orchids and pansies

i finished my orchid piece at the last colored pencil class and i am pretty happy with it. i have to figure out a better way to photograph my drawings though, because straight photography/scanning, doesn't show the subtle variations of color. it ends up looking a bit more saturated and rough than it actually is.

i have one class left and will be working on replicating this pansy photograph i took last year. i'm excited to work through the dew droplets on the petals and to use colors i don't normally. stay tuned, hopefully it will be a masterpiece!

oranges and pinks

for my colored pencil class, we had to choose a 4x6in photo to replicate. i immediately fell in love with this orangy fuchsia orchid. the image on the left is the photograph and the image on the right is my drawing, in case you couldn't tell ;) i am only half way finished, so no judging! i am so bummed that i mis-drew the petal in the upper left corner, but i am hoping in the end it all turns out right. to finish, i need to fill in the background stems that run along the bottom and them amp up the color throughout the piece. i can't wait to pull off the framing tape and see the crisp straight lines i am left with.

a leaf and a lesson

i have my 3rd colored pencil class tonight and it has been going so well. this class really isn't about producing a lot of work, but learning how to produce. for the past 2 classes, we have worked on adjusting our pencil pressure to create percentage scales. 9 blocks in a row - the left most one being 100% color and the right most one being 0% color. this is a very, very slow process as you have to be "aware" of your hand and pencil at all times. for someone who is always in a rush for everything, this is harder than it sounds! this is all a bit of a refresher for what i already know, but it is really nice to have a specific process broken down again to clear my head.

we then reviewed the basic structure of an oak leaf and practiced laying down a perfectly even coat of color. next, we explored the different effects of adding red to some leaves and blue to others. in an actual drawing, i don't think i would add these colors to the same leaf, but this was a very helpful exercise.

tonight, we are starting on a 4x6 inch drawing which will take us through the remaining 3 classes. patience is my word of the night :)

a peony: photographed and drawn

i wish i had a green thumb, i really wish i did. usually i have a really hard time spending money on plants because they almost always end up dead. last year, i jumped back in again and planted a peony in the back yard. and guess what??? it grew this year and has produced the most amazing plumy pink flowers!!!

i haven't drawn anything since my botanical class a few months ago and i must say that this was a tough one. there are so many petals, but i am fairly happy with the outcome, especially the leaves.

botanical class farewell and a tiger lily

i said i wasn't going to post it, but i worked on the tiger lilies some more (that's what they are, right?) and well, here you go. our last class was yesterday and surprisingly, during our final critique, the class members said this one was their favorite of mine. still not too sure myself, but i do like the vibrancy of the yellow and orange.

i can't wait til my garden starts blooming and i can draw some hydrangeas. it will be nice to give my blue pencils some love for a change!

botanical class and a tulip

ok, so i said i would post the good and the bad, but last week was really bad. i drew a tiger lily on a large sheet of paper since my instructor thought i should go bigger. i hated how it turned out, and lucky for me, the page was too large to put in my scanner. this drawing was difficult for 2 reasons. 1. my pencil marks are not refined enough for a large sketch and 2. going larger means it takes more time to complete. but, unfortunately, you don't have a ton of time with cut flowers because they change their shape and die all too quickly. at least 30% was drawn from my memory which turned out to not be working at it's full potential. the best part about not being graded by my teacher is that i don't have to listen to everything she says. which leads me to...

my tulip, and i am in love! the sheen on the tulip and the brightness of the green leaves really came out in this drawing. i think i have a very defined style going on here - you could say i am becoming a flower portrait artist :) i really like working small, i always have in all areas of my creativity, and i like what i am producing. sometimes i think it is ok to perfect one style before you move on to another. right???

botanical class and a camellia

camellias were the flower of choice for class this week. i brought a branch from my house, but the frost had pretty much killed any of the blooms, so i swiped one from a class mate. her camellia had the most amazing soft pink blooms that were unaffected from the cold.

i am working on blending my colors more and really looking at the shapes of the flower and trying to draw from what i see instead of what i think i see. this is always the tricky part for an artist. your brain is wired to overlook certain shapes. kind of how we can look at a misspelled word, but still know exactly what the word is. i tend to sketch the flower in pencil and then not refer back to it when i am adding color. tsk! tsk!

once i scanned this one in, i applied a photoshop filter to make it look more like a painting. i love the look of digitally altering my images slightly. i have thoughts of a 12 month floral calender swimming around in my head. a modern reference to the old flower prints that you find at yard sales. the ones where the month is in a plaque at the bottom of the print with a list of all the flowers included.

botanical class and another try

i really wanted to draw some flowers this past week, so i swung by trader joes before class and picked up a sweet little pot of daffodils. another student was giving me a few pointers before class started and then she said "yellow is the hardest thing to do in colored pencil - i stay away from any yellow flower". which i promptly thought: GREAT, leave it to me to pick a tough subject.

overall, i am please with the outcome. the darkness of the leaf on the very left is a bit troublesome to me, but i can't figure out how to fix it. one thing i am happy about is the intensity of the color in this drawing. after a few critiques, i realized that i had not been putting down enough color in my previous drawings. this time around, i made sure to saturate the image with the colored pencil, rather than letting some of the paper show through.

camellias are up for next week!

botanical class and beginnings

i started my botanical illustration class a few weeks ago and so far so good. the people taking the class are so nice and encouraging. it's crazy though - 10 of the 13 "students" have been taking the same class for over 5 years. so it has turned into a sort of thursday painting group between a bunch of friends.

i haven't drawn since i was in college, which, was more years ago than i like to remember. partly it is like riding a bike, but another part you are clueless. i sort of stare at the page for a while willing my hands to pick up the pencil, but something always stops me. the first week i messed around drawing carrots and beet leaves, trying to find my footing with the art supplies again. this past week we drew a bitter melon (illustrated above). it is a strange vegetable/fruit from india that only one in the class knew what it was, let alone had even tried it.

i broke out my 20+ year old prisma color pencils for this drawing and i don't think it turned out too shabby for rusty old me. of course there are things i am not happy with, but there are more things that i AM happy with. as i said, the women in the class are so encouraging and that in turn makes me want to continue. since it is winter, there won't be many flowers included in this class, so i might have to go to the grocery store and pick some up for me to draw on my own. i am thinking miniature tea roses or those huge white things that look like daisys, but really aren't.

i'll keep posting my drawings, no matter how embarrassing and hopefully we will see some improvement :)

illustration and art

i just signed up for an art class at the callanwolde fine arts center in atlanta and couldn't be more excited. come january, i will be exploring the world of botanical illustration. i really have no idea why i am drawn to creative disciplines that conjure up white haired women in their 80s all sitting in a circle, but such is life. maybe i am really one of those white haired women trapped in a 34 year old body!

i have been eyeing this class for years now and with the munchkins in school and me having the ability to make my own work hours, there is no time like the present. so i am going to dust off my fabulous micron pens and go buy a new drawing pad.

and also pray that the creative gods send someone for me to be chummy with in the class :)