Pencil Drawing: Portrait Practice

On the last night of my Pencil Drawing class at CCBC, I showed my students how to draw faces from photographs.  Above is my sketch of a student's adorable great granddaughter.  

We practiced drawing some of the models on my Portrait Reference Photo page here.

I find that it takes me several tries at drawing facial features.  I make an attempt, then see where I went wrong, erase and try again.  

That's the essence of drawing -- You make a sketch, step back, then reshape the parts that need it, and then step back again to see what you'll modify next.  

Pencil drawing sometimes feels like sculpting because it requires a series of corrections, reshaping your original marks into a final drawing.  

But as you draw, you can drop away into a place of calm focus, like a meditation.   When you step back, you've got a drawing and a new perspective.

I hope you'll keep drawing -- whether you were in my Beginner's Pencil Drawing class or not!

Nature Journaling on the Magic Carpet

As a storm front worked its way towards my farm, I stole the last hour of lovely weather to roll out an old rug I call my Magic Carpet.

A mug of peppermint tea, a little satchel of art supplies and my nature journal joined me on my magic carpet, and I soaked my spirit in the beauty of wildflowers and cherry trees. 

Knowing that rain would soon shut out such open air adventures made my experience more delightful.

I hope you'll find a window of time and a special place in nature to sit, create and take in the beauty of nature with your nature journal!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

The Calming Power of Nature Journaling

Before I knew the term "self care," when my children were quite young, Sunday afternoons were mine to take my nature journal to the woods to sketch & create.  

Those afternoons freed me up to be an artist, and filled my soul with the peace of nature.

 I always returned rejuvenated and ready to get back to the intensity of being a stay-at-home mom.

These days, nothing in my life compares to that full-on work of tending to little babies, but I still lean on my nature journal in stressful times.

Recently, after having some dental work done, I took ten minutes in my car to center myself, and sketch this pair of trees across the road.

I could feel the jittery stress dissolve as I followed the lines of the locust trunk's grooved bark, and explored the arching limbs and craggy turns in the branches.  I purposefully slowed my drawing down, looking only at the trees for most of this ballpoint pen sketch.

Nature and the journal worked their magic, and soon I felt calmer, centered, and ready to drive home.

Later, I added color with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons.

When you are in the practice of connecting with nature this way, you set yourself up for the calming power of nature journaling, knowing that it doesn't matter what your drawing looks like, only that you are drawing, and slowly connecting with nature's healing peace.

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

Tree Gestures in Autumn

As autumn stretches into cooler weather, some of the trees have let go of their leaves for the season, leaving behind the beautiful architecture of their reaching branches.

 Leafless trees are ideal for tree gestures, or quick sketches.

The gesture above was done in just a few minutes while passing by in a canoe.

You'd be surprised how freeing having only a brief bit of time can be!  Your lines loosen up as you struggle to get in as much as possible, no longer worried about exactly where the marks land.

Try this:

Pick a tree you admire.

Set a timer for 2 minutes.

Create lines that express the posture of the tree trunk, 

then add a few major branches and loose lines for the twigs.

Let your hand move quickly,  

keeping your eyes on the tree 90% of the time.

Tree gestures help you warm-up your drawing hand, & wake up your observation skills.

Each time you draw your tree, you see it more clearly, 

and learn to express it with more vitality.

Happy Tree Sketching!

 Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley

Art Journaling: Altered Transparencies

I found a fantastic book by Traci Bautista, Collage Unleashed, that's full of ideas for creating art journal collages in unusual ways, including making transparencies of your own artwork.  

Above is a drawing I did of The Ink Queen, with ink on an old book page, and then photocopied onto transparency film.

Traci gives instructions and ideas for using your own drawings & doodles to make altered transparencies for your art journal.  

The most important tip is: use the correct transparency film for your copier or printer.  If you use the wrong film in a dry toner copier (which uses high heat to make the copy), it can melt inside the machine and ruin it.

Once you get the right sort of transparency film for your copier or printer, 

you can print your artwork onto the film, and then add color with acrylic paint as below:

 I painted the back of the transparency.

And flipped it over to reveal The Ink Queen in all her colorful glory.

I added the painted transparency to my art journal, gluing it in with Yes! paste, a clear, archival adhesive.

Here's one I colored with alcohol markers.

Alcohol markers allow you to blend two or more colors together, and even move the toner around (I used a dry toner, black-only copier).

I warmed up Marion by placing her over an art journal page painted with peach acrylic and white gesso.

I hope you take some time this week to play with collage, transparencies, or just to make doodles.  

When you create, you make your artistic vision -- how you see the world -- visible to the rest of us.  

If we each make art and share it with others, we can spark inspiration and 

celebrate our unique artistic view of the world.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2023

Playing with India Ink

A new bottle of India ink and a stack of watercolor paper invited an afternoon of playing with shapes, brush strokes and drawing implements.

Each tool creates a different mark, and by experimenting with a variety of different strokes and expressions, I made discoveries.

After my first round of paintings dried, I looked them over and noticed that I liked:  

• Bold, thick lines next to fine, scratchy marks, 
• Graffiti-ish strokes combined with dots, slashes & fine marks, and 
• Repeated slash marks done quickly & with energy.

I noticed that I didn't like marks that looked too carefully thought out or representational (trying to look like something in reality).

My favorite pieces were wild, messy & free.

I took my top picks and reduced them in size on a copying machine, then combined them with other elements, like this handmade paper from yucca plants.

I've always been a fan of bold contrasts next to earthy midtones.

What type of marks do you like to make?

I encourage you to experiment with whatever you have on hand -- a ballpoint pen, pencil or a bottle of ink and a brush.

Then take notes on what you liked making, and which artworks you like the most afterwards.

The more you experiment, the more you discover.  The more you know about what you like, the more satisfied you will be in your artmaking.

Happy Mark Making!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley, Betsy's Bliss Art Blog.

Pencil Drawing Class at CCBC

 

I'm currently teaching a beginner's course in Pencil Drawing at the Community College of Beaver County.

I asked my students to bring in a small object to our first class to draw -- first from memory and then from observation.  I invite you to try this activity, and notice which approach is easier-- drawing what you remember or drawing what you see?  Which technique creates a more accurate drawing?

Leave me a comment below with what you discovered!

The class meets once a week.  In order to keep developing our skills, we draw every day.  This week's prompt is to draw your breakfast. 

I must admit to missing some days, but these flapjacks and blueberries were so beautiful, I had to sketch them.

Having a plan to draw every morning helps to make it happen.

If you're interested in learning more about pencil drawing, please join us for the next course -- Pencil Drawing: Colors and Shading.  The class begins on November 6th, and runs 4 weeks.

Find out more & register here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley, Betsy's Bliss Art Blog.

Fall Color Walk Map

The autumn colors have washed into the landscape.

Late blooming meadow plants like goldenrod and ironweed create pops of saturated color among the grasses.

On a recent walk, I mapped the colors I saw with notes about the plants and animals on my route.

The bold crimson of Virginia Creeper leaves stood out against surrounding green foliage.

Moth Mullein (below) had gone to seed, leaving these beautiful stalks.

These asters (below) smelled like buttered popcorn in the afternoon sunlight.

Red crabapples had fattened in the summer sun.

 The chestnuts were ripe and falling on the ground.

I hope you'll take a walk in nature notice what nature is doing.

Simply swatching the colors in your nature journal can be a simple way to record what you see.  

If you want to create a color map like mine, you can simply print out a Google map of your walking route, and add color notes.

You can find every color on the color wheel in nature!

Copyright 2023 Betsy Bangley, Betsy's Bliss Art Blog