Saturday, June 22, 2013

Colored Pencil Artwork Updates, Colored Pencil Resource of the Week, and Art Resource of the Week



To be a colored pencil artist is not every artist's cup of tea. It is a medium that can be quite time-consuming, tedious, and requires a lot of practice. Because it takes me so long to do a colored pencil painting, I have come to a point in my art career where now I just draw and paint what interests me and brings me joy. I am not in it for the competition or to make a profit anymore. Of course, it is nice when an artist can make a sale as it can bring a smile to one's face. But now, I create works of art to share what motivates and inspires me and to help teach others what I know. It is always a joy to meet other artists from around the world, especially the artists from DA and Sketchfest. Thanks to everyone who has followed me along my art journey. I hope these blog posts and my website resources have been and continue to be educational resources and inspiration to other artists and students.

Colored Pencil Artwork Updates


The portrait, I Believe, is finally finished. The portrait was created with colored pencil and drawn on Rising Stonehenge. The meaning behind the portrait was to capture a man's emotions who truly believes in his faith and has come to a dawning moment of pure, simple joy and peace. The scan didn't pick up all the details of the clouds, but if you look real hard, you will see some images in the clouds.




Colored Pencil Resource of the Week



Colored pencil artist Revelle Taillon demonstrates and explains a wonderful technique of applying colored pencil on gesso board. Check it out here http://coloredpenciltips.blogspot.com/2013/02/colored-pencil-on-gessoed-board.html

  

Resource of the Week


As portable devices and social networking become a dominant part of most artists lives. I have discovered a valuable artist tool for my iPhone - Pose tool. It uses a 3D platform to place subjects in various poses. It has 3 point lighting and 4 different modes to place the subject in - muscle, life, mannequin and gesture. Check out the review and details here https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pose-tool-3d/id570369634 You can download it from your app store for $6.99. Well worth the cost.

Keep on Creating! 


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Happy Father's Day, Updates, CP Tip of the Week and Resource of the Week

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there! I have been spending the day with my family and some great friends. Father's are wonderful and it is a day to honor, to thank them and to let them know how much we love them. My father is no longer here in this world. He passed away in 2007. He is in heaven now and I miss him. But I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father, whom he is now with.
So to all the father's out there I pray that you have had a wonderful day.

Comments by ZingerBug.com

Updates

Well Spring term is finally over with and I am now on summer break. It was a tough term but the Lord saw me through each step of the way. I couldn't have done it without Him. I didn't have any time to work on any drawings during this term. So I plan on picking up where I left off on my last work in progress.
Title: I Believe
Medium: Color Pencil
I still have the sky, shirt and face to work. I hope to have it finished up this week.

 
 
Color Pencil Tip of the Week
 
When working with color pencil, it is important to have a good pencil sharpener as you want to keep your points sharp. The reason why you want to keep your points sharp is due to two reasons:
  1. Keeping your lead sharp gives the artist the ability to achieve better detail.
  2. It helps maintain a more consistent layer of values. 
There are several types of pencil sharpeners and ways to sharpen your pencil. Most color pencil artists prefer the electric or handheld. The handheld is easy to port around if you are traveling. The blades will tend to get dull after awhile, so one will have to replace the blade or the sharpener altogether.  If one uses the electric sharpener, the points can get very sharp and one must be careful of the pencil lead breaking off in the sharpener or the sharpener eating away the pencil. There is also the sandpaper block, X-acto knife and the old hand-cranked pencil sharpener. The sandpaper block is very portable and can be used to sharpen graphite pencils as well. If one uses the X-acto knife, it is important to have sharp blades and it does take some practice to sharpen the pencil to a point. The hand-crank sharpener tends to eat away pencils, but some of the companies are starting to come out with some good ones.
 
Below are some different sharpeners that are available for color pencil artists.
 
Handheld




 
Electric




 
Sandpaper Block




 
X-acto Knife




 
Hand-Cranked Pencil Sharpener

Derwent's Super Point Helical Desk Sharpener http://www.pencils.co.uk/newsitem.aspx?nid=267


 


Resource of the Week
 
Check out color pencil master Sandra Angelo's color pencil and graphite workshops. Learn how to master pet textures and the grisaille method.
 
 
Sandra's book Exploring Color Pencil was one of the first color pencil books I added to my library.




 Hope you all have a great week and God Bless!
Happy Creating!