Amy for JKPP

Amy, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

colored pencil on toned paper

This is my most recent portrait for the online group, Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  I find using colored pencil to be very engaging, and really soothing to do.  Lately, with the health problems I have been facing, working on a drawing like this takes time, and focuses my mind on something positive.  It's not obvious in this photo of the drawing, but the darkest areas are built up with browns, Tuscan red, indigo, and black colored pencil.  In the skin tones I also add a light warm brown, so there is some tonal variation and complexity.

I enjoyed working on this portrait because of her warm smile, and because there was a wide range of values, something I look for in a source photo.

Fiona, JKPP

Fiona, Ebony Pencil and White Colored Pencil

for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

This is my most recent sketch for the online group, Julia Kay's Portrait Party.  The group started on Flickr, but more recently has an offshoot on Facebook.  I've tried all sorts of styles using the photos pf Portrait Party members worldwide - blind contour drawings, watercolors, realistic and very stylized paintings, monoprints, all sorts of things.  Over the past year or so I have labored over detailed colored pencil drawings, many with added background textures, drawings that took days.  

This time time I decided that what I got done in two hours was it.  No long drawn out laboring for me this time.  So here is Fiona, with just some simple cross-hatching and white highlights.  

And I like her fine.

Sandro for JKPP

Sandro - colored pencil

I keep thinking I am going to be more experimental with my portraits for Julia Kay's Portrait Party, but in the end I muck about with some contour drawings, some doodles, then go back to working quite realistically.  I think I'm getting better at achieving a good range of values with colored pencils.  Sometimes I use warmer colors, but this time I just used back, white and indigo. I basically eliminated the background, starting quite dark at the top to contrast the hat, and light at the bottom to contrast the shirt.

Portrait Revolution

Spring is, well, springing in southern Wisconsin, and I have not been in the studio very much at all.  In fact, most of my time has been spent working outside, especially at the local cemetery where I photograph for Find a Grave, and also planning my upcoming May walking tour of the historic parts of the cemetery. I enjoy both doing research and getting outside to stretch my legs.

I have been working in sketchbooks a bit, and on a self-portrait. But today I'm tooting my personal horn about being included in a new art book called Portrait Revolution: Inspiration From Around the World For Creating Art in Multiple Mediums and Styles, by Julia L. Kay. Julia Kay started an online group on Flickr devoted to drawing a painting portraits.  People join the group, post photographs of themselves, and then are free to interpret the photos in any way.  Some people draw, some paint, some use digital media, one even did portraits on an Etch-A-Sketch. Some portraits are realistic, while others veer into abstraction or caricature.  All are interesting.

Anyway, months ago I was asked to submit a couple portraits for the book.  I was flattered to be asked, but had no idea what the final product would be like.  This past week I ordered and received my copy, and was thrilled to see what a beautiful book it is.

When I was first contacted about including two of the portraits I did, I was a little disappointed that the ones they chose were not favorites of mine.  But looking at the book now I can see what an effort was made to include a wide variety of artists, and a wide variety of media and artistic approaches.  I tend to experiment a lot, and both of my portraits included here reflect that. One is rather abstract and brightly colored, the other is a monoprint, enhanced with colored pencil.  I love seeing the way the folks who compiled these portraits show the original photo, plus several different approaches JKPP folks used to create art.

So thank you, Julia Kay for bringing together so many diverse folks from around the world to create art, and to find artistic kindred spirits.

Edwina for JKPP

9x12 inches, colored pencil on tan notebook paper

Edwina, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

I am not a huge fan of the annual Christmas rush, and also not fond of snow or cold weather, except that winter allows a retreat into my upstairs studio and has given me a chance to work on colored pencil portraits.  They seem to be getting more and more detailed, as this one of a woman whose illustrations I have admired for ages, shows.  I was almost equally challenged by her soulful face and by all those tiny highlights in her "big furry hat."  Sorry, I've been watching Stephen Colbert.  

Anyway, what I have discovered in diving into these nearly monochromatic drawings, is that I love the process of developing the image, deepening the dark values, adding the lights that add to an illusion of depth.  I feel as if I know the person, though I have never met her in real life.  

All these drawings are in a bound sketchbook.  Sometimes I put an old mat over the image to see what it might look like framed, but basically I just keep them to look at, trying in each one to develop the process more fully each time.

 Why I am staying inside.

First Post of 2016

When I first started this blog, back when I first retired, I tried to post every day - and I put up everything. I had photos of sunrises, recipes, pictures of food, poetry, family history.  And back then, people read each other's blogs, commented, and made friends over the ether.  But over the years I've narrowed my focus here to pretty much just art. 

I'm not sure that's such a good thing.

Of course the nature of internet posting has changed since I left teaching.  Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and so on have superseded personal blogs, most of which seem to be filled with advertising that freezes up the screen of my aging computer.  Pretty much nobody makes comments any more, and probably pretty much nobody visits personal blogs any more.

This might be OK.  With few visitors and fewer comments, I can post about whatever interest grabs my brain today. 

So, first off, I have only one resolution for 2016, the same one I had in 2015 and 2014, which is to find a reason to celebrate something each and every month, and to share a bottle of champagne with my dear husband.  This has been a fine resolution, and has led to some very enjoyable times. 

On the topic of art, I have mostly been doing informal sketches in my many sketchbook/journals.  I keep thinking that at some point I might offer an informal group to teens in town on this topic, but I never seem to be at a place where I think I have my act enough together to do it.

I did sit down last night to paint an 8x10 inch acrylic for Julia Kay's Portrait Party, an online group in which I occasionally participate.  This is Valerie, whom I have never actually met, but whose dramatically lit photo called out to me.  I had the feeling I wanted to try some portraits using very bright colors, and in a stylized way.  My first try (not posted) was only marginally successful, but I rather like this one.

Jutta, for Julia Kay's Portrait Party

I have been busy with our whole dying refrigerator experience the past week, and now that the new double door stainless steel gleaming machine is installed and the food is back being safely chilled.  Oh, and I once more have ice for my summer beverages. 

But I had been enjoying a little book of contemporary drawing and sketching called Freehand: Sketching Tips and Tricks Drawn from Art, by Helen Birch.  I checked it out from our excellent local library, but I find myself referring back to it over and over for the engaging illustrations, and then looking up on the featured artists.  It made me itch to try out some new ways of working.

That's what made me try an entirely different style in this portrait of Jutta Richter.  I am filling up a cheap paper sketchbook with tan toned paper for my most recent portraits, so I experimented with drawing outlines with a Micron ink pen, and also doing some simple textures with the pen.  Then I limited myself to white, red and blue colored pencils, dispensing with any shading at all.  This drawing was all about design and flat areas f color.  I hesitated making her face white, but it provided the contrast I wanted. 

The background is greatly simplified.  I added just enough to suggest the outdoor rural winter scene, and I brought dark areas up to contrast with her white skin.  Looking at the results now, it occurs to me that the shapes are simple enough that I could try a portrait using collage - but that will have to wait until later.