Newfoundland Work in Progress 04

Newfoundland Final Drawing

Hi All,

I'm calling this one done!

I continued to use the same palette.  It's 100% Colored Pencil on Tan Suede Mat Board and it's 12" X 12".

I hope my customer likes it!!

Comments and questions are welcome and don't forget to "Keep Scribbling".

Gemma

Newfoundland Work in Progress 03

Newfoundland Commission WIP 03

Hello Everyone,

Well... things have finally settled down, the CPSA (Colored Pencil Society of America) convention is done and was a great success.  As Convention Director I was kept quite busy with preparing for and working at the convention.  It's always a relief when it's done because it can take up quite a bit of my time.

This piece is coming along quite nicely.  I finally got a chance to work on it and have been able to get quite a bit more done on it.  I do plan on working on this portrait over the next couple of days and hope to complete it during it that time, if not, it maybe about a week after that before I can get back to it.  I love how the dog starts appearing on the surface, I really enjoy watching it evolve.  It almost looks like she is poking her face out and right thru the paper, LOL.

I'm still using the same palette of colors mentioned in the last post with the addition of the following colors:  Chestnut, Indigo Blue, Sky Blue Light, some of the French Greys and Blue Slate.

If you should have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to do so. 

Keep Scribbling!!
Gemma

Newfoundland - Work in Progress 02

Newfoundland Commission WIP 02

Hi All,

Here's the first update of my Newfoundland commission.  It's done on tan Suede Mat Board, it's 12" X 12" and 100% Colored Pencil.  This is image is only part of the total piece, I'm only showing the part I have created so far.  The piece is larger than what is shown here.

So far I have used, all of the Prismacolor Cool and Warm greys, Powder Blue, Cloud Blue, Beige Sienna, Black, White, Putty Beige, Deco Blue, Sienna Brown, Terri Cotta, Dark Umber, Mineral Orange, Peach, True Blue, Slate Gray and Derwent Burnt Carmine.

If you should have any questions or comments don't hesitate to ask and don't forget to "Keep Scribbling".
Gemma

Newfoundland - Work In Progress 01

Newfoundland commission reference photo

Newfoundland commission contour drawing

Hi All,

This is going to be a commission work in progress of a female Newfoundland named Echo.  The owners of Echo asked that I come out to their house to take her pictures.  She was getting quite old and they wanted me to take the pictures of her right away.  It's a good thing I did because she recently passed away.  I took several pictures of her and this is the photo I settled on.  I loved how she was looking up at the owner with such loving eyes.  I sure hope I can do her justice in the rendition of this most regal dog.

 This piece will be 12" X 12", 100% Colored Pencil on tan Suede Mat Board.  At this point all I have done is the contour drawing and transferred it to the suede mat.

I use a grid when creating my contour drawing and then I transfer it to the suede board using transfer paper.

As I mentioned in my last post of the elephants I will be jumping back and forth between the elephants and this piece.  I need to get the elephants done also but I'm having a tough time focusing on the boring skin, LOL.

Please keep checking back, as I will post the progress on both pieces I'm working on.  It will be a bit slow for a while, at least until the CPSA convention is over.  After that I hope to be a lot more steady on my progress on both pieces.

If you have any questions or comments, just speak up and don't forget to "Keep Scribbling".
Gemma

Stroke of Genius 4, Best of Drawing Contest

 Hi All,


Well... I guess you might be wondering what happened to me.  As I am sure you can imagine, as the Conventions Director of CPSA, I was extremely busy with the convention planning.  I have to say, CPSA pulled off another great convention but I am glad to get back to my art.


I just got some extremely good news.  I got an email notifying me that one of my pieces of artwork was accepted in the "Strokes of Genius 4, Best of Drawing" contest.  The really great thing about this news is that the winning contestants will have their artwork published in one of the Northlight books called "Stokes of Genius, Best of Drawing".  They had 1650 entries and only accepted 112 artists.  I have no idea which drawing they accepted but I'm supposed hear the details by August 6th.


The two artworks I entered are posted here to the left.  They are "Rest Stop" and "Gulliver".


As of right now, there are 2 Stokes of Genius books publish and one on pre-order.  Stokes of Genius 3 will be published and available in November so I'm thinking the Stokes of Genius 4 (which is the one my artwork will be in) won't be available for at least a year or so.  None the less... this is a very exciting milestone for me as a colored pencil artist.  I am definitely doing the happy dance!


Here is the link for the accepted artists:  http://www.artistsnetwork.com/medium/drawing/strokes-of-genius-4-winners-announced.  I want to congratulate the rest of the Colored Pencil artists who made the cut.  I see several names I recognize and am very proud to be included with those colored pencil artists I admire.


I am back to work on the Ostrich and should have an update very soon.  I am also starting the planning of a Lion I am doing for a commission.  As soon as I finish the Ostrich I will start the Lion and will post that work in progress.


Don't forget..... Keep Scribbling!!!
Cheers,
Gemma

Rottweiler - Work In Progress - 3 - Finished!

Hi All,

Well.... I'm calling this one finished.  I'm going to be delivering this to the person who commissioned me to do, tomorrow.  I'm excited about the timing of getting this finished.  The person I did this for has been at the dog show for the last three days and in just three days she got her Novice Obedience title on her male Rottie.  Not only did she get her title in just three days her scores were really high, they were 195.5, 196.5 and 190 out of 200.  That was so awesome!  She will be at the dog show tomorrow and I think it will be fun to deliver this to her after the last 3 great days she had at the dog show, she's been anxious to have me finish it.

I pretty much used the same pallet throughout the drawing except on the tongue.  There I used most of the pinks that Prismacolor has as well as some blue violet, henna, black grape, cool grey 90%, white and clay rose.

Now  I'm going to get back to my Raccoon I started, so watch for the updates on that piece.

If you should have any questions or comments please let me know.
Keep Scribbling!
Gemma

Rottweiler - Work In Progress - 2

Hi All,


Here's another update to the Abby Portrait.  I'm continuing to use the same pallet as I did in the last post.

Abby seems to be coming along nicely, I'm going to start working on the mouth next.  

As you can see I am continuing to draw in the color on the contour drawing.  I like finishing each little square inch as I go because that way I don't loose the contour drawing.  I also like working this way to keep me from being bored.  Every little square inch that is complete makes feel like I accomplished something even if I only work for a few minutes on the drawing.  Colored pencil can take quite some time to complete, some times up to 150 hours for one drawing.  If I finish one square inch at a time I have at least completed something, LOL.  As far as I'm concerned, there is really no right or wrong way to do it.  I know there are purists who think it's better to work on the drawing as a whole but..... I just don't do it that way and that doesn't mean it's the wrong way to do it.

I know I may seem like I am rambling regarding this issue but I have to say I have had more than a few people try to tell me that drawing in the fashion I do isn't the correct way to do it.  My answer to that controversy is..... as long as the end result is finished and looks correct who cares what I did to get to that finished product.  We all have our own way to "skin the cat" as they say.

If you have any questions by all means speak up......  And most of all Keep Scribbling!!
Gemma

Rottweiler - Work In Progress - 1

Hi All

As I mentioned in the last post, I had to stop working on the Raccoon to do this commission of this Rottweiler named Abby.

Abby is owned by a friend of mine named Judy. She also owns Dutch, Dutch was bred with my female, Harlow and I kept one of the pups. I also did a commission of Dutch, if you're interested in seeing it you can find the post listed under Rottweiler.

The first picture is the reference drawing I'm working from. It was taken by Jack Fields who has given me permission to use his photo.

When creating a piece like this I start by drawing my contour drawing on sketch paper and then transferring it to the mat board. I do not do a detailed drawing, I just simply do a contour drawing. To get the proportion correct I use the grid system to draw the contour drawing. I then use transfer paper to trace the contour drawing onto the mat board. This piece is done with Prismacolor pencils on suede mat board. The nice thing about the mat board is you can leave the mat board as your background. It looks really nice for portraits and also helps speed up the process.

The colored pencils I'm using so far in this piece are 10-90% warm and cool gray, slate grey, deco blue, goldenrod, mineral orange, terra cotta, cloud blue, light peach, sunburst yellow, dark umber, indigo blue, true blue, white, black, chocolate, cream, greyed lavender, pumpkin orange, sky blue light, powder blue, blue violet lake, peach and sienna brown, these are not in any particular order of use. If you have any questions or comments don't hesitate to let me know.

Keep Scribbling!
Gemma

A Golden Retriever Named Reba - WIP Final!!

Hi All,

Ok... well here she is.... all signed and approved and ready to deliver.

Thanks everyone for your kind comments and thanks for following this Work In Progress.

My next drawing will be a wolf, which will also be on suede board and will be my silent auction donation for the Colored Pencil Society of America Convention.

Keep Scribbling!
Gemma

A Golden Retriever Named Reba - WIP 4

Hi All,

I'm going to call this one done.... I haven't sprayed it with a fixative or signed it yet because I want to have my client approve it first.

I really enjoyed drawing this sweet little face, Reba is such a sweet dog, so I hope I was able to capture that look.

As soon as I get an approval I will sign it, spray it and re-post it here on my blog then.

Comments and questions are welcome and thanks for following this Work in Progress.

Don't forget to keep Scribbling!
Gemma

A Golden Retriever Named Reba - WIP 3

Hi All,

Here's another update of Reba. I'm very close to being done.

I'm continuing to use Prismacolor and Derwent Colorsoft pencils. What I do when drawing hair is I lay down the medium color first and then add the lighter and darker hairs on top of that. I continually play with the hair going back and forth with the light, medium and dark hairs until I get it looking the the way I want it. One thing with the Suede Board is the earlier layers are always a bit ugly. When working on Suede board, you need to hang in there with the drawing because it does go through ugly stages.

I tend to always draw a small patch to completion as I go. It's not necessary to draw that way on the suede board, it's just the way I do it. I work that way no matter what support I'm using.

As I have mentioned before, the suede board color is moccasin. If you should decide to try the suede board, be careful not to pick a color darker than moccasin, it would be difficult to cover if it were darker.

If you should have any questions at all, let me know.
Keep Scribbling!!
Gemma

A Golden Retriever Named Reba - WIP 2

Hi All,

Here's another update on Reba. I haven't gotten a lot done this time but I still thought it would be nice to keep you posted on my progress.

I just love the lighting on the reference photo and I'm having fun creating that lighting in the portrait.

I'm still using Prismacolor pencils and Derwents Colorsoft pencils. I have to say..... I just love working on this Suede Mat board. If you haven't tried it you should.

Keep Scribbling!
Gemma

A Golden Retriever Named Reba - WIP

Hi All,

I thought I would share the latest commission piece I've been working on.

This piece is being done on the Suede Mat board, the color of the suede is moccasin. I will be leaving the background as the suede. I'm using Prismacolor Colored Pencils and Derwent Colorsoft Colored Pencils. I really like using the Colorsoft pencils on the Suede mat board and I also really like the nice colors they have to offer. I am still working on the right side of Reba's face as well as the left side of the top of her head. Reba has a lot of red in her coat so I need to be careful to capture that and not be tempted to lean more towards the golden color that most of the goldens are.

The reference photo I'm using is the clients photo. I love how my client captured the lighting on this photo. It's very dramatic with a lot of highlights on the right side of Reba's face. It's a nice photo at a high resolution and very clear. The most important thing to remember is the finished piece is only going to be as good as the photo it's being created from. I don't know how many times I have been given a really bad photo and asked if I can fix it. The big problem with that is it's very difficult to draw what you don't see.

I will continue to post the updates so be sure to check back and remember..... keep scribbling!
Gemma

A Brand New Colored Pencil Kit!!!

Hi All,

Well... this is the reason you haven't heard from me for a while. I was working on my brand new "Ann Kullberg Colored Pencil Kit" and it was a secret until Ann announced it on her E-zine. This Kit will give you step by step instructions on how to create this cute little Yorkie on Suede Mat Board.

The kit includes the Suede board, the step by step instructions, a reference photo to work from, a contour drawing to trace and seven demo pictures of each stage of the drawing. The kit will be released for sale in about two weeks and you can purchase it on Ann's site at http://www.annkullberg.com.

As soon as Ann has the kits available I will be posting them on my site for purchase as well. When I do I will post a link of where it can be purchased.

This cute little guy is my Mother's dog (my brother.... lol) and his name is Chico. He is just as cute as a little bug. He doesn't realize just how small he is, only 4 pounds! He and my Rotties get along great but, as I said, he forgets just how small he is. I had a lot of fun drawing him so I hope you will enjoy drawing him as much as I did.

If any of you should purchase the kit and need help in anyway be sure to send me an email with your questions.

Keep Scribbling,
Gemma

Me and My Dog

Hi All,

I thought you may enjoy what I did today. My other passion is showing my dogs in Obedience. Today I showed my Rotti, Harlow, at a dog show. This is a movie of her and I doing our thing in the ring. Just click on this link to view it: http://www.glassgems.net/HarlowDogShow022110/HarlowDogShow022110 .html

Let me know what you think by commenting.... it may not be drawing but it is another art.
Keep Scribbling,
Gemma