Author: Yelena Shabrova
A sketch a day: horse head
A sketch a day: trotting horse
A sketch a day: foggy scene
A sketch a day: foal
Hello… (horse head in colored pencil, 11″ x 14″) – in progress
Updated: January 5th, 2017
Decided to make progress with the horse first and with the window frame later. Both are going to differ a bit from my reference, and because the horse is more important I am going to figure out where his colors end before touching the window. I am now debating between natural wood and old paint that would compliment the horse.
Updated: April 26th, 2016
So it was a good idea to use graphite first, then continue with color on top of it. Maybe a softer grade like H6 would be more efficient, especially on a textured paper like this one. The disorganized colors that are already there are from different kinds of strokes I tried to see what works better.
Updated: December 10th, 2015
Back to the unfortunate horse who is now ready for color! I am done with the graphite underdrawing (if this is not a word it should be) and securing it with a workable fixative. Let’s see if that speeds up adding darks with colored pencils. Rainy shooting conditions made it look like there are at least two different tones of graphite, but in reality it’s the same tone.
Original post: Feb 21, 2015
I don’t think I have ever been this excited to see a rough drawing of a horse head finally appearing on a piece of paper as planned. There were at least two iterations that were not to my liking at all, but finally everything is where it should be, the sketch is transferred to the final watercolor paper (it’s a Strathmore one with nice slightly uneven surface), and I can move on to preliminary shading with graphite.
The horse is picking out of a barn door window, but it is barely visible right now. I need to decide whether to keep it white like in the reference photo or make it natural wood. The horse is going to be light chestnut with a lot of color nuances in the face, and even weathered white seems to be too stark next to all that, so most likely I will use some kind of amber or light wood for the window.
A sketch a day: rocky terrain ~ oil pastel, 6″ x 4″
What it looked like half-way through:
Small commission for a small horse person
Did a sketch for a girl who loves horses (should probably be in all capitals and blinking) and dreams of riding her own horse one day. Until then, a very own drawing of her favorite 4-H equine will have to suffice. This is a Birthday gift to her from her big sister.
A sketch a day: just so landscape
A sketch a day: running horse
Making friends with Zen Brush app
Zen Brush is a beautiful little app with only one step of undo and no way to save anything in its original format. No layers, the eraser is very primitive and does not help much, so best to leave it alone and pretend it’s not there at all. One black brush, two translucent gray brushes and an option to change the brush size. All brushes are round and look more and more like painting wet on wet as their sizes grow. That’s it. The app would be almost like a Zen board where your creating is gone forever unless you were quick enough to take a photo. Similarly, Zen Brush has an option to export the drawing as a PNG file.
Lovely thing for quick sketches.
A sketch a day: snow landscape
My first semi-serious attempt to do a more than a rudimentary sketch in ArtFlow app. You know what’s the best part of working in it? It saves all changes automatically and seemingly in real time, at least I haven’t lost anything yet. And I think if I ever hit the limit on the number of layers in the file it will be my phone’s fault, not the app’s.
A sketch a day: Frozen ~ pen and ink, graphite pencil on Canson drawing paper, 6″ x 4″
It started with a reference photo of majestic icicles which I managed to lose shortly after mapping some details in pencil. Not willing to dig through my huge and badly documented collections of shots taken over 15+ years, I decided to continue on my own and see where it ends. Somehow it ended in an abstract that has little to do with icicles or anything else of that kind, but it was fun to work through it without much commitment to the end result.
A sketch a day: horse head
Miscalculated where the horse should go on the piece of paper, but otherwise happy with the sketch. The subject was a beautiful chestnut, most likely a resident of the horse boarding facility across the street from our home in Cupertino, CA.
Paradise – a miniature on canvas
A kind visitor at the third weekend of recent Open Studios came up with the title, not me. I often draw during SVOS. People like to see how art is created, and whatever I am working on easily becomes a conversation piece. Sometimes I get a free benefit of getting stuff named for me.
Gathering V (rocks in pen and ink, 4″ x 4″) finished
This last little drawing completes the “Gathering” series. It going to be a while before I want to anything other than single drawings.
See the first four pieces in this series:
Silicon Valley Open Studios 2015
I will be showing on the first three weekends of May along with many wonderful artists. Two of my newest pieces were completed just in time for SVOS, and I can’t wait to share them with you. Hope you will join us!
WEEKEND ONE: MAY 2ND & 3RD
Site 339
30 Sunrise Court, Menlo Park, CA 94025
11am to 5pm
With Amanda Krauss, Krishna Mitra, Slava Shabrov, and Teresa Silvestri.
WEEKEND TWO: MAY 9TH & 10TH
Site 111
1510 Oak Avenue, Los Altos, CA 94024
11am to 5pm
With U. Q. Livd, Vaishali Sanghavi, Slava Shabrov, and Sarah Soward.
WEEKEND THREE: MAY 17TH & 18TH
Site 149
10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014
Sat, May 16th – 10am to 6pm
Sun, May 17th – 12am to 6pm
With Janki Chokshi, Denise Howard, James Lee, Jessica Liu, Reynold Alex Martinez, Krishna Mitra, Slava Shabrov, Michele Smeulders, and Isabelle Stachnick.
Or see all sites in one place on my SVOS page.
A sketch a day: at the beach
A joint effort of Corel Painter Mobile and Art Flow (both Android apps), with Painter carrying out most of it because it is so good at faking oil paints. I don’t like how real oils smell and how messy the entire process is, so digital looks like a nice alternative.
A sketch a day: grazing pony
Despite several amazing finds among drawing apps and all niceties they offer, I find myself again with a piece of paper and a graphite pencil. Must be a habit.
Connections – FALC Art Exhibit at the Main Street Cafe and Books 2015
“Newborn” and “Fortitude” has been accepted into the Connections exhibit at the Main Street Cafe sponsored by the Fine Arts League of Cupertino:
The show will be open from January 31 till February 28, 2015.
There is a lot of great artworks in the show, make sure to stop by!
Main Street Cafe and Books is located at 134 Main St, Los Altos, CA 94022
Open Monay – Saturaday 7:30 am – 5:00 pm, Sunday 9:30 am -2:30 pm.
A sketch a day: horse in the snow [sold]
SVOS Winter Preview Exhibit at the San Jose Bridge Club 2015
I will have two of my older pieces at the San Jose Bridge Center from January 27 till April 28, 2015:
There will be no reception for this show.
The San Jose Bridge Center is located at 1300 White Oak, Suite 103, Campbell, CA.
A sketch a day: digital horse
I am gradually making friends with Painter Mobile Pro. Most of it happens on the Galaxy 5 phone because the screen on my tablet responds to a stylus a little erratically. The phone allows to draw surprisingly precise thin lines, it does not mind blending, smudging, or multiple layers. Well, for the most time. Every now and then it needs a little time to show me the result. Very handy for sketching on the go but still does not exactly a replacement for real tools and paper.
A sketch a day: striped leaves
Trying out new artist pens that I got for the New Year. They are Sharpy Stylo and Pigma Micron pens. So far, Micron ones win with a little finer lines and more steady ink flow (that’s the left and center leaves).