Just let the pencils have their way with the paper to take the mind off a rather detailed pieces I work on. Not sure if the result qualifies for an abstract since there is definitely a figure in it.
Author: Yelena Shabrova
After the Rain (miniature)
Here is my newest tiny digital canvas. I haven’t done any for a few months and completely forgot my past experience with colored pencil on this kind of surface. It is a bit slippery and does not allow to build up really dark darks unless you carefully plan for them from the beginning and use very sharp pencils all the time. Unlike with paper or traditional linen canvas it is not possible to start with lighter colors everywhere and then go darker in as many layers as necessary. Darker colors on a digital canvas start to chip off relatively quickly if you are not careful.
So with a refreshed memory, I am now going to use digital canvas with soft graphite pencils only and leave colors to linen ones. Or maybe it’s worth trying to gesso a digital canvas and see if it becomes more tolerant to dark colored pencils.
The original miniature ($35.00) is available in my Miniatures online gallery.
Gathering III (rocks in pen and ink, 6″ x 4″) – in progress
Updated: October 26, 2014
It’s finished. I like how it turned out more than the first two pieces in the series.
Updated: October 17, 2014
So most of my ideas are not suitable for small shapes and have to be put aside for now. I think there is a larger rocky piece in my feature; meanwhile this one continues to take shape.
Updated: October 2, 2014
I have more ideas for rock textures that are going to fit into this small piece, and not all of them are going to play nicely together. Decisions – they are very time consuming.
Original post: September 9, 2014
For the third piece in the “Gathering” series I decided to start with the horses instead of smaller rocks. Apparently it is easier to complete more critical parts of the drawing first than worry about ruining the entire thing if something in the horse does not look right. Who knew! So, outlines are done, one foal is completed but may need some touch-ups when I get to its rock, the other one is not giving me problems so far.
You can see the first two drawings in the series here and here.
pen and ink, graphite, colored pencil, 6″ x 4″Explorer goes to print
Just learned that one of my pieces in the Bay Area Wildlife art show, Explorer, was featured in The Epoch Times newspaper. Nice surprise. Thanks Teresa Silvestri for letting me know!
Newborn (foal head in colored pencil, 11″ x 14″)
Updated: September 12, 2014
Newborn won the Best Realism Award at the Fall Festival Art Show
Updated: August 29, 2014
And it’s done! I don’t think there is anything to add to it, but if I were to do this piece all over again I would approach it completely differently. It was a nice detour from fully realistic colors and a few purely technique-related things I usually use.
Updated: June 2, 2014
He looks more like a living creature now and almost ready for darks to be added. The white stripe will need some gentle work first.
Updated: April 21, 2014
Well, it’s been a while since I started this portrait, several different small projects got in the way, but finally I am back to the little foal.
In the end, he won’t be nearly as colorful as right now (or at least I hope for that), but it will be interesting to see what bright violet and yellows will be able to add to regular coat colors.
Original post: Jan 18, 2014
I think it’s been a terrible while since I drew a horse that fits on piece of paper bigger that 4″ x 6″. Time to change that, so here’s the beginning of a very young foal’s head. Because for some reason I chose rough Bienfang watercolor paper, it may take a while to build up colors in this one. And it’s not just rough, it’s somewhat slippery too. But we will see. So far it was mostly working on the background to get a better feel of the paper that is new to me before adding much detail to the foal.
Fall Festival Art Show at the Quinlan Center
I will have several artworks in this show including the newest one:
Reception: Friday, September 12, 2014 – 7 PM
Show: Saturday, September 13, 2014 – 10 AM to 5 PM
Location: Cupertino Room, Quinlan Community Center, 10185 N.Stelling Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
I will be sitting in the FALC booth (M01) outside of the Quinlan Center with my fellow artists the entire Saturday and will be glad to chat with my old and new friends.
The exhibit is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Cupertino and Fine Arts League of Cupertino.
Judge: Dr. Nancy Canter, Dean Creative Arts, De Anza College
A sketch a day: horse head
Very quick, less refined than the previous horse head, an “I can see you, you can’t see me” kind of a horse.
A sketch a day: Arabian horse head
2014 Bay Area Wildlife Exhibit at Filoli
I will have three small pieces on display at Filoli from Tuesday, September 9 through Sunday, October 26, 2014:
The exhibit will be held in the gallery at the Visitor and Education Center of Filoli. The address is 86 Cañada Road, Woodside, California 94062
Open: Tuesday – Saturday 10:00 am–3:30 pm (last admission 2:30 pm), Sunday 11:00 am–3:30 pm (last admission 2:30 pm)
General Admission: Adults $18 / Seniors $15 (65 & older) / Children $8 (ages 5–17)
Meet the Artist’s Weekend: October 11 – 12. Hope to see you there!
“Truckee River” earned the 1st place at the Campbell Artists’ Guild 16th Annual Art Show
“Truckee River” earned the 1st place at the Campbell Artists’ Guild 16th Annual Art Show in the Drawing category.
“This is a little gem. I like the composition very much, focusing as it does on a small pocket of water off the Truckee River. The colors are delicate and exquisite showing good variation and are very convincing.” ~ Jeff Bramschreiber, juror
We had a wonderful reception today, thank you everybody who made it to the Rose Shenson Gallery.
The show will stay open till August 31 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12 pm – 4 pm at the Triton Museum of Art, 1505 Warburton Ave, Santa Clara, California. Stop by if you are in the area, there is a lot of wonderful art to see.
Summer Exhibit at the San Jose Bridge Club 2014
“Plum Blossoms at Los Gatos Creek Park” and “On the Way III” were accepted into the Summer Exhibit at the San Jose Bridge Center 2014 that will be held from July 29 till October 28, 2014.
There will be no reception for this show.
The San Jose Bridge Center is located at 1300 White Oak, Suite 103, Campbell, CA.
Campbell Artists’ Guild 16th Annual Art Show
A few of my works will be on display at the Rose Shenson Gallery of the Triton Museum of Art:
The show will be open August 1-31 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, 12 pm – 4 pm.
Reception is on Sunday, August 3, 1:30-3:30 p.m. There will be festive music, a plethora of delicious finger food and libations, and an opportunity to meet many talented artists.
The Rose Shenson Gallery is located behind the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, 1505 Warburton Avenue.
Stranger
I was asked more than once why I don’t draw owls, and given the fact that they are my next favorite animals after horses it really begs the question. My explanation so far was that it’s far easier to obtain my own horse reference which is always preferred over free and inexpensive options that can be used by somebody else too.
However, the time keeps marching by, and my own supply of owl photos stays at zero. I do see owls every now and then which is very nice, but the lighting conditions are such that even the best camera in the world will not help my shaky coffee hands to make even a semi-decent shot. So I finally looked for other options.
So now I have my very own owl peaking out of a crumbling wall. Thank you, Lynton Bolton, for a great reference photo.
An observation: if an owl has light, fluffy feathers they will do everything they can to turn out a mess. They observe no rules, no order, nothing of what fur usually does.
Muncher
Squirrels are our little chatty neighbors who dig out everything I ever tried to plant in the patio. Even garlic is not safe with them. I would never believe that a squirrel can be interested in garlic cloves if I hadn’t seen with my own eyes how a squirrel hurries up a tree with a freshly dug-out clove in his teeth.
I suspect that at least some odd grasses, bushes, and trees that grow all by themselves are actually squirrels’ work. We never planted any of that, and nothing similar grows nearby. It has to come from what squirrels hide around the patio.
Furry explorer
Raccoons are adorable as long as you do not stand between them and what they think is their food or keep a healthy distance from them in general. I imagine gardeners don’t appreciate living side by side with them, but not being one I enjoy every encounter, be it in the wilderness or in the city.
This is a Russian raccoon who looks exactly as his American relatives and can be just as feisty. I met him and his family in the Moscow Zoo more than a decade ago.
MidSummer Art Festival at the Triton Museum of Art on 6/28/14
Join me and over 80 talented artists and enjoy a day of art at the Sculpture Garden and Redwoods behind the Triton Museum. There will be art demos and hands-on art activities for children and their families throughout the day.
Saturday, June 28, 2014, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
Free admission and parking.
Food Trucks:
Grilled Cheese Bandits – 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
ZoomCaffe – 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Scoops – 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Live Music:
Tim Green – 10:00 a.m. to noon
Rudy Ramos – noon to 2:00 p.m.
Goldentones – 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
A portion of the proceeds benefit the Triton Museum of Art.
Triton Museum of Art is located at 1505 Warburton Ave, Santa Clara, CA
A sketch a day: striped sunset
I had a different look and feel in mind when I started this sketch, and to add to that I grabbed some odd oil chalks (not even sure what that might be, it feels like something between a wax based colored pencil and an oil pastel stick) instead of normal pastels for coloring. The result is a complete accident.
Ghostly white horse
University Art carries something I never saw before: a canvas mounted on a cardboard. 5″ x 7″ pieces are sold unprotected, unlike canvases and real sturdy canvas boards. They come in white and black versions. Naturally, I had to buy both to see what can be done with them.
This white horse was done on a black one. Even though the canvas accepts many layers of color the result is not purely white (hence the “ghostly” reference). Alas, colored pencils are not completely opaque.
The original drawing found a new home at the Midsummer Art Festival 2014, but greeting cards, and prints are available in my online shop as a part of the “Colored Pencil” collection.
A sketch a day: nocturnal tree
Into the Woods (miniature)
Into the Woods (Miniature) – colored pencil on canvas, 3.5" x 2.5"
The original miniature ($35.00) is available in my Miniatures online gallery.
A sketch a day: walking horse
Fun fact: Sharpie marks sip into drawing paper surprisingly fast. So fast that even quick sketches like this one become a battle against ink blobs appearing in the most undesirable places. It’s kind of funny as long as I make the exercise short and repeat it rarely enough to forget that reaching for a Sharpie is not a better option than hunting for a normal drawing pen hiding somewhere in the depths of my drawers, bins, and cans.
Gathering II
As busy as this year’s Silicon Valley Open Studios were, I managed to snatch up some time for drawing. The result is the second piece in the “Gatherings” series that was finished yesterday a couple of hours before the last day of Open Studios in front of the Cupertino Library was over.
Thank you everybody who came to see my art, to ask questions, share your stories, and support what I enjoy to do so much. Those were three wonderful weekends!
Artist trading card exchange at CAG
I planned to try something new with ATC for this exchange at CAG: galloping horse hooves, parts of horse faces, or something like that. Instead, I ended up with four whole horse heads.
Maybe the fact that Newborn is taking longer than anticipated to get finished has something to do with it, I don’t know.
Here are the heads:
And this is what I got from my wonderful fellow artists:
