Finally, a miniature on a digital canvas that was not a struggle:
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
I noticed that colors almost do not smear at all on this type of canvas and put dark branches first, then moved to the clouds. It worked – branches stayed dark, clouds stayed clean, no mess at all. And it probably helped that I used harder Derwent pencils for the branches and my usual Prismacolor ones for the rest.
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
That’s the pleasant part, always good to finish even a little piece. Now, the unpleasant one: this miniature, like the previous two, was done on a digital canvas, and apparently it has a shorter patience with multiple layers of color than a traditional canvas does. In the process of “thinking” about earth colors right on the canvas I found out that I better make up my mind quicker, or the color will start to chip off. It didn’t really come to chipping off, but from my previous experience with paper I know the feeling that the pencil gives you right before the surface gives up. That’s a little disappointing, or maybe it’s a good opportunity to learn how to be more decisive.
That’s right, this little piece went with me over half of the globe and back. I had big drawing plans while visiting with my family and friends in Russia, and as it usually happens very little of it got accomplished. In fact, this is the only thing I managed to finish in 3 weeks, all done either in flight or in airports. Yay for working small.
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
I will be showing during all three weekends of SVOS at the following locations:
Weekend 1
May 7 – 8, Site 539
Graniterock Design Center
1505 So. De Anza Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014
See the map
Weekend 2
May 14 – 15, Site 501
Fongwei Liu Studios
3754 Pruneridge Ave , Santa Clara, CA 95051
See the map
Weekend 3
May 21 – 22, Site 481
Carolina Mueller Studio
10823 Wilkinson Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014
See the map
All sites are open 11 am till 5 pm.
Join me and other artists for three weekends of art and fun. Come to chat, enjoy refreshments, and see the newest original art, prints, cards, and gift items.
My page at SVOS.org:
http://svos.org/artist.php?id=1907
As much as I enjoy the gessoed canvas, it has one serious problem when it comes to colored pencils: the unsupported area inside the mini stretcher bars. I found two workarounds: working with a very sharp point that does not require much pressure and keeping a finger against the back of the canvas when I need to burnish. Unfortunately, burnishing does not happen without pressure.
Slava suggested to try a digital canvas on a piece of wood. We had a few samples left from the time when he was in the process of finding the best canvas for his photography, and he stretched one for me. The sunset above is my first mini landscape on the new surface. Lessons learned:
– a digital canvas is finer and more dense
– it has more “tooth” (or what should it be called in this case?), and even a slightly dull point will leave white gaps on it
– it is not possible to correct small mistakes with a white pencil on a digital canvas
– all strokes, even those made with a dull point, look harsher on a digital canvas than on a traditional one
It feels like a good surface, I just need to adjust to it.
Fall colors are almost non-existent outside of urban areas here. The best we see when hiking is a few colorful trees or shrubs here and there. The rest is either brown or green that later turns bare. But there is a a nice aspen grove at the edge of the Stevens Creek Park, it actually turns golden in October. It’s a wonderful sight then – glowing trunks and branches against bright yellow foliage. The only thing that can make it better is a backdrop of either blue skies or water.
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
I know that Sunol Park looks pretty impressive in fall too, but for one reason or another we keep missing its autumnal beauty every year.
Sunshine, light clouds, and blue skies – everything our weather at the moment is not. I do not mind misty and rainy one single bit, but somehow it is not what I want to draw.
pastel pencil, 5″ x 7″
The original ($140.00), greeting cards, and prints are available in my Pastel Pencil online gallery. The original went to a new good home!
We had an artist trading card exchange at today’s CAG meeting. Here is my contribution:
colored pencil on illustration board, 2.5″ x 3.5″
That’s my first experience with the illustration board, I am not sure if I liked it. The thing has no tooth at all, very weird. Not sure who got my card, the exchange took place at the very end of the meeting and was a little hurried.
And this is what I got from a fellow CAG member, Sharon LaBouff:
I am very pleased to have Sharon’s little piece.
As it turned out, you can fit quite a lot into 3.5″ x 2.5″, more than I hoped to. If I planned a little more carefully, there would even be more space for the water at the bottom. Instead, I ran with the clouds first and fitted the rest into what little space remained. Morale: even for a tiny piece, start with thumbnails. I would love to do something with cloud reflections.
colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″
About two months ago I received a rather unusual request to create an illustration for a book that was not finished yet and didn’t have a title. All I had to go by was a short foreword and a few more details from the author. The interpretation and medium was left up to me. On one hand, it was very enticing to have that much creative freedom, on the other, it was as reassuring as walking through a thick fog. The temptation prevailed.
To make myself feel a little better, I sent the author a rough sketch of what I had in mind, and to my surprise she enthusiastically approved it. Since I didn’t know which parts of the storyline are going to be the most prominent in the book, I went with the main theme of an abrupt change from a farm teen to raising the son on her own in a city. The shadow in the illustration is the girl’s son in the end of the book, grown up and capable of supporting herself, her concern for years and a final reward. Today I turned the illustration to to the author. Thankfully, she loved the finished work which made me happy. She is till working on the book, hopefully the illustration will give her an extra creativity nudge.
colored pencil on drawing paper, 9″ x 12″
I think my search for perfect travel-friendly fiber-tip pen is over. It’s been over a year since I started to look for something that could replace my trusted Rapidograph.
The dream pen that draws in pitch black is Staedtler Lumocolor permanent universal pen. The funny part is that I found it while cleaning art supplies bought at the last super sale at University Art. Somehow I never gave it a try after purchasing.
The ink is so opaque that areas of flat black look completely even, no cross-hatch effect, no distinguishable pen strokes. I am very happy.
colored pencil on colored paper, 4″ x 6″
We were hiking at the Shoreline Open Space today, watching egrets, ducks and sandpipers of all kinds, a pheasant even, but the best sighting happened when it was too dark for shooting. And by too dark I don’t mean my coffee hands that can fail even in the broad daylight. Slava said he would not even try either. There was a ruffled up small white egret on a tree stump, just a silhouette of her backed by glowing water. She looked totally like an evil spirit who felt safe enough in the dusk to show up while people were still walking around, and a very beautiful spirit at that. Since shooting was not an option, the sketch from memory will have to do.
Updates: March 14, 2010 | June 3, 2010 | September 5, 2010 | December 20, 2010 | January 10, 2011
One thing that I kind of miss from the times when kids were small is packing them into the car along with everything else and going places. About 10 years ago we did an especially long trip through Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and Wisconsin, and the fondest memory for me were incredible rock formations that we never saw before. This piece is about Utah. It is not any particular place there, just something that makes me think of it. I am going to plant something below the towering cliff; not sure what it is going to be yet, and that slope at the right decided to be steeper than I wanted, leaving too little space for a tree… We’ll see.
Update June 3, 2010
SVOS and preparations to it kept me busy through the most of April and May, but I am now back to a somewhat normal drawing schedule. “Memories of Utah” are moving forward finally. I started to define rock formations. They will probably change somewhat as I make more progress with the cliff. Good thing this is not a depiction of any actual place and I am free to experiment and reshape rocks as I see fit 🙂
Update September 5, 2010
Finished almost all dark areas which are the most time consuming. The rest should go easier, provided I won’t catch a rock-reshaping bug again. I really need to refrain from doing that before I ruin the piece.
December 20, 2010
Ok, it’s been a while since the last update, but the rocks are almost done now. All that’s left is the ground below and the furs. There are going to be furs growing behind the slope. Shaping them is going to be as much fun as building the rocks. No, seriously, I have tons of reference photos for both, and not a single one looks like what I want, so for the most part this piece is coming from imagination that suggests dozens of different versions for every detail. That probably explains why it takes forever to finish it.
January 10, 2011
And it’s finally done. A few things I learned while working on this one:
I think that if I ever venture into the world of abstractions, and I really want to, rock formations are likely to be an intermediate step for me.
I am on an ongoing search for a travel-friendly substitute for a Rapidograph pen. Not that anything bad ever happened to me, but every time I read a horror story about a Rapidograph exploding during the flight or staring to leak dues to a change of temperature in the car, I start to think that carrying one around is not a good idea. The problem is that each and every alternative is not black enough.
My latest find is a Tombow ABT one with a tip shaped like a brush. This, indeed, is very convenient, but the problem remains – it’s dark gray at best and requires more than one layer if I want black. So the quest for a truly dark pen that is not a Rapidograph continues.
Yesterday KALEID celebrated the 4th year of it’s very temporary existence on the 4th Street in San Jose. I think we had fewer people than last year, but the party was very nice nonetheless. I didn’t see most of the artists since last December, and talking to them again was a real pleasure. Funny how we forget names but remember each others’ faces 🙂
Since we came early, I could take a good look at the Rockin’ Stockings art show. Each artist’s works were hung together, and stockings with artist names were painted on the wall under them. Very cute 🙂
Also, found an artist I don’t think I saw before: Megan M. Eckman of Studio M.M.E.. She has wonderful pen and ink illustrations in KALEID. There was another artist whose work looks like illustrations, all with unusual perspectives, but there was no name anywhere on the display. I know that there was an article about her (or him?) some time ago in the Phantom Galleries blog, but of course now I can’t find it. Why, oh why do artists make it difficult to locate their name?
The best part of the evening was of course the gift exchange. All gifts were unwrapped on the spot, so that we all could see what it was and who created each piece.
I finally ventured into the land of collages with my gift, but since I could not find about half of the paper I knew I had, the result was not exactly what I originally planned. Not sure if the original idea would survive anyway since paper was not tearing predictably and there was no telling up front how a particular type of paper would take colored pencil.
It was fun working on the collage anyway, and Keith Bunnell seemed to be happy with it. Keith is a Raku artist whose beautifully shaped and glazed mug I picked earlier that evening from under the Christmas tree.
Gift exchange is a random process, and Cherry even shuffled the gifts to make sure no one could tell which gift was brought by which artist. Keith and me were the only two who picked each others’ creations.
Flashes of memories – torn paper collage, 5″ x 7″
Raku mug by Keith Bunnell. You can’t tell it from the photo, but the mug is just as beautiful inside with random spots of black and dark earthy colors.
6 of my small originals are a part of the Rockin’ Stockings Show & Sale at the KALEID gallery. All of them are matted, framed, and carry special pricing for the gift giving season:
The show opens on the First Friday, December 3rd, 7pm-9pm and continues through December 30th.
All art can be taken home at the point of sale.
KALEID Gallery
88 South Fourth St. (at San Fernando)
Downtown San Jose
www.KALEIDGallery.com
The full list of participating artists:
Murphy Adams
Shannon Amidon
Tere Barbella
Mariana Barnes
Jessica Beerli
Christine Benjamin
Sandra Billingsley
Mike Borja
Lacey Bryant
Keith Bunnell
Tessa Cavazos
Jean Davis
Joe Decker
Emo
Cari Ferraro
Michael Foley
Katie Gutierrez
John Kurtyka
Rene Lorraine
Joshua Marcotte
David Mejia
Woody Miller
Mariya Milovidova
Gianfranco Paolozzi
John Paulson
Al Preciado
Blaise Rosenthal
Valerie Runningwolf
Kurtis Rykovich
San Jose Glass Artist Alliance
Centa Schumacher
Nora Schwaller
Yelena Shabrova
Kate Stewart
Subtotal
Sara Tomasello
Dorothy Whitman
Kathleen Wolf
Jeanne Yee
pastel pencil and ink on marble paper, 4" x 6"
I am not sure where I got this paper from, think it’s Michaels… There is no identifying wraps or labels for my stack, and I almost forgot I even had it, but whatever it is it provides a great background for quick sketches.
Talked to my Dad on the phone yesterday – they have snow near Moscow already. We have rain, that’s good too, but snow would be so much better. Even a smell of snow would be wonderful. Since I can’t have that, I thought I would finish a snowy miniature that was lying around for way too long.
