parrot workshop piece

This post was meant to be the first stage of Ruby, my sister's cat, but after spending about six hours working and getting increasingly frustrated I have decided to scrap it and begin again on a different support.

Giving myself a break before restarting I have finished off the little parrot from my last workshop.

He is in Derwent Coloursoft pencils, 6.5" x 9" on cream mountboard.

Parrot workshop

Today was my second workshop with artist Karen Coulson. Our small class worked on this parrot with lots of helpful instruction from Karen. This is as far as I got in the two hours, I do work slowly and rushed this a bit in places to try and keep up. I will try and finish this over the next couple of days. Then I must get some photos taken of my sister's cat, get some prints done and begin work.

This is in Derwent Coloursoft pencils on mountboard.

Tiger's eye workshop

I've deepened the colours with several more layers. I'm beginning to find it easier to see where I've gone wrong - here the tiger's eye is slightly too small and not quite the right shape. Overall though, for a quick piece I'm happy with it.

My optivisor has arrived so I'm hoping that I will find my next piece easier to work on.

I've also booked a place on Karen Coulson's next workshop, which will be a parrot.

tiger's eye workshop

Yesterday I attended a two hour workshop at a local library, our tutor was Karen Coulson a successful local artist. The piece the group worked on was this tiger's eye, taken from an amazing original drawing by Karen.

Only having two hours meant it was hard work but I'm pleased with what I achieved in the time. I shall continue with this piece to get more depth. It's small - approx 5" x 3" and is in Derwent Coloursoft pencils on mountboard.

I still haven't decided what larger piece to do next. I shall get some photo refs printed at large size and then see which one attracts me most.

Finished, I think!

I have done quite a lot more work and I think I've finished. I say think because I know what I'm like and over the next few days I may well make some changes/additions. There's a lot wrong with it but for my first attempt after a year I'm reasonably happy. A sense of satisfaction to complete it.

First layer of fur

I'm plodding on with the tabby cat, still finding the pastelmat an unfamiliar support to work on. I don't actually dislike it but it is very different, particularly as I was getting used to working on drafting film which is so smooth and the pastelmat is like a sanded surface. I have to remember to keep sharpening my pencils! The light has been bad for working, so wet out it makes indoors very gloomy.

Although I'm not happy with this piece it will be worth finishing it. I'm really hoping it will get me back on track. I'll never be able to work for hours at a time again as I find my eyes get sore and start watering after a fairly short time. But short spurts will be better than nothing.

he now has a nose

A quick post just to show that I haven't given up! I did a little more on the eyes and started his nose - I'm sure when I look at it tomorrow I will decide it need more work.

beginnings

I'm finding the pastelmat very different to any other support that I've tried. This piece will be trial and error - I may even try the tutorial again once I'm used to the surface and know a bit more what I'm doing. So far, the eyes are far from being right - more work needed. I have to find out if there is a way to erase / lift colour from the pastelmat. I'm finding it quite hard to make the colours look blended, again something I have to find out about. Even if it turns out to be rubbish, I will try to finish this!

Drakkar - finis!

A couple more hours today did it and I'm happy (well reasonably) with the final result. After erasing yet again I remembered the first exercise in my drawing book (yes, the one I'm meant to be working through) and turned both the reference photo and my drawing upside down, vbg. Ok, it isn't perfect but is better than I expected yesterday when I was almost ready to give up. Amazingly it helped quite a bit, at least I think so! Feedback is appreciated as always. It will probably be after Christmas before I get started on my next piece - if I can stay away from drawing that long - after so long not doing anything I'm now wanting to draw all the time! I'm just about to order some pastel pencils so it is just possible that I will be brave and post my first attempt, then again, maybe not. Here is Drakkar, as good as I can get him. Edit, after some feedback in my UKCPS group I have darkened the shadowy area under his chin, I think it is an improvement.

A difficult kitten!

Today I erased, redid, erased, redid again - and I've still not got it right! I am really struggling to get the fur just above his nose correct. I'm almost tempted to leave it as it is but I think I will try just once more, then if it is still wrong it will just have to be one to put down to experience.

Here we are again

I sneaked in an hour or so this afternoon when I really should have been writing Xmas cards. It was such a dull afternoon that I drew under artificial light - never a good idea. I'm not happy with how this drawing is going, I have a feeling that when I look at it again tomorrow a large part of today's work will be erased and redone. Posting it always helps, I can be more objective when I see the picture on screen. I ask myself what would I think if it was someone elses work? Now I can already see there is a lot wrong but I will leave it for tonight - but expect changes tomorrow!

birman kitten update

A lot more work on my kitten today - his name is Drakkar and I must thank Alice again for letting me use her beautiful photo as a reference. Hopefully it will look like him when finished though as I've said before, I am a long way from being able to achieve photo realism! I have spent a long time on his eyes today and I think they are a vast improvement on yesterday's wip post. I worked on the reverse of the film as well as the front and have smoothed out the colour and deepened it, using both Prismacolors and Derwent Coloursoft pencils and lots of blending with a Lyra Splenda Blender. The initial colour that I used for the fur around his eyes didn't look right so that all had to be erased and redone - with Derwent Studio, Artist & Drawing pencils - so to date he is a real mixture of different pencils. His dear little nose was also done by working on the front and back of the film, it's one way of getting around the lack of layering that I can do on film, though hard to work out what colours to use where! I can see that the scan hasn't picked up the pale fur around his eyes very well but it is there! Maybe when there is a little contrast with adjoining fur it will show up more. Today's work has taken about three hours. Here he is - I think he's coming on quite well, hope you think so too!