"The Aviators" - colored pencil drawing, work in progress

My son was home from school yesterday due to the weather...AGAIN! But, a very nice neighbor invited him to come spend the afternoon with her son. God bless her! So, I was able to work for a couple of hours without interruption. Nice.

Here's the progress I was able to make on "The Aviators" while he had his weather-related play date:

Video Montage of "The Aviators"

"The Aviators" is finished, been to the photographer and is off to the framer. Thought you might enjoy the montage.

I have a full weekend of family and friends so I'll post again on Monday.

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

In Again!

"The Aviators"

Saturday I received notification that "The Aviators" was accepted into the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America) 15th Annual International Exhibition in Bethesda, Maryland this summer! This is great news if you are a colored pencil artist and I am very excited, happy and proud!

Spring Fever

Whew! Spring fever has it's hold on me now!

Yesterday, here in Ohio, it was 72 degrees with the sun shining....in March! No one appreciates spring like a midwesterner; we go a little nuts.

So, being a little nuts yesterday, I lowered the top on my VW Bug convertible (I am old enough to have earned it), invited my chocolate lab, Buddy, along for a tool around the town. I swear Buddy smiles when he is in the car, especially with the top down. I've always wondered, though, why a dog loves to have the wind blowing in his face, but if you blow on his face, you risk losing yours!

So with all that wind blowing and sun shining, last night found me in the studio until early this morning. I spent several hours working on trying to complete "The Aviators". I think I'm almost there.

New Work in Progress - Teddy and Me

Today I am starting a new colored pencil drawing, "Teddy and Me". The "Aviators" are still on the board, but I like to start on a new drawing before one is finished; that way I have a seamless transition. I hate the lull between starting another work AFTER one is finished.

So, here it is. Only the preliminary graphite drawing, but check back and I'll show you how it moves along.

Shadow Play - Some Color Theory

Here is my latest contribution in the "Sketching from Life" project on Wetcanvas. The subject was cutlery or utensils, so I decided to use this juicer-thingy partly because I just thought it would be fun to draw but more so because it was white. I set this little tool right on top of a white table and went to work. I haven't done a white on white drawing for a long time; but after enjoying this one so much, I'll probably do a few more and sooner.

I thought I'd share what I do while drawing with colored pencils to create shadows and to keep them as a glowing, lively part of the picture: I rarely use black or grey -- almost never for shadows.

In most of my drawings, I shy away from using greys and black and if so, only in the last phases of the drawing. For my taste, I prefer achieve a believable shadow by layering various complimentary colors to tonally achieve a grey, but becuase it is mixed with the eye, it becomes much more vibrant and believable. When I first discovered this, mostly from studying the Impressionist painters, it was an "ah-ha" moment and I saw a breakthrough in much of my own work.

Here are a couple of examples of where I might have chosen to use grey, but instead used various colors and their complements to create a more lively grey.

For the "Aviators", I combined lavendars, blues, pale pinks and warm yellows to illustrate the folds in the musician's jacket. This was an outdoor setting and therefore, the change in value range in the shadows was rather subtle; thus the use of mostly pastel or lighter values for my pencil choices.

Here, too, in "Early Autumn Meditation", I chose similar hues, but with more chroma or deeper values. The model was indoors, with natural lighting, but deeper shadows were needed, therefore, I chose pencils with deeper values. Under the chair, I used Indigo Blue and Dark Green (Prismacolor) to intensify and darken that shadow.

All three of these drawings (either from life or the reference photos I shot) were done in natural light, which can make a huge difference when learning to render shadows without greys; you can just see the colors in the shadows much more easily. That is because natural light contains all of the colors in the spectrum.

But eventually, no matter what light is present, with practice and more knowledge of color and color theory, you can apply this technique to any drawing you do. You'll be able to reference an "ok" or even poor photo and create some amazing drawings. (The reference photos I shoot are usually not very good; I just know how to draw them better!)

I can honestly say that my color theory class in art school was one of the hardest classes I have ever taken, and one of the most worthwhile. If you are interested on further study, read, read, read and then look at a lot of drawings and paintings (especially Impressionists such as Monet, Degas, Mary Cassatt, and if you really want to have fun, Seurat) on the internet, in books, museums, abd galleries.

Here are a few places to start:

1. A thread on Wetcanvas discussing Munsell color theory.
2. Fun and interactive site which briefly explains and demonstrates color theory (Iowa State educational site.)
3. Color theory in a nutshell - great for printing and keeping!
4. Color theory - some facts and thoughts on Watercolor.com, simple and easy to read with some excellent examples.
5. Another Wetcanvas site, ArtSchool and loads of info on color.

More Work in Progress

Today is my daughter's 29th birtday! Tomorrow is my son's 9th birthday! Valentine's Day has a completely different meaning to me than to the average American woman. (However, the husband did bring me coffee in bed, a romantic card and a large box of chocolates. Good husband!)

So, being that it is February in central Ohio, the layers on the ground are as follows: 6 inches of snow, 4 inches of ice, and then another coating of 3 inches of snow again! Lovely to look at....

Oh, well, the weather has fuelled my need to hybernate which includes eating (lots) and drawing. I've made a lot of progess with the drawing currently on my table. I think I'm going to call it "Aviators".

Beauty at Any Age

With a deadline looming, I have been working hard to complete "Aviators" and "Teddy and Me". I will show them to you as soon as they are finished, but in this phase of the work, the daily progess is more subtle (even though it's as labor intensive) and pretty boring for you.

So I thought I'd give you a glimpse of my plans: Drawings of women friends and relatives who are, shall we say, matured to perfection. Times have changed (thank God) and we do not have to buy into an "old lady" mode of dressing or behavior. We have sworn pacts to shoot each other should we display any such "old lady" behavior because that would truly mean we've gone round the bend and should be put down.

Last night I had dinner with several close "old" friends and we had a lot of fun discussing movies, the Academy Awards and which stars had had so much plastic surgery they could not move their faces. Then we talked about Helen Mirren, who probably pissed off several of the other women in the room because 1. she won the award and 2. because she was just plain hot and could use her face to express the happiness at having won said award.

I would like to contribute to what I hope is a trend in seeing beauty that can come with age. Here is a drawing of an "ageless beauty". A dear friend of mine bravely posed for this drawing; I think she looks fabulous. I have plans to do a series of these drawings using other female friends and relatives who are all fabulous, too.

Tropical Daydream

After working so long and hard on "Teddy & Me" and "Aviators", which are both very realistic pieces, I needed to loosen up and "play" a bit.

I had one goal when I started: portray a warm, tropical feeling. No specific place or time; just the feeling. Today I was able to take a mental vacation from my larger drawings and from living in Ohio in March. Nice....

This was done with inktense pencils, watercolor pencils, ink and colored pencils on 140 lb., cold-pressed watercolor paper and measures 8 x 11".

What a Time She Had!

"Buddy"

ACEO Original Colored Pencil Drawing

2.5 x 3.5"

SOLD

I just returned from Bethesda, MD (which I fell in love with) and the CPSA International Show and Convention, where I won "The Fantasia Pencil Company Award for Excellence" for my piece "The Aviators"! I am so honored and happy to have been included in the company of so many excellent, creative people. I kept waiting for someone to walk up and say that a mistake had been made and that Wanda Bartow Drucker had won, not Rhonda Bartoe Tucker. But there was my image up on the screen and my name on the winners list. Speechless was I. Good think we didn't have to make one. Yikes!

During the convention, I had the privelege of taking a class from Linda Lucas Hardy, who taught her technique of working on sandpaper, and from Robert Guthrie, who taught his technique of working on Mylar. I learned a lot from these two talented artists and teachers, who both, by the way, just happened to snag two of the most prestigeous awards of the show. I can't wait to incorporate some of their methods into my work; you'll see it here first!

The week ended with the artists' reception on Saturday night at the Mansion at Strathmore Gallery. With its combined beauty and rich history, its sure to be one of the highlights of my career to say "My work was displayed there once." If you are ever in Bethesda or the DC area, make a stop there.

My family traveled with me and were quite happy to jump on the Metro to DC and visit all of the national monuments and museums in the area. All of us were also able to spend some time with a brother and sister-in-law and our two beautiful nieces. So, all in all, it was quite a trip for both my body and soul!

(Happy Birthday, Dad! Love you!)