NELVIA'SART.COM

                                                                       Drill Monkey                                                                           7"x11"                                                                         Graphite I have finished my first month studying with Colin Bradley.  I feel pretty good that I finished five of his projects.  With each one I watched his videos and while not completing his exact refere...

In the real world this little guy wouldn't make me happy, but in my world today he makes me smile.  I wanted to rest a little bit so decided to do this as an experiment - yep that's my byword I guess.  Je is another mini, only 3.5"x3.5".  It is on stock paper which is nice and smooth (I bought a package for another experiment that didn't work out).  So thought I'd try to utilize the colors behind some sketches and use some of it.  I put down the base coat with pan pastels as I wanted to see if I could put graphite over it, I already know that color pencil doesn't work.  I also wanted to see if you could layer a lighter color over a darker color and you can see it did work in the lighter areas.  You can see the applicator was still dirty from another picture, but doesn't matter because there is always a lot of color in shadows.  Then I went over the top of the pans with graphite and voila, in about 20 minutes I was done for today!!   My rewa...

Due to the circumstances I wasn't able to use the proportional dividers or a ruler and to be honest I really didn't spend a lot of time using the pencil to measure - I was pretty much just "eyeballing" it.  I started out just working on several nose positions and then decided I wanted to try to do a full face (get impatient I guess)  I started with just doing plane angles for the outside of the head dimensions.  Then rounded those out and when happy with the base drawing I started to shadow in the drawing.  This was started while waiting and finished while flying so it was a couple of hours work. For whatever reason I have to say that it was relatively easy to come together (even hubby, my biggest critic, thought I caught the likeness to the photo)  and I am going to check it with the proportional dividers, but am thinking that I pretty much got them in place.  I do think however, looking at this that her ear is pretty large as it merges into the shadow...

                                                                      Ol Blue Eyes                                                                         12"x12"                                                               Graphite/White Chalk You know  when you have a Monday on a Tuesday you have to be a bit irreverent.  So here is an ostrich with attitude.   This is a combination of pics I just took at the Birmingham zoo, for some reason they put the ostriches...

This is my preliminary sketch for colorizing this picture.  You will see it in another day or so, hopefully with color.  When we were in Arizona we stopped in Kingman, at the visitors center (across from the worlds famous root beer dinner) the man told us about Oatman, AZ where they have gunfights and wild donkeys that the miners left behind.  So off we go up Route 66 -- had to be the scariest drive of my life.  The landscape gets moon-like and the road is narrow, sharp curvnes, did I say narrow, steep drops, did I say narrow, RVs bigger than Canada, did I say narrow???    Saw many who didn't make it down in the gully - so bad Paulie wouldn't let me drive either direction.  Anyway got to Oatman, saw the donkeys (and their remanents), gunfighters and this old miners tractor.  Not sure exactly how it worked but looked kind of lethal on the wheels.  I just can't get away from portraits, so decided to make this a two day event, drawing ph...

Elephants are such fascinating animals, very intelligent and quite structured.  I love the texture of their hide and always enjoy drawing them.  Just plenty of places to put squiggles and lines.  I always am amazed at how small their eyes are with such a gigantic body, but they seem to have no issues seeing.  The Washington DC Zoo has several elephants and it is always fun to watch them interact with their trainers.  Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great day.

This is Kenneth Grahame, drawn by John Singer Sargent in 1912.  Sargent is one of my favorite artists and you will see more studies of his drawings as we go farther into the challenge.  He is the absolute master of minimal strokes and as you can see much of this is really in shadow.  I actually lightened it up a bit with accents of light gray for the highlighted areas and used the gray of the paper for the midtones.  This actually is the second study I did today as I just didn't connect with the first one, it takes a bit of doing before I can into the rhythm of his drawings.  But hope by the end of this challenge that won't be the case. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.  TGIF

A friend that I used to work with posted this picture of his father on FB.  I had been looking for a portrait that I could do of someone in uniform from the 1940s-60s.    I wanted to do it in graphite with a terracotta tinge - sort of like a sepia print that was so common in those days. So this is on matboard, and I have put a light terracotta coating over the background area.  Once I get the graphite in then I will do the face and another layer on the background.  This is going to be about trying to create various textures with the graphite from the slick leather of the hat band and visor and bomber jacket to the silky scarf, and fuzzy warm liner.    It even has a zipper thrown in here.  He also has that dashing scarf that was so popular in those days.  Plus, just look at that smile, what a handsome guy he was, bet he made many a heart flutter. Thanks for stopping by and  hope you have a great weekend.

Shades of Pink 5"x7" Graphite/Color Pencil on Bristol Board   Well this puts me back to summer and heat - not winter, cold and drizzle or downright rain.  I love taking pictures of kids (these days always ask first) and this little girl caught my eye.  She was all dolled up cruising in her stroller at the Birmingham farmers market.   I just loved her coordinated glasses and bow and those little cupid lips - she just gottcha. Thanks for stopping by and hope you have recovered from New Year's and getting a good start on the new year.

I know this is elementary for many of you, but it required a "happy dance" when I accomplished it.  You might recognize Iblis from a pastel value study I did of him back in June, I think.  Well in GIMP I combined Iblis with another photo of a female lioness that I have been wanting to do.  I found a really good YouTube video that used the eraser for getting rid of the background and boy was that easier than cutting around her.  I kind of like the two different effects of B&W and color together, (actually thought about doing it that way) but hubby said too distracting. Since I have one in color and one in B&W I am doing this pre-painting study in graphite to get a good strong value study and I can utilize a limited palette when I go to color.   This is being done on a piece of mat board that is kind of bright orange which is kind of the body color of a lion.  But for some reason the camera isn't picking t...

Ok, I think I am pretty much completed with Jania.  She will sit on the board and watch what I'm doing for the next couple of days and hopefully tweaks will be done only as needed.  I can always find tweaks, pick out lights or add more darks and already see some of those, but have been at it too much today and want fresher eyes before I make any adjustments.  (As I look it's not what you'd call a real centered picture here, sorry, but had to wait for the rain to stop and now too lazy to walk back downstairs and take another that might be more centered).  Did you ever notice how when in the sun you can't see what you are taking a picture of because you can't see the screen? Anyway, darkened her hair up (but it might need more), added more facial color overall and then more darks to try to give a little definition to her headpiece.  Sorry Jane, wasn't a lot I could do with the lips being too long, tried to take some off, but it was pretty imbedded in the paper ...

Well it was a yet another cloudy day, but supposed to be a good chance to rain - NOT - they were wrong one more time.  Don't get how they can so consistently be wrong, but ... no rain for my garden and grass.   However it was a good day to do some house cleaning and start to work more on my pictures.  Adding more color to Jania, not sure if I will leave it as is or if I will put more graphite over it, side that is colored right now is the shadow side.  Also started to put in the hair, I think I need to get those darker shades in to determine what I want to do colorwise on the complexion.  She looks a little ghostly right now.  Got her hanging on the board so that I can study her up as I sure don't want to lose her now. Also started my flamingo and got the background in.  Used pencils that weren't as waxy as I would like and also tried some Mona Lisa Odorless paint thinner and it handles differently than what I was using, odorless turp....

A good friend has been gracious enough to allow me to try to capture portraits of her granddaughters.  There is always pressure when it is a real person, one that someone knows and has expectations for, so am hoping I do the girls justice.  She was also kind enough to let me post these as WIP as well. Anyway, this beautiful little girl is the easiest of the two, at least from my viewpoint.   I think I pretty much have her, at least enough to put in the eyes and lips in color and then begin to work on the toning in graphite.  I felt initially I had gotten her looking older than her age, but think I have rectified that and gotten her age appropriate again.  Just the slightest tweaks can put the whole thing off.   There will be color in this. I really am liking the subtle color look on my last two portraits, I quite like the softness and am lucky both these girls have beautiful color and long hair, so get to play with the br...

Well she has been sitting on my board now for a couple of days and I think I am going to call her finished.  I guess you can pick on them forever making a tweak here or there.  Have gotten the frame and mat ordered (here is the preview) and will put her together and deliver her at the end of the month. I got such a lovely note back from the photographer of my reference photo, Barb Tester from PMP, and I feel good about the picture and the project and hope that she will move some hearts and open some wallets for this worthwhile chariety.  This certainly has been a pleasure to work on and I am liking this technique and am going to try several more portraits in this combination. Now however I am working on some smaller pictures in yet again a different technique, oil pastel, just to try to get a feel for it.  Boy this stuff is like working with butter, it just literally glides on.  This bears no resemblence to dry pastels that I usually work in....

Well this hat is turning out to be a pain. but good thing is there is no definite pattern.  It just takes many layers and I still will have to go over it really good with the graphite to tone it down.  But I feel like I am getting closer to the finish line and I am ready.  Already have seen something that "speaks to me" so it will be my next project.  It is helping to stay busy and let my mind dwell on other things. I always see things that I want to correct and I don't like that glob of shadow in the lower cheek area,  I don't see it in real life.  For the final post I will try to do a scan and see if that gives me a better texture between the graphite and the color pencil. After I get done with the tedious hat (I really liked it when I first saw it) I am going to just give the faintest indication of the sweater. Hoping to get this down to the Art Center next week, but still have to get the mat and frame it.  I am not a huge fan of framing - ugh...

    Well I am pretty sure I must have a fever because I have actually been organizing and throwing away clutter and decided to go back on a "food watch" aka diet, all on the same day!!!  It is amazing but I can actually see the back wall of my closet and finding things I forgot I had.  Just like Christmas. Anyway I have gone two days now without any significant progress on this picture, worked over the face quite a bit and added more color, the transitions in real life are more delicate from the graphite to the color pencil.  Also have mapped out the hat texture and am going to really have to play up the shadow side graying down the greens as I don't want the green hat to overpower her face.  To be honest I think one of the reasons I have slowed down is I am now to the part of the image that I have made up.  I need to find myself some reference pics of shadowing.  Best get myself in gear though as I will need to get this turned in rel...

For better or worse I think I am on the path to go ahead and finish her in the original thought that I had.  I will have one additional opportunity, when I go to take the painting in to get someone else's opinion on whether or not this is going to be acceptable.  I do like however, this pose as I think it really suggests innocence, the burden of illness, but the desire to fight and win, so overall I think it is hopeful and it should pull someone's heart strings.    She seems to be pretty much coming out of the paper on her own without a lot of help from me and in my experience that means stand back and get out of the way. Still looking for your thoughts as I really don't want to offend any one with this. Also just wanted to give an update on the weaving that I am doing.  This is my tv project when I don't want to be doing anything else and watching the tv is BORING.    It is a composite of photos from the Blueridge Parkway, one of my ...

Ok, I am calling her done.  I am pretty happy with this scan versus a digital photo as I think it better shows the softness of the color, strokes and smoothness of her skin.  I am going to have to learn that stitching program so that I can just switch to scans even with pictures larger than my scanner deck.  As you can see I still am struggling with the darker spots and hope to get some feedback from the community at The Five Pencil Method on how you can go dark with the softer leads but still retain smoothness. Again, I really like how this turned out and still have a long way to go before I am really comfortable with this new method of the disappearing stroke that Darrel advocates.  But I am pretty pleased with the first try, only thing I really don't like is that back shoulder, but again am hoping that I will get some suggestions.  Might be as simple as not going that dark in the future.  I also really like just the subtle color tones like ...

     Well already it is getting late on Sunday afternoon so thought I better post the update.  Since I am in the middle of a family crisis it has been a blessing to have something to work on while I stay close to the phone.  Am happy that I got the background in, no matter though what I do I can't seem to get it even, more studying on that for the next time.  Also got the foremost shoulder in as well, might still need to tweak the darks shadows a bit darker to give more enhanced form. Needed to play with the picture a bit to try to get it closer to real life, but still the subtle color doesn't really come through, might try scanning this once to see if that will improve picking up the gradiations and color parts. I still have the dreaded hair and not sure if I will start that this afternoon or not.  I am always glad to post these as I immediately see little tweaks that I want to make and so was able to do those while fresh in my mi...

Ok, here is the update on my progress. I still need to learn how and more practice working in the shadows to keep it smooth just like when you use the harder pencils.  The softer graphite throws out spikes of graphite and give you little dots and the impurities in the paper pop right out.  I guess I could eliminate all of that if I would just use charcoal the next time.  Plus other advantage to charcoal is I won't get the graphite shine. As you can see I decided to add in a darker background and am in process of adding the dark graphite - I have several more layers to add and then I will pull it out using a paint brush - I did that on the shadow behind her head, burnished it and that tends to take out all the white spots. I also was hoping that if I brushed it out then I wouldn't get a big deal graphite shine. I also added color to her face but it really isn't showing up so much, so might change up the color to a more orange yellow and see if I can get a little b...