Welcome Spring

Completed under the direction of the watercolor artist, Jacqueline Gnott.

In watercolors on a 9 by 12 inches 300-lbs. Kilimanjaro watercolor paper.

Luzy, France

9 by 12 inches in colored pencils on Ampersand Pastelbord

Luzy,France – Progress

I am back home! We had a fun, lazy vacation back home in India. What I have noticed is that the cityscape is changing year by year. I had a hard time trying to compare my memories of familiar places with how those places look now. Besides, my home city became more crowded with buildings,people and traffic. Now back to the post. The art bug caught me within a week we arrived here. Once I gathered all my art supplies, it happened to be colored pencils on Ampersand Pastelbord. It looks like the surface accepts colored pencil media. I believe I may have to seal the finished painting.
I got the inspiration from a painting on Luzy done by a CP artist, Leslie Hawes. She frequently uses the reference from Google Maps to paint places from around the world. A nice concept for artist who cannot afford to go to places around the world and use them as references for their painting. France seems to have a lot of picturesque locations when you take the virtual tour using Google Map Street View. I hope to visit France one day. Especially the country sides and the vineyards. I am glad with the progress I am making with the painting. After uploading the picture, I have noticed that the perspective on the buildings are a bit wrong. I can easily fix that with low tack putty. I think I have achieved a loose rendition of the painting to a certain extent.

Spring Has Arrived

Magnolias are one of the sign that spring has arrived. I have made an earlier attempt in watercolors a couple of years ago. Painting in colored pencil is extremely slow but it is a good medium if you want to draw in details. So you can have great deal of control over your painting. I used Strathmore Bristol smooth as the surface; but it can only take in 5 or 6 layers. I am thinking of buying an Odorless Mineral Spirit(OMS) which can help to dissolve the pencil strokes.

Spring Has Arrived
9 by 12 inches om Strathmore Bristol smooth
Reference image: wetcanvas.com

Pineapple

After pushing forward with my frustations in using colored pencils, I am finally happy with this colored pencil painting of pineapple. They were helpful in drawing those details on the fruitlets and the leaves on the crown. I am really glad to see that my colored pencil painting has improved considerably. The only difference is because I used artist grade pencils and Strathmore bristol. Thanks Leslie for your recommendations. I can’t believe the dramatic difference the right tools made. The discussions in WetCanvas Colored Pencil forum were very helpful in knowing how to use the colored pencils. I look forward to explore more in painting with colored pencils.

Pineapple
7 by 5 inches on Strathmore Bristol with Prismacolor,Derwent Artist and Derwent Coloursoft Pencils
Reference : Wetcanvas

Capelins

I almost discarded this drawing that I did a couple of weeks back. But after acquiring a set of Faber-Castell(FC) colored pencils, I added more details and layering to the picture. I am okay with the final result. I have found out that it is difficult to get complete coverage with Hardtmuth pencils alone. FC pencils could cover more area compared to Hardtmuth. It is easier to do layering too. I am not sure if the FC pencils are wax-based. The cover describes them as lead pencils. Finally, I can breath easy now after almost coming to the conclusion that I may not get along well with color pencils.

Capelins
Done with Hardtmuth and Faber Castell colored pencils on Canson Mi-Tienes
 The image size measures approximately 7 by 5 inches
Reference : From wetcanvas.com

Waiting For The Bus

I did another colored pencil drawing of this street scene from Satu Mare, Romania that I found through Google Maps Street View. The unique szekely gates are present at the entrance to every households in Romania. These couples waiting for bus caught my attention that I was tempted to use it for my drawing. As with any colored pencil drawings, the white of the paper shows through. Some like it , some don’t. I fall in the latter group. I feel it could have been better with a colored paper background. Well, we always learn from each painting/drawing.

In colored pencil on 7.5 by 9 inches Canson Drawing paper

Fresh Catch of the Day 2

I really don’t know what to make out of this drawing in colored pencil. I am in what you can call a stagnant mode. Not really impressed with my recent paintings. Maybe it is the colored pencils that I am using. Perhaps it is not my medium. The time consumption factor and the general dissatisfaction make me question whether I should continue to explore the colored pencil drawing. I am really not sure.

Reference : morguefile.com
Picture is less than 7 by 5 inches on a white mat board with Kohinoor Hardtmuth Colored Pencils

Red Lily

After a couple of incomplete painting attempts, I finished this colored pencil drawing. The reference photo is from the February challenge under Floral from the wetcanvas art forum. I used Kohinoor colored pencils and conté pastel crayons on a black frame mat to do this.