Feather in Coloured Pencil. Vivien Blackburn approx 5 ins squareA friend gave me some beautiful feathers and I couldn't resist drawing one. This is in coloured pencil, a mix of Lyra and Polychromos.If you like it enough :>) I've just added it to my Etsy shop - as I enjoy drawing feathers I thought I'd do a series for the shop.A good idea do you think?
Faber Castell Polychromos is your favourite brand of artist grade coloured pencil - by a whisker. That's the current result according to my poll which asks "Which is your favourite make of artist grade coloured pencil?"
This is an update on the progress of one of the polls on Coloured Pencils - Resources for Artists - my coloured pencils information site - as at the end of July 2008.
What
Fish 1, collagraph and coloured pencil, 9x7 ins, Vivien BlackburnWhilst sorting through old work to store in my lovely shiny new plan chest I came across unfinished pieces that were worth working further on - these 2 collagraphs were put in the 'To Work On And Finish Later' drawer. This morning I got out the coloured pencils and added just a few thin glazes of colour to push the colour range a li
Portrait of Ben
11" x 14", coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford Hot Press
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
I did this coloured pencil portrait drawing of Ben in my drawing class last night. Some of you may remember the three pen and ink drawings I did on one large piece of paper about six weeks ago - Three perspectives on Ben - in this post.
I decided to just do the one drawing and see how far I
Study: After Utagawa Kuniyoshi
coloured pencil on Polydraw film (see note)
copyright Katherine Tyrrell
The first "unwritten" rule of any art competition - particularly an open competition - is that the rules have to be clear. After all "The rules are the rules" aren't they?!
The second "unwritten rule" is that when an organisation changes the rules in any way from one year to the next, it must
Midnight, High Tide. 11-12 ins square, acrylic and coloured pencil painting. Vivien BlackburnSo far all the paintings I've done of this subject have been daytime or evening - I wanted to catch a nightime view and also do a painting with the tide high.I underpainted in a mix of ultramarine and raw umber and white. Ultramarine or indigo and burnt umber are what Paynes Gray is made up with - so that's a colour you really don't need to buy. If you mix your own you can tip it slightly bluer or slightly browner and have a little variety, which I think is more interesting than a flat colour.I then added touches of colour on the cliffs, in the clouds and the sea in purple, blues, green, ochre and brown coloured pencils. The underlying acrylics create a unity of colour and help with the nig
Across the beach, late afternoon, cool day, charcoal and coloured pencil, 18 ins sq. Vivien BlackburnAnother experiment with the charcoal and coloured pencil combination on grey paper - this time I did something I rarely do and included figures and a dog - it helps give the scale of those cliffs and rocks - the figures should actually be slightly smaller but the pencils wouldn't cooperate any smaller than this :>)Done using willow charcoal, polychromos and Lyra coloured pencils and a battery operated eraser on grey rough paper (which eats the pencils).The curve in the horizon is the paper not lying flat - not me tipping the sea up! detail enlarged - on the drawing this is less than half an inch highthe figures are just very loosely suggested, with their dog playing in the water. detail fro
beach, charcoal and coloured pencil, 7 x 7.5 inches Vivien Blackburn Experiments. The scan isn't level - the horizon is :>) - a small version of the charcoal/cp beach trying out a cream cartridge paper as the background. The toothier paper worked much better, this is a little too smooth. I also like working larger better. And the landscape below was a mixed media demo of acrylics loosely applied to grey card (which shows through in places) with a palette knife and then worked on with pastels and a little coloured pencil. Winter Fields. mixed media. Vivien Blackburn 8.5 x 5.5 inchesI'm hoping to push on with the canvasses tomorrow..
Evening Light across the Beach. Vivien Blackburn. Charcoal and coloured pencilThis is the charcoal drawing on grey paper that I showed you unfinished here: -update-february.html (scan down past the painting to it)I said that I was mulling over whether to simply use white pastel for highlights and keep it monochrome or add colour - and if colour what medium???I decided to try coloured pencils over the charcoal and see how they worked - they worked! I wanted to keep the colours very muted, this kind of evening light softens and dulls colours and the cliff was deeply shadowed and backlit.I worked in multiple glazes of colours to softly build white, blues, mauve, umber, sienna, peach, orange, ochres and a little green on the cliff top which doesn't show much onscreen as it's only a little. Th
I did another drawing of that gourd to show the class different materials with the same subject.This one was done with that Lyra 'skin tones' set that I really like, plus a deep blue one to enhance the cool darkest darks. I really do like those Lyra coloured pencils.And this ugly little gourd is fun to draw :)and I've been tagged! by Karen Hall http://karens-gardenstudio.blogspot.com/ who does some beautiful work - take a look.I now have to give 7 facts about me ....1 I'm a new grandmother :)2 Though I love the sea i live about as far away as you can get from it in England now :(3 I have 2 lovely daughters4 and one Irish husband5 I have my imaginary list of what I'll buy/do 'when I win the lottery' - but very rarely buy a ticket6 I've been lucky enough to live in some very beautiful places including Gibraltar (it was lovely then), Malta, Scotland and Cornwall.7 I'm really tired and I've run out of ideas!and blogs I'll tag:Katherine http://makingamark.blogspot.com/
"Swan Song"winner of the Derwent Award, UKCPS Annual Open Exhibition 200615.5" x 7", coloured pencils on Fabriano Artistico HPcopyright Beverly LewisFurther to yesterday's post, I have an update on advice about digital image submissions on CD to the UK Coloured Pencil Society's Annual International Open Exhibition 2007. Also, continuing the 'animals' theme started by yesterday's post, I now have an image by Bev Lewis, a UKCPS member and one of the prizewinners from last year's exhibition. However, just in case there is any confusion, I would like to emphasise that coloured pencil artists do portray a wide varieties of subjects other than animals! :DBob Ebdon, one of the founder members of UKCPS and its current webmaster, and Pat Heffer have very kindly provided some more information plus the advice provided to members and non-members wanting to submit entries on CD - and you can see this below.the standard size that most images are viewed at as a print is A5 that's148mm × 210
Whistling Duck at rest9" x 12", coloured pencils on Colourfixcopyright Leslie H EvansThe two major annual exhibitions of coloured pencil artwork by the CPSA and the UKCPS are both open and international - which means they accept work from any artist working in coloured pencil living anywhere in the world. Both are currently moving up a gear prior to the respective shows later this year.Colored Pencil Society of America - 15th Annual International Exhibition, BethesdaOn Saturday, the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA) announced the artwork (and artists) accepted into the 15th Annual International Exhibition in Bethesda (July 14th - August 25th). You can see the list of artwork accepted and the artists who produced it here. CPSA enables maximum participation by artists at this open exhibition by limiting pieces shown to a maximum of one per artist. I'll be covering the artists awarded prizes following the announcements after the exhibition opens.I've included images of a coup
A sketch of Frog island, a grotty inner city industrial area, in watercolour and coloured pencil in the 11 inch square sketchbook.I really like to mix media, it gives me different marks and possibilities to draw on to push darks or emphasise lights.The tree is enhanced with a Lyra flourescent yellow pencil - the leaves were that incredibly bright and fresh spring green against the murky darkness of the old brick wall behind it.Behind the weir the water was inky dark and appeared still, although of course it wasn't. In front there was bright light reflecting and a jumble of ever changing (as the light changed) reflections. English weather isn't the easiest for sketching in! sometimes the light on the water reflected the bricks of the buildings clearly and at other it went dark with only hints of a reflection as clouds went over the sun.At one point the friend I was sketching with stood helpfully in front of the scene :>) I was drawing
I need to do some more of the long thin seascapes in the Time and Tide series for a couple of galleries so I decided to have a play in coloured pencil from sketches and paintings done at the coast and the last one simply playing with colour and shapes and taking a different viewpoint - looking back at the land instead of out to sea or along the beach. The majority of my seascapes look out at the sea as that's the view we commonly get - but looking back at the land from the water gives an interestingly different perspective. I must do more of these.These are only small, about 7.5 ins tall, coloured pencil in the moleskine.I wasn't planning on them being anything other than sketches but it occurs to me that a row of them in coloured pencil might be worth framing. I have to write a press release now and update a group website but I keep getting distracted by the amorous squirrels in the garden - it looks like we could have babies before long by this behaviour! and noisy sparrows dispu
I knew that people had said that moleskines didn't take watercolour - but I had to find out for myself :>)I started off with a rough pencil sketch of a marsh harbour at Brancaster Staithe from the small moor on the hill above. It's a tiny area but real moorland with gorse and bracken and rocks.The watercolour just rolled off its waxy surface and had to be scrubbed in quite drily to get it to stay on the paper at all! Definitely not one to try again - maybe gouache? or acrylic?Then I used coloured pencils to reinforce colours, letting some of the watercolour that 'stuck' show through.A mix of Polychromos, Lyra, Derwent and some cheap unnamed supermarket coloured pencils were used, reinforced with graphite pencil.This is a view I'd like to do in oils some time, working plein air. It was done from a photograph taken when I sketched there last year. There's a wonderful view from the moor, known as The Common, of the harbour with its islands and twisting creeks, reed beds and salt mar
Another painting-in-waiting! I have added a couple of work in progress pictures on my website (click on the picture) as I forgot to post them on here. My thanks to Robert who took the terrific photos of the pups on a neighbouring island that I worked from for this study. This drawing is available as a signed archival print and greeting card. I have a great deal of catching up to do on the website with new work and there are several new prints out...just need some extra hours in the day! Hopefully I will get time to update it all soon. Please get in touch if you have any questions meantime.
Another little sketch in prep for the large farmyard painting, this is a study of our now departed Barnevelde (which may be spelt wrong!) cockerel in coloured pencil.Should really have just been in pencil but I am rather enjoying adding a bit of colour when I have time (and I am supposed to be on holiday now!). Hopefully I will have the basic composition for the actual painting finalised and agreed soon, then all the sketches will come together and make sense (in theory at least).Merry Christmas to everyone and a very Happy New Year!
This little study of a duck is in prep for the same large commission as the previous goat. It started off as a drawing but the colours were too tempting, so I got out the coloured pencils and had some fun finishing it off on my knee infront of the fire last night. I am planning to include quite a variety of poultry and farm/countryside creatures in the painting and am almost decided what is going where now. The actual painting will be in watercolours of course, but I have some other work to complete before I can begin on it in earnest. I have no idea what kind of duck this is - probably a bit of a mixture (?) judging by the others wandering around with him.
I started this a week ago - just after I did the pastel version - see Parrots In Pastel. The first two stages were done from life. Unfortunately I had to break off due to various commitments last week - but managed to get it finished last night as most of the work that was left was the work required to strengthen the colours and values.This is the final version is now included in the Flowers Gallery on my website "Pastels and Pencils" - this is the link http://www.pastelsandpencils.com/flowers.htmlart , coloured pencils , colored pencils , flower paintings , painting
The first one I've shown before,it was done with a carbon pencilthe second is a quick sketch of paintbrushes done with coloured pencils from a Portrait set by Lyra. I really like Lyra pencils to use. These belonged to the college but I think I may invest in a set - they'd be interesting sketching in the landscape - just working tonally but with lovely warms and cools to play with.
