Scratch Board Art - "A Quiet Respect" Cougar

A Quiet Respect

Hello All,

As I'm sure some of you already know, my daughter has been very ill, she contracted the flesh eating bacteria.  She was in ICU for over a week, had three surgeries, but is now doing better.  She is currently in a rehab hospital that specializes in that kind of wound care and will be there for at least another couple of months, maybe more.  The last couple of months have been very scary for our family.  

While I was visiting her in the hospital all day long I thought I would try to do some scratch board art.  It is something I have always wanted to try.  What is so nice about scratch board is while I was sitting there for hours all I needed was the scratching tool and the scratch board.  

No don't worry..... I am still going to do first love, Colored Pencil, and I am continuing on my book but the scratch board was so therapeutic while I was sitting there for hours.  I did put my book on hold for a few months because of what we were going through but I will be starting back up on it in the next week or two.

This piece is titled "A Quiet Respect" done by scratching away the black ink to expose the white clay board under the ink.  I also did a little bit of colorizing with a few colored inks.  I came up with this title because I couldn't believe how much pain my daughter was going through and how well she is handling this horrible situation, she has needed lots of strength to go through this.

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

City of Brea Art Gallery

I was thrilled to see that the City of Brea Art Gallery chose my artwork, "Animal Totem; Cougar and the Cloud Spirits"  to use in the promotional material for the Colored Pencil Society of America's Exhibition.  Woo Hoo!!

Colored Pencil Society Artists Reception

Dear Friends and Family,

You are invited to attend the 21st Annual Colored Pencil Society of America’s International Juried Exhibition, at the City of Brea Art Gallery.

My artwork is one of the 120 pieces of artwork that was selected to be exhibited in the show.

The Artist’s Reception for this exhibit, will take place on Saturday, August 3rd from 7-9 PM. There will be light refreshments at the reception. I will be there, along with many well know Colored Pencil Artists. You will be amazed at what can be created with colored pencils. Please stop by and say hi!

For information regarding the artist reception you can go to the following links:

www.breagallery.com

www.cpsa.org

Artists For Consevation Art Exhibit

Here's Lookin' at Ya!

Hi All,

I just got notification that my artwork titled, "Here's Lookin' At Ya!" has been accepted in the Artists for Conservation art exhibit.

When judging the art they accepted 197 pieces to be displayed online in the virtual gallery and among those selected for the virtual gallery, 80 were selected for the live exhibit at the Art Festival in Grouse Mountain, North Vancouver, BC.  My piece was one of the 80 selected for the live exhibit, so it will be displayed in the live and the virtual exhibit.  I am so excited and honored!!

Keep Scribbling!!
Gemma

Hey everyone.... I desperately need your help!! As many of you may know, I am in the process of creating a book. The book is on how to draw cats (both wild and domestic) with colored pencils. I have lots and lots of pictures of wild cats but I don't have very many pictures of domestic cats. If you have cats and want them to be drawn by me and in my book, please send me pictures. I need high a resolution photo, 240-300 DPI and minimum of 1800 pixels. If you plan on taking new photos for this occasion be sure to set your digital camera on large images, those should be plenty big enough for me. The photos have to be clear and not blurry. If you have some pictures you would like to share send me a message at this link:  Contact Gemma and I will give you an email address of where they can be sent. I really appreciate any help I can get!!

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

Snow Leopard Eye

Snow Leopard Eye

Hi Everyone!

I'm continuing to write the book, "Complete Colored Pencil Guide to Cats, Wild and Domestic".

I have finished 3 chapters and I'm almost done with the forth.  I have 8 total chapters to do.  I'm not necessarily creating the chapters in order.  I have the Introduction done, Chapter 1 & 2 and Chapter 5 done as well.  I'm now working on Chapter 3 which is, "Features, Eyes, Nose, Ears and Mouths.  

This is one of the eyes, I just finished.  It's the eye of a very young snow leopard.  I had so much fun photographing this leopard, he is a real cutie.  His eyes were a very interesting color so I thought it would be great exercise for the book.

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

Animal Totem; Cougar and the Cloud Spirits

"Animal Totem; Cougar and the Cloud Spirits"

Hi All,

I am very excited to announce that my colored pencil artwork titled, "Animal Totem; Cougar and the Cloud Spirits" has been accepted in the Colored Pencil Society of America's 21st Annual International Exhibition, in Brea, CA.

The exhibition will be at the City of Brea Art Gallery, July 31st thru September 13, 2013.  I'm looking forward to viewing the show while attending the convention, one of my favorite things to do every year.  I entered two pieces, this one and the two bobcat kittens titled, "Double Trouble".  Only one piece can be accepted so I will probably enter the bobcats again next year.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask.  Don't forget to "Keep Scribbling"!
Gemma

My Dog and I at the Dog Show

Hi All,

I thought I would post a video of my dog, Cage, and myself at the dog show yesterday.  He got the second leg of his CD title (Companion Dog).  He was such a good boy and the judge really like him!  Here's the link the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_8vGpkk81Q

Gemma

Bobcat Kittens "Double Trouble" 2

Double Trouble

I did some more tweaking on this piece.  I didn't like the way the side of the faces was working along with some suggestions from my treasured friend and expert artist, Arlene Steinberg.

Anyway...... I made some corrections, let me know if you think it works!

Keep Scribbling!!
Gemma

Bobcat Kittens "Double Trouble"

"Double Trouble"

Hi All,

As I mentioned before I am in the process of creating a book titled, "CP Cats, A Complete Colored Pencil Guide To Wild and Domestic Cats".

I just finished one of the full projects for the book, they are a pair of Bobcat kittens, I had so much fun photographing them that I just had to do a piece from that photo shoot.

It's 100% colored pencil and done on tan suede mat board.  The title of the piece is "Double Trouble", the size is 12" x 10" and I did it from my own photo reference.

Unfortunately I can't give much information on how I created it because that is all in the book.  If you should have any comments or questions, just ask and I will try to answer what I can without giving away too much of what is already in the book.

Keep Scribbling!
Gemma

Mountain Lion - Animal Totem

"Animal Totem; Cougar and the Cloud Spirits"

Hi All,

I did some more work on this piece and I think I like it better.  Also, the scan is a lot truer to the real piece.  I worked on the clouds and faded out the Native American a bit more.

This will be one of my Colored Pencil Society Of America entries.  If you should have any questions or comments let me know.

Keep Scribbling!  Gemma

Mountain Lion - Animal Totem

"Animal Totem"

Hi All,

The Mountain Lion I showed you in my last post was actually part of a larger piece called "Animal Totem".

I'm not so sure I'm happy with this but I guess we as artists often times come across that issue.  This is a piece I have been wanting to do for quite some time so I thought I would hit two birds with one stone.  I needed to create the workshop materials for the wildlife workshop I will be teaching in August of this year ,so I am using the mountain lion part of this for that workshop.  I continued on with it to create my vision I had with the Native American hidden in the clouds.  I have always been fascinated with the animal totems and the spiritual meaning of the animals, in ancient myths and stories, so I thought I would try to portray that feeling in this piece.  I'm not quite sure if I was able to capture that but hopefully this piece will move someone.  In those ancient myths the cougar symbolizes "Coming into Your Own Power".  I personally have always loved the Mountain lion/Cougar, it is one of my favorite animals.

This piece is piece is 100% colored pencil, done on light tan suede mat board and the size is 12" x 16".  If you have any questions or comments just let me know.

Keep Scribbling!
Gemma