End of Day series – how it was created

“End of Day” is a short series of three 6″ x 6″ drawings on clear gessoed wood created for the 6x6x6 Community Art Show at the Alberta Street Gallery. As it often happens, small format lends itself nicely to experiments, and the main thing I wanted to find out here was how well multiple layers of colored pencil on a primed wooden panel would accept ink.

The answer is: not really well if it is a felt tip pen, better if the tip is a soft brush, but an actual brush dipped into India ink is the easiest way. Really, should’ve used a brush or at least a brush pen from the beginning, but I wanted to exhaust all available pen options first. And no, this is not an exaggeration: I went through dozens of different pen brands before one finally sort of worked.

It may be that I didn’t sand the clear gesso enough and that made the texture get in the way of pens. I am going to try the same combination of colored pencils and black pen on clear wood to be sure.

Artist trading card exchange at CAG – fall 2014

As usual, the ATC exchange at CAG today was a lot of fun. Here are my contributions to the event:

Yelena Shabrova ~ rocks in the mist - ATC ~ colored pencil, 2.5" x 3.5"
rocks in the mist – ATC ~ colored pencil, 2.5″ x 3.5″

Yelena Shabrova ~ last leaves - ATC ~ colored pencil, 2.5" x 3.5"
last leaves – ATC ~ colored pencil, 2.5″ x 3.5″

Yelena Shabrova ~ marsh after sunset - ATC ~ colored pencil, 3.5" x 2.5"
marsh after sunset – ATC ~ colored pencil, 3.5″ x 2.5″

Yelena Shabrova ~ sunset - ATC ~ colored pencil, 3.5" x 2.5"
sunset – ATC ~ colored pencil, 3.5″ x 2.5″

I love how the fall edition of the ATC exchange happens around my Birthday. This year it’s on a day before, so I got four early Birthday gifts:

Dianne Daly ~ Persimmons in the Snow ~ watercolor
Dianne Daly ~ Persimmons in the Snow ~ watercolor

Dianne Daly ~ Persimmon ~ watercolor
Dianne Daly ~ Persimmon ~ watercolor

Gudrun Baumeister ~ Teachers Apple ~ watercolor
Gudrun Baumeister ~ Teachers Apple ~ watercolor

Karen Franzenburg ~ oil pastel
Karen Franzenburg ~ oil pastel

After the Rain (miniature)

Yelena Shabrova ~ After the Rain (Miniature) ~ Derwent colored pencil on canvas, 3.5" x 2.5"
Derwent colored pencil on canvas, 3.5″ x 2.5″

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.