Pet Portraits Update

Following that quiet little voice of my intuition, I finished my drawing of my friend Brad's cat Sedona using wild colors and active lines.  

During last week's class, I invited my students to use toned paper. Below is a class demonstration I created using Strathmore Toned Tan drawing paper and Cezanne colored pencils.  The tan paper fills in the midtones, so you can focus on adding the light values, the darker values and a bit of color to quickly create a portrait!

If you are interested in taking a class with me, you can find the most updated list here: https://betsyblissart.blogspot.com/p/online-art-classes.html 

I hope to see you in a future class!

Discovering Summer's Greens

With summer in its full glory, I've been exploring all the shades of green I can create.  I purchased several new tubes of Winsor & Newton watercolor paint, and there's nothing like swatching new color combinations to discover cool, warm, muddy to rich verdant greens.  

If you ever find yourself artistically stuck in neutral and looking for a good warm-up to get you creating, color-mixing is a no-pressure adventure that can help you understand colors.  Some artists keep entire journals of just colors they've discovered so they can refer back to them.

When I had discerned the 24 colors I wanted to work with in the field, I found a leak-proof folding palette to carry them in.

Why not celebrate the greens of summer by mixing all of your yellows and earth tones with all of your blues?  Then mix your greens with your yellows, blues and earth tones to see what you get.  

Happy color mixing!

Pet Portraits in Colored Pencil: First Class

 

Tuesday night, we had our first session of "Pet Portraits in Colored Pencil" at the Community College of Beaver County.  The participants brought photos of their pets -- all cats in this case -- and we played with techniques for rendering our furry friends in color.  

My primary aim was to get everyone playing with their art materials, because we create our best work when we can take on the spirit of exploration and adventure.  We can listen to the tiny voice of our intuition, and make discoveries!

We explored gesture drawings to find the structure of our cat's form, and we played with colors -- complementary and analogous.

When I mentioned my colorist bent, and showed the power of adding unexpected colors, several folks took on the adventure of rendering their cats in vibrant hues.  It was a collaboration of the best sort, and everyone came away with a beautiful, expressive drawing of their cat.

The drawings above are my demonstration pieces. I drew from a photo my friend Brad Silberberg took of his cat, Sedona, Arizona.  You can see the reference photo here.

Faerie in Turquoise

During the lockdown, I discovered an artist on YouTube who creates for self-care.  She paints, writes, and collages in an art journal as a way to calm anxiety and support her mental health.  The Unexpected Gypsy's public YouTube videos inspired me to start an art journal -- then fill it, and embark on several more.  Creating simply for my own joy and self care is freeing and has become part of my self care routine.

I joined her Patreon, and it feels good to support a working artist who inspires me.  She produces special "Paint with Me" videos for patrons, and it was while watching one of those that I painted this little faerie. 

What a delight to play with colors and my imagination, and watch a character appear from my pencil and paintbrush! 

Hoping you'll take the time to play with your art supplies for no other reason than for your own joy! 

Figure Drawing with Model Amelia

 

We returned to the studio for Osher Figure Drawing with model Amelia who brought us creative, curving poses twisted in unusual ways.

We started the day with 5-line drawings, selecting 5 lines to tell the story of Amelia's 1-minute poses.

We moved on to mass gestures, adding weighted lines and shadows. 

We finished the morning with one long pose. 

Many thanks to Amelia for her fantastic poses!

Nature Journal Update

 The beauty of a nature journal is that you can pick it up and make a quick sketch -- whether in watercolor while floating around in a canoe on a lake as above, or with a Micron pen while hiking the Appalachian woods as below.

These quick watercolor sketches of spring wildflowers allowed me to experiment, connect with nature, and make a quick sketch when a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird appeared briefly.  These sketches capture the memory of the moment.

I hope you can find a moment to steal away with a journal and connect with the calming power of nature & art!

A New Color Journal!

 After reading Expressive Sketchbooks by Helen Wells, I was inspired to embark on a color journal.  The whole purpose is simply to explore colors & patterns in an intuitive way.  Here are a few pages.

I used Dr. P.H. Martin's Liquid Watercolors, Uni Posca Paint Pens, and some acrylic paint.