Friday, December 23, 2011

Silent Night



I needed a new picture book self-promo piece, and felt like doing black and white. This image came to me  from somewhere (I'm always curious about how these things "land" in your brain). I like the idea that its very very late, when absolutely everyone is asleep. There are no lights on in any of the windows. Just twinkly stars in the sky.

This was done with a Lyra Polycolor Soft Black on bristol. And many hours of just sitting there, resharpening the pencil, going darker, and darker, and darker. ("What do you do for a living?" "I sit with a sharp black pencil for hours making little tight circles on a piece of paper." "Oh ...")

Hope you're all having a nice holiday, whatever you're celebrating. I have food shopping and wrapping (ack!) and cleaning to do still, so am signing off for a few days to do all that as well as some serious eating and hopefully some merry making as well. 

Peace and goodwill and god bless us, every one! 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Drawing yarn again

Its that time of year when I get itching to knit, or at least draw it. Its fun to draw something that's not an assignment, or a commission, or with an eye toward selling it somehow. Just for fun, or to practice, or to work out an idea.

These two hearts were supposed to be an idea about joining two hearts together, but at some point I realized it could be just the opposite - two hearts coming undone! Oh well. 

This was done with Polychromos on Bristol. I defined the knitting rows with some warm grey over the pinks. Trying to make knitting look 'real' requires a good bit of standing back from the piece, or walking away and coming back and seeing it fresh - at least for me. Its easy to get caught up in the pattern of stitches, and lose site of the whole. Actually, I wasn't going for a super realistic look here, but rather an illustrative realism. 




And I do love my cables, so had to draw one. This one is a simple single cable knit on 8 stitches, with no background (usually there would be some purl stitches flanking either side). I isolated it to make it look almost like an architectural column, and left it a little flatter and graphic.




I would love to do a series of invented knitting pieces. In colored pencil though? Hmmm, not sure. I do love putting in those fuzzy bits all around with pencils - not sure it would be half the fun with paint. Hey, maybe I can do portraits, or still lifes, or house portraits - in knitting! Do you dare me to try? I think that's the kind of thing that could be unbearably tacky in real life (like, actually knitted). OK, not maybe - definitely. But maybe, just maybe, it could be kind of cool as a piece of art. Or not. I could just be tired. The holiday hoopla makes everyone just a tad loopy I think. I went out for a while today, and got in a good bit of people watching as I ate my chicken teriyaki bowl near the entrance to Barnes & Noble. Boy howdy, people are fun to watch. Some of them would look good 'knitted' I think. 

Anyways. Hope you're all having a nice holiday season with warmth and loved ones (two and four legged) and nice food. And something knitted. 

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Mackintosh

A new little colored pencil piece, inspired by the Clan Macktinosh Tartan Plaid.



I used a colorless blender on this, which I don't, usually. I wanted to get a rich color, and leave some texture, but also make it blendy. I had a lot of fun developing the colors, especially where they crossed over each other. 

Its 3.5 inches square. Prismacolors on Stonehenge. I think I'll do more of these. 
Should I put them up for sale? Can't decide.


I've been busy on other things. Just finished up some all digital work, which is not what I usually do! It was fun, but I was itching to get back to my pencils.

My shops have cards and ornaments with some of my Christmasy art, if you're interested ~
The cards on Zazzle are fully customizable, so if you'd like to change the inside greeting, you may.
On CafePress I made some in Spanish as well as English, just in case you need a "Feliz Navidad" card for someone.

Its a busy time of year. Blog posts may be sparser than usual over the next few weeks, but I'll try to check in with something. Hope you're all beginning to enjoy the season!