally, I thought ... why not do a pencil sketch and combine the two photos into one nice portrait sketch!

Here are the photos that Mom gave me ....

They were printed on matte cardstock and were the little bit worse for wear,   I'm sure someone else could have electronically manipulated them and corrected all the deterioration ... but that someone sure is not me!

So, yesterday I sat down at my table with my graphite and charcoal pencils all lined up along with my dependable blending stubs ... said a prayer to God, asking him to guide my hands and began.  Today I finished work on both Mom and Dad and added a kinda smokey background.  I like the results and hope you do too!

 

 I'm going to frame this and present it to Mom a bit later, Dad passed away in around 1986 but we all feel his love each and every day.

Proud daughter of two wonderful loving parents,

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!)

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

Little Girl WIP - Day 1

I'm beginning work on a new drawing, as yet untitled.  Thought I'd share this work in progress with you since I am again trying new things.  This time I wanted a subject where I could learn to do more with the eyes, work on hands and try out curly hair.  I just happen chanced upon a delightful photo and was given permission to use it for my next illustration.

So here is the photo and the tracing I made of the original sketch (original sketch being way too messy with erasures and smudges to get a good scan of) ....

 

I then took the tracing and retraced it onto a nice piece of Stonehenge paper (this paper is totally awesome and extremely forgiving) using a Prismacolor Verithin pencil in the color of Terra Cotta.  On my last picture, I had traced the drawing onto my art paper using a graphite pencil and had troubles with the graphite lead when I was applying my colored pencils.  Figured this should eliminate that problem!

I commenced to lightly draw in the wavy curls onto the piece of Stonehenge paper and began the slow process of applying my skin tones.  First I layered all the skin areas with a very light even layer of "Cream" which I then followed with another light even layer of "Light Peach".  I then used the "Light Peach" to begin setting in the areas of shadowing; this was followed with very light layers of "Deco Pink", "Jasmine", "Pink Rose", and "Beige".  Each being applied to enforce the shadowing and lightly blending into the original foundation colors of Cream and Light Peach.  

There are over 21+ hues within  6 color value groups that can be applied to the skin to create a realistic looking image, so you can see I am not even half way through the Six Value Groups that contain 21+ hues.  But, I am establishing a very good base.

Now, as I have said before, I am NOT a portrait artist but rather an artist who prefers to draw people ... ergo, this illustration may or may not end up looking like the original subject.  But I certainly hope it will end up nice!

Right now it looks a bit spooky, as you follow along on this "Work In Progress" (WIP) you will see the image grow and come together in this artistic process of creating a colored pencil painting.  Wish me luck!

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".

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"Dance Recital Diva"

I just finished another colored pencil "painting" which I have aptly named "Dance Recital Diva".  This time I have also incorporated techniques from the book "Colored Pencil Portraits - Step by Step" by Ann Kullberg.  Her techniques are different from those used by Alyona Nickelsen in her book "The Colored Pencil Painting Bible".

The basic difference in the two styles is that when Alyona refers to a wash it is generally a mineral spirits wash or blending with a colorless blending pencil.  With Ann, a wash is a uniform layering of colors to form a base.  In this illustration I have used Alyona's mineral spirits wash on the back ground and hair; while I used Ann's techniques for the skin tones.

If you want to learn skin tones, get Ann's book ... it, to me, is phenomenal!  Basically it is light layers of color applied with "sharp" tipped pencils, ever so gently.  It does take time but I think the results are well worth the effort.  She even has instructions on how to create your own skin tone bar and how to effectively use it.  With her skin tone color guide you  are provided a foundation for skin tones of all ranges.

When I began this picture I had ordered her (Ann's) book but hadn't yet received it, but I did have a list of the colors in her value groups.  I started out with how I thought the colors should be applied and ended up a bit frustrated because things were not progressing well.  I said a little prayer to God for help and walked away from the piece before I ruined it any further.  Would you believe, the next day her book arrived at my door step before 10 AM, and I had only ordered it three days prior with standard shipping!  Now that was a fast answer to my prayer!  Thank You God!

Anyway, I read the instructions for "Creating Believable Skin Tones" and started in again.  I also did something one should not do ... I used my electric eraser and removed most of the colors I had earlier applied to the face.  When they say Stonehenge paper stands up to abuse - it is true!  Well, it wasn't quite a clean slate but the area was clear enough for me to start and complete a fairly decent face with believable skin tones.

Now the hair, well that is more or less my own technique that I have developed over the years.  I really like the hair strands to show, so after I applied the base colors for shadows and highlights and then applied a mineral spirits wash to those colors, I used illustration pens (in orange, light brown, sepia, dark brown, and a bit of black) to provide the illusion of hair strands.

First I will share with you the photo I used for this picture ....

 

I used this photo and tweaked things a bit (artistic license).  I changed the bodice of the dress to black because I wanted more contrast between it and the sleeves; then I changed her hair from a braided pony tail to hanging loose (it just felt right).  The result is:

 

I know it doesn't look a lot like the photo, but I have never claimed to be a portrait artist; I am just an artist who likes to draw people in a realistic fashion.  All in all, I think it turned out rather well!

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady

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

WIP - Day Two

Our two youngest grandchildren spent the night and I didn't get much work completed on the piece as I would have liked,   I did manage to add more shadowing to the face.  This time I am trying out mineral spirits applied with a paper stump for blending the colors.

At one point, I had muddied the shading so badly I was ready to toss the piece, but I really hate to waste a good piece of paper.  Instead I used an X-acto knife blade to gently scrape away the offending mess, praying I wouldn't mess it up further.

I finally put it aside, feeling like it was only good for experimenting further with different techniques.  After a couple hours, I went over to see what I could salvage and much to my surprise, it didn't look half bad!  I had forgotten a key rule when using mineral spirits ... you have to let the paper completely dry before moving on!  When mineral spirits are used for blending they tend to turn the paper a grayish hue, making the area look muddy; once the paper is dry you can see the true results.

Day Two (I still haven't titled it)

 

Guess I will continue and see where the piece leads me......

Happy Day!

Karen Anne Brady

 

WIP - Day One

Well now, I think I am ready to begin a new colored pencil drawing using the techniques I am learning from "Colored Pencil Painting Bible" (Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Unltrarealistic Effects) by Alyona Nickelsen.

I really want to work on the flesh tones in my next illustration so I picked a photo that is mostly head and hands.  I made a rough sketch and cleaned it up by tracing over it using tracing paper to provide clean lines, after which I traced it onto Stonehenge 100% cotton art paper for coloring.  Once it was on my new piece of paper canvas I began working on layering on flesh colors and laying out my shadowing.

Today I found that by using my pencil in an under handed fashion I have more control of the lightness which I apply.  I've noticed that when I use my pencil in the traditional fashion (for writing) I tend to apply too much pressure and too much color too soon (boy, that's a lot of too's).

Following is the progress which was made today .....

                    Photo                           Tracing Paper Sketch               Begin Flesh Tones


I still have not decided what I will title this piece, so if you have a suggestion, please let me know!

Happy Day!
Karen Anne Brady

Little Girl - Finis on Day Three

I finished my little girl today and I must say, overall, I am very pleased with the results. 

Today I worked on the wood couch arm and the couch cushion, implementing many of the techniques from the book "Colored Pencil Painting Bible" (Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultrarealistic Effects) by Alyona Nickelsen. 

The many layers of color on the wood created quite a realistic rendering, even the couch cushion doesn't look too bad.  I also added more shadowing to her hair and face. I like contrast.  Then the background was looking pretty pale so I added another dense layer of an olive green shade of my Prisma colored pencils and then slowly dabbed minerals spirits with a Q-tip to the freshly applied color. 

These new techniques I am learning are taking some adjustments on my part, but I am liking the results I am able to achieve.  This new world of the use of colored pencils is quite inspiring and most exhilarating!  Try it, you may find you like it!

"Little Girl in Plaid and Black"

Happy day to all!

Karen Anne

Zentangle Inspired Number Eight

"Zentangle Inspired Number Eight"

"Strawberry" A New Colored Pencil Study

This is another colored pencil study of a Strawberry.    The original background did not turn out well at all ... so an "India Ink" wash to the rescue!

"Strawberry"

If you are interested in learning these techniques yourself, purchase the book "Colored Pencil Painting Bible" (Techniques for Achieving Luminous Color and Ultrarealistic Effects) by Alyona Nickelsen

This book has to be one of the best investments I have ever made!

Zentangle Inspired Number Five

Zentangle Number Five is now available in my Etsy Shop as an ACEO (2.5" x 3.5") and as an 8" x 10" authorized art print.

Day 72

Well, since we already have a Raggedy Ann it would seem appropriate that we include a Raggedy Andy!  Now, in our household .... no one wanted Raggedy Andy in his traditional garb ... my boys want Andy in a football outfit!  So, with some slight pattern adjustments ...  here is Andy in his football togs!

A New Zentangle Inspired Series!

As an accompaniment to my Zentangle Inspired Alphabet Series, I recently completed the Zentangle Numeral/Number Series.  The number series is being made available as an Authorized Art Print (8" x 10") and in ACEO format (2.5" x 3.5").  They will also be available as coloring pages, you need to specify if you want a color page so that your print will be made on a laser printer.  Many people have received enjoyment from adding color to the black & white letters thereby making them personal.

Each day I will be listing a new number in my Etsy Shop, as well as posting them in this blog.  For today, I am pleased to present you with ....

"The Number One"

 

aka "Numeral One"