Pencil Sketches

Between teaching Drawing in the Museum for Osher at CMU, and Pencil Drawing for CCBC, I've been spending a lot of quality time with just a pencil and a sketchbook.

You can express a lot with a simple pencil -- light & shadow, shape & texture -- all in the way you make your marks and how heavily you lay down the graphite.

These first 4 drawings are from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh -- from the Hall of North American Wildlife, Polar World, and the last two are from the Hall of Botany.

The best approach is to pick something that really attracts your eye, and then make a game of exploring different ways of drawing it.  Being experimental is key to relaxing and making discoveries.

One day after class, David & I ate at the museum cafe. I sketched these two people quickly.

The first fellow was outside waiting for a bus and looking at his phone, and the woman below was dining in the cafe.

The cat below was drawn from a photo one of my Pencil Drawing students brought in, and we both tried turning our sketchbooks and the photo upside down.  It was a really useful trick to help us see the shapes in this foreshortened view of her old friend.

Remember, it doesn't take much.  Grab a pencil and some paper, and start sketching whatever catches your eye.  If you do this regularly, you will make great discoveries and build your drawing skills with every sketch.

Happy Sketching!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

 

Nature Journal: Returning Songbirds

My birdfeeder has given me a look into the movements of the songbirds in my neighborhood.  This Common Grackle showed up recently in a flock of migrating blackbirds.  The group refueled on the sunflower seed feast laid out for them.

The grackle that caught my eye moved around on the ground quickly, so I found a photo online at Cornell University's All About Birds to use as a reference.  Here's a link to their page about Common Grackles.

I began this journal page with the observations on the left side, then a light graphite pencil sketch of the grackle. I erased extra pencil lines, and layered in Prismacolor colored pencils on top of the graphite sketch.

If you try this approach, make sure to keep the graphite pencil sketch light so that you don't create any grooves in the paper.  Grooves can prevent the soft colored pencils from getting down into the channel cut by the pencil.  

Also, if you're using lighter colors, the colored pencils may pick up the gray graphite and mute your colors.  I find keeping the sketch light or rolling a kneaded eraser over the graphite sketch to pick up excess graphite helps to prevent this problem.  

Spring is a fantastic time to start a nature journal.  Grab any small sketchbook and your favorite drawing tools, and take them on a walk with you.  Or simply set them up by a window where you can watch what's going on outside.

I hope you find some signs of spring this week!

Pencil Drawing: Sumo Orange Sketch

I often find that the simplest of things can make a wonderful subject for drawing.  

We've been enjoying these sweet, juicy Sumo oranges this winter. One morning at the breakfast table, I sketched this trio with a 4B pencil in my sketchbook.

What are you eating for breakfast these days?  Would it be fun to sketch?  What items around you catch your eye and call out to be sketched?

I hope you'll have a play with making simple sketches.  It will build your drawing skills & help you observe the world around you better.  I find that drawing relaxes me, slowing life down a bit and helping me be in the moment. 

Happy creating!

Cardboard & Paint Postcard

Do you have a cardboard box & some craft paint?  Here's a simple creative project.

I ripped a cardboard shipping box lid into the rough size of a postcard, and tore part of the outer surface of the cardboard off to reveal the corrugations.  

The next step was to paint it with Cadmium Red Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint.  You can scrape the paint over the cardboard with an old credit card and then scratch back into the wet paint to get interesting textures.

  

Once the yellow-orange layer was dry, I added Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue splotches and scraped them over the underlying texture with an old credit card.  If you use color complements -- or colors opposite of each other on the color wheel -- you'll get gorgeous contrasts.  Bold & eye-catching!

You might choose alternating layers of red & green or yellow & purple paints. Just make sure that the first layer is dry before you start applying the next layer, or your colors will get muddy & murky.

A final touch of gold paint added sparkle.  Glitter would be good, too!

I glued on collage bits, including hieroglyphics I copied onto tracing paper from this sarcophagus in the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

 

Painting the back side of the card with white gesso makes it easier to write a message, add a stamp and an address.  You can glue on collage bits, too.

Imagine how it would feel to receive an adventurous, hand-made postcard in your mail.  That's how your recipient will feel when they receive your creation.

 

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All rights reserved.

Taking on my Hobgoblin in my Art Journal

When an artist shares their work and their techniques, I always take away inspiration. The most recent example is Lynne Perrella's book, Artist's Journals and Sketchbooks.  

The image on the cover fascinated me, and I figured that Lynne must have created the bold pages by layering on acrylic paints in contrasting colors -- red orange and blue violet, for instance.

I wanted to try to duplicate Lynne's gorgeous colors in my own art journal.

I began by squirting blobs of Cadmium Yellow Hue and Vermilion acrylic paint onto a blank page spread.  Using the side of a sturdy plastic membership card, I scraped the paint and move it around.  The corner of the card made a good tool to carve back into the wet paint in places to create texture.

After the first layer was dry, I used the same technique to add Ultramarine and Cerulean Blue to the pages.  Where the Ultramarine was applied thinly, it looked black against the red-orange.

I love the contrasts of light to dark and of the orange and blue color opposites.

I did some written journaling separately about my fear of making a failure when creating art.  My Hobgoblin (inner critic) yelled that it was dangerous to make larger and more personal artworks.  As I responded in my writing, I realized that there was no danger in creating, even if I made a total flop.  I always learn from my failures.  

The real danger was in not creating that piece of art that my Muse was calling me to make.

Regretting later that I didn't make the art was much sadder than making a messy attempt that didn't come together.

I added these words using Posca paint pens.

Along with a printed butterfly and some little flowers from a Valentine's bouquet. 

Here's the final page spread.

I found the whole process of answering my inner critic with facts and logic empowering.  Rather than just listen and follow along with the noisy negativity, I had the power of truth and reason.  It made me feel invincible!

Of course, I make creative messes all the time.  I once read that if you like everything you make, you're not trying hard enough. I take these "failures" as signs that I am a creative explorer.

If you find that taking on your inner critic feels overwhelming to do on your own, a therapist's support can create a safe space for these investigations. 

I hope you find time and space for creativity just for your own joy this week.

Happy Creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024. All Rights Reserved.

Painting a Florida Sunset

On a trip to Florida, I took lots of photos.  Part of the delight of travel is thumbing back through your photos and remembering the fun you had.  You can deepen your travel experiences by painting some of your favorite scenes.

This is the sunrise that inspired my painting.

One way to approach something as complex as this sunset scene is to create an artwork inspired by the photo rather than a photorealistic copy.

I started with an Arches cold press watercolor block, and wet the surface with a mop brush dunked in clear water. 

I loaded my brush with a mixture of  French Ultramarine Blue mixed & Phthalo Blue, and touched it to the wet paper, letting the paints bloom and spread.  This technique is called wet in wet.

I quickly added in Permanent Blue Violet with the blues. Then Permanent Rose.  I touched in Cadmium Yellow mixed with Cadmium Red to create the orange clouds, and Cadmium Yellow for the bright yellow areas near the horizon.  

I used Raw Umber and Yellow Ochre at the bottom of the scene, where the ocean clouds were.

Then I left the first layer to dry completely.

I worked in more layers of French Ultramarine Blue, Phthalo Blue and Permanent Blue Violet up towards the top of the sky, trying to create areas of shadowed clouds behind the brighter, rosier clouds. 

I carefully softened the edges of most of the clouds, preventing the hard lines that come when the paint dries without feathering.

I used Caran D'Ache Neocolor II watercolor crayons to pop a little more contrast into some of the clouds. 

 When you're painting with color compliments right next to each other like the purple and yellow here, you have to be very careful not to let the two colors mix.  They contrast beautifully next to each other, but when they mix together, they create muddy brown.

Neocolor II crayons are opaque, and they move and blend when you touch them with a wet brush.  They gave me more control, and were ideal for my project.

I continued adding more details, more layers, and richer colors,

working my way down to the dark clouds sitting on the ocean (at the bottom of the scene)

A few more details, a few more marks with the Neocolor II watercolor crayons, and it was ready to be signed and dated.

I decided to leave out surface level details like the palm trees.  I wanted the focus to be on the sky itself.

Remember, you are the artist.  You get to pick what you want to paint and how you want to portray it!

I hope you'll look through your photos and find something that calls out to you to be painted or sketched.  

Happy creating!

Copyright Betsy Bangley 2024.  All rights reserved.

Nature Journaling: Welcome Spring!

Today marked the return of Red-Winged Blackbirds to my corner of Pennsylvania.  I'll always be grateful for the burry, brash call of the male Red-winged Blackbird as they lift my spirits at the end of winter when I'm ready for any sign of spring.

The males migrate north to us ahead of the females, and set up breeding territories.  On cold, rainy days like today, I least expect them, and am always surprised in the most pleasant way.  

A small flock descended from the gray sky to perch in a little mulberry tree that stands next to my birdfeeders.  They brightened my day on this rainy, mizzly day.

After I had finished my admin. chores for the day, I rewarded myself with this sketch, made from a  reference photo.

What's your favorite bird?  

A great way to celebrate your wild friend is to find a photo in a book or online to use as a reference, and make a sketch.  Then write about a memorable encounter. 

Happy creating!