Monday, April 28, 2014

Berry horn and house portrait


More food and houses!

I just can't seem to resist a nice pastry. This is a little Svenhard's Berry Horn. They come individually wrapped in cello, in an assorted mix. Of course I picked the most colorful one to draw (there are also Cheese Horns, Raisin Snails, Cinnamon Rolls, and Breakfast Claws). I'm fascinated by the names of these things. 


Berry Horn     8" x 8" (20.32 x 20.32 cm)
Polychromo colored pencils on Fabriano Artistico Hot Press paper

When I was a kid my parents loved to go to bakeries and coffee shops, to sit at the counter with a donut and cup of coffee and chit-chat with people (this is back in the olden days, pre-internet). So I spent a lot of time with donuts and pastries (and bad, weak coffee shop coffee, which I still abhor). 

One time I ordered "a coconut donut", and the waitress brought a "Coke and a donut". Well, that became a 'thing', and I ordered that every time to see what I'd get, until I wore that joke out.

 

I did this drawing about 2 times larger than life. Prints and the original are in my etsy shop.




I also just finished another house portrait commission. This one is black and white, which I love doing.
Most people do pen and ink for black and white work, but I love using my black pencils. Its a kind of softer look.


I'm using the same technique I always do, but I'm noticing it comes out looking a little different with this new paper (Fabriano Artistico Hot Press) than other work I've done with Stonehenge. Gradations are a little smoother, and less grainy. I'm liking it!

I've updated my etsy shop listings for house portrait commissions, with the new samples, and a slight adjustment in prices. As always, if you have a custom size or shape that I don't have listed, or would like to add people, or do multiple buildings in one portrait, I'm happy to do that for you. Please email me or send me a 'convo' on etsy and we can talk about what you'd like.



Wednesday, April 16, 2014

House portrait, and animal cookies

I'm back to my old drawing self, after a couple of detours.

First up is a newly completed house portrait, of a residence in San Francisco.
I did this one with Polychromo colored pencils on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper. WOW WOW WOW I LOVE THIS PAPER!!!!!!! 


There are so many papers to choose from to work on, and I've heard about this one before, but for whatever reason never ordered any to try. I have a draw full of other papers - lots and lots of pads of Stonehenge (which I still love), other watercolor papers, hot press and cold press, watercolor blocks, different sizes, colors, you name it, as well as a ton of illustration board. 

Well this one wins. Its 'crisper' than Stonehenge, and takes a million layers with no complaining. Its just gorgeous stuff, and I couldn't be happier with it.


Before I did the house above, I did a couple of little circus animal cookies, just for fun. These were Polychromos and Pablos on Stonehenge.

The first one is a camel, and I'm pretty sure the second one is a lion. These cookies fascinate me - they are just the weirdest little things. The cookies themselves are nice, and then they cover them is this sickeningly sweet frosting and the little doohickies (there's a name for those that's escaping me at the moment). These come in white and pink frosting, and they taste the same, but the pink ones make a better picture. 




I actually laid out every cookie in the bag, and organized them by 'animal'. I considered doing a huge drawing of every cookie in the bag, including all the broken bits and stray round thingies. I thought documenting them like that would be a cool 'art piece'. And it would. Then I decided I didn't want to make that my life's work, and just drew these two instead. 



Saturday, April 05, 2014

Leek Faux Mosaic

After that last post where I pretty much had a nervous breakdown over trying to do that digital colored pencil piece, I had to shift gears completely and not only go back to real colored pencils, but had to also not do a children's book piece. So I did food, but again, something completely different.



"Leek" - faux mosaic  8" x 10"
Polychromo colored pencils on Strathmore 500 illustration board


I also went back to illustration board, which is what I learned on in art school. We used it for everything. Although back then it was Crescent 300. I still love illustration board the best for everything - watercolor, gouache, ink, pencils - but you can't see through it on a light box. Which is why I use paper a lot now.



The grout is the same color all the way through, but looks so much darker against the white. 


Here's how it started ~


I had intended to do more 'in progress' scans, but you know how it goes sometimes. Basically, I sketched out the leek, broke it up into little pieces and drew in some grout, then colored in the tiles. Then I came back over the grout again with a grey, then over the whole piece with white to pull it together.

It was pretty fussy, but I was determined to finish it. I was inspired by classic Roman mosaics where they used these little small squares for the whole piece. I'd like to do some more of these, and experiment with different sizes and shapes of 'tiles'.


In between grouting faux tiles, I've been playing nurse to my kitty Saachi, who had the rest of his rotten teeth pulled, and also got shaved bald to get rid of all his badly matted fur. Poor kitty - I've never had a cat with fur like his, its just impossible to comb out. This was pretty dramatic, but it will grow in better, and I am armed with a good assortment of different sized combs to keep him cleaned up this time. Hopefully.

Before ~


After ~



Sigh. He's doing well, and gumming his food now. We have baby food, all kinds of wet food, and are doing dry food with just a bit of water on it to soften it. And lots of TLC of course.