Squash and Pomegranate, a Drawing in Colored Pencil

 

 

Done yesterday instead of cooking them.

 

Worked on pastel board with colored pencil. Not completely happy with this pastel board for colored pencil. Still have not found the perfect support yet.

 

Working on Still life--Still

Making progress on the still life drawings of 3 red pears.

We worked last week on thumbnails and the idea of creating the layouts there first. Thumbnails are a good way to work out problems in artwork. You can make sure of your design. Also, you can discover what is going to give you trouble in the larger work, and work out solutions. This is a way to "audition" your objects.






You can also work to isolate and identify both the basic shapes and what is important in the design.



Basic layouts and sketching are blocked in, and we are working on the base layers. Some are working in colored pencil others in graphite

 

 

 

We all started with the same 3 red pears, but each layout is different as each artist finds what is important to them.



Thumbnails

Doing thumbnails can help you work out both the layout and make sure you understand the values you want to work into your artwork.

 

Thumbnails, to be effective should be done in the same aspect ratio as the finished work.

 

So decide how big it will be.

 

We are working on 5x7 still lifes. Our thumbnails were worked 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, which is the same height to width ratio.

 

Each work will be done on different surfaces, and has a different viewpoint.

 

Back to the Pears - Still Life

 

 

A good still life takes some thought.

 

 

Take your time setting it up and look at it from every angle. So a few sketches to see how it looks.

 

Try doing a few gesture sketches to see how the relationship develops between shapes.

 

Go over the values and see if there is enough contrast to be interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walk around it and change the lighting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Change your point of view.
• Try sitting
• Try standing
• Get closer,
• Get further away
• try different media

 

 

 

Gallery Opening: 12th Annual National Miniature Exhibition

In an interruption in what I was talking about, Sunday saw the opening of the 12th Annual National Miniature Exhibition at the Renaissance Art Gallery in Huntington, WV. The show will hang through December 9, 2012.

 

That is a funny phrase, the show will hang. It was a lot of work hanging most of the entries, but not all were paintings or drawings. Quite a few were dimensional art and a place to safely display these 3-d works was important. We wanted to show them off, but keep them safe and sound. Being on older building we have very deep window ledges, which are really ideal for this. We are a ground level room, and the window ledges are at waist height, for easy viewing.

 

 

 

The reception went off well. We were very crowded, almost as crowded as our walls! There is this mass of absolutely fabulous work, and mine.

 

 

Last of Autumn Beauty

Leaves in Huntington

Today it is rainging.

The temperature is falling, and it seems as if autumn if over.

The storm named Sandy is making big changes in the weather.

Last week was really the last of autumn here. So fall is short this year. Often autumn lingers into November in West Virginia, and trees can still hold on to some of their glory. But driving through the state yesterday, I watched and much of the remaining leaves fell. Along with the steady rain and rising wind, we beat it back to the south-west part of the state before the coming snow.

sugar maple leaves

Today there is snow in the mountains. The Golden leaves are gone for another year. So here are a few reminders.

Still Life: 3 Red Pears

Three Red Pears

A still life.

 

Wednesday Art Classes at the Renaissance Art Gallery are starting a new still life. We have done still life drawings before, but we have worked from still life settings that I assembled.

This one is different. 

This one the students have assembled. 

They all must contribute to the set-up and concept.

3 Red Pears in a white bowl.



First we had 3 red pears.

 

 

 

Very nice pears.

 

And a white bowl.

 

Not bad.

 

Sitting on the table it was fine, but could we do more? Change the way we look at the setup?

 

3 pears with room lighting
 

How about looking at the lighting?

 

 

Pears taken with flash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighting is an important part of any work of art. Where is the light coming from? How strong is it? How does it effect the shadows and shading?

 

Working with different light and light sources we could see just how much different lighting effected now only shadows, shading but color itself! Opening the blinds and setting the bowl where the natural light from the window could fall on it, totally changed the entire look of the still life.

 

3 Red Pears, photo taken in natural light