• November 10, 2008 - The Library is finished!
I posted about my library trials a while back, but never got around to showing you what the finished painting looks like!
Once I got the thumbnail I wanted, I set to work on enlarging it to fill an 8"x10" space. The process of drawing it just the way I could see it in my head took some extra time, but it was well worth the effort.
 Here's the real drawing on the real watercolor paper! ::insert feelings of excitement and tension:: Holding my breath!
As I began painting, I realized that I was following the fatal trap I previously walked into. While painting, I had stopped using tasteful brushstrokes, and simply started to color in the lines - again! Whew! What gets into me? Here I must say that it was only by God's grace that I remembered Beatrix Potter. So I grabbed a few of her books and looked with all my eyeballs' strength!
~"Waterlilies" by Beatrix Potter~
I had to hold in my mind how I thought she would have painted. In "chunks" of color and little lively brushstrokes, she adds so much movement. In every piece of her work we see colors that ebb and flow, never sitting still without meaning. So I embraced a new technique that I'd never thought to use before, and jumped back in. Full steam ahead!
~Here I go!~
 One of my favorite things! Bobbles of wet watercolor! Isn't that gorgeous! Ahhhh...
The painting process was even longer than I thought it would be. For a while I really struggled with the woodwork, trying to keep it light and fresh, as opposed to the dark wood I tried earlier. When it came to his clothing, I stalled, not knowing which way to turn - more warm colors? cool colors? stripes? a collar? etc. For some reason I ended up using a nice blue shirt, and weirdish-green pants, which ended up not looking too bad. The books on the shelves helped with that. :)
 Here I am transferring graphite lines (via rice paper) for accurate window panes.
I was so sure I'd mess up and feel I had wasted all my time. So I worked on it for days, feeling this was taking me longer than any other I had done before. This particular painting taught me a lot about myself, as well as watercolor. I know when people say things like that it sounds cheesy, but it's true. Patience, consistency, perseverance....
But as I worked over the last portions, looking over the half-finished details, and touched up a few places with a light outlining, I took a reluctant breath and then let it out. I was done!
And with that, I signed my name.
I am now officially selling 8"x10" prints of "The Library". If you would like a copy, visit my Etsy shop. Each one costs only $15.00 plus shipping. They are easy to frame and make great Christmas gifts! |
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• October 31, 2008 - cultivating a childhood of creativity
I received a comment the other day and thought it would make a great post:
"...I have a 4 year old boy who has shown great interest in drawing and painting. Several people have suggested we pursue his love of art. This may be a question for your mom but I figured I would start at the source. Can you recommend some starting points for us. I am creative but I can't draw. I want to develop this talent but would love suggestions. I will be homeschooling him so I have time to pour into this skill....Thank you. -Amy"
Dear Amy,
It is so encouraging to find families who want to develop the gifts God has given them! The Creator of the universe made us in His image, and through our lives of creativity and honoring Him we glorify Him.
There isn't any one formula that works for everyone, but there are some ideas that my parents implemented in my childhood that really made an impact. Looking back, I am very thankful for their gracious approach to letting us discover and create a lot on our own. Here's a peek into what my childhood looked like:
I spent a short amount of time in a public school (kindergarten and half of first grade) and my teachers' main concerns were that I drew on my assignment papers! They made sure mom knew about this "problem". I even got in trouble once for not drawing braids on my Thanksgiving Indian like everyone else.
Once we were homeschooling we had all the time in the world to be curious, adventurous and creative. Emily and I spent much of our time reading (or looking at) books, playing, and (mostly me) drawing pictures. Our parents knew the value of keeping our young minds busy and learning through creative outlets, so plenty of crafting materials were always on hand. Mom and Dad gave us a few rules:
- 1) Whenever we were watching a movie or Mom was reading to us, we had to keep our hands busy
- 2) Whenever we had free time to play, it had to be "constructive free time", not mindless video games or senseless movies, and...
- 3) We always had to clean up our mess after we were done creating.
By the time I was 9, and Emily 7, Mom had introduced us to basic sewing, embroidery, and crocheting, as well as watercolors and colored pencils. She had us keep each of our supplies in shoe boxes; one for embroidery, one for crochet...(Click here for a great post on art boxes!). When Mom would read aloud to us, or Dad was leading family devotions, we would pull out our little crochet projects or paper and pencils.
Our encouraging parents made sure we had a few art supplies always within reach. It was a good combination of encouragement and creative support. The force that pulled all of these resources together was being inspired. One of my largest sources of inspiration has always come from books.
From the time when we were wee little girls, we have been going to the library. We would come home loaded with books on our favorite animals, crafts, countries we wanted to travel to, fairy tales, art, and especially children's books with illustrations we couldn't resist. The best thing of all, we were encouraged to spend lots of "quiet time" with books.
Being allowed to sit and look at books for hours nurtured my love for reading, learning and art. Through this appreciation I was able to learn a bit more on my own. Once Mom got a DickBlick catalog for me, I discovered a whole new host of art books. I wrote down a handful of titles and authors I wanted to check out at the library or find through interlibrary loan.
In the world of books I can pursue and learn about my interests, whether they be acrylics, wood burning, cake decorating, caring for animals, sewing historical costumes, oil painting or watercolors.
This is where my greatest developments have sprung from; knowing what inspires me, and knowing how to learn. Mom and Dad gave me these resources by wisely teaching, guiding and protecting me wherever we were.
This is where I'd encourage parents: a healthy dose of fresh air, books, crafting materials, "constructive free time", and encouragement, all within a guided and structured schedule.
God bless you on your journey! |
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• October 30, 2008 - Shading - 03 Cross-hatching
So I've shown you how to shade a cylinder, but you may be wondering about other shapes.
When starting your drawing, you first loosely lay down the outlines, the edges. After refining the rough lines, you may think, "What next?" Well, let me show you!
1) I'll use a cube for now. (This is a cube made from my kneaded eraser!) From my lamp I have a strong light source, creating some dramatic shading and shadow:
2) I roughly sketched the outlines:
3) Here I began loosely throwing out some lines:
4) Started to add the darkest parts:
5) Added the texture and more shading by throwing out a mish-mash of hatching (notice the hatching comes in "chunks" or "sets" of lines headed in similar directions):
6) Filled in more shading, via hatching:
7) The shadow starts to appear as well:
8) Finishing up; shading, shadow details:
I have some other pictures here that should give you an idea about how to handle other shapes as well.
 a. good hatching
b. layering your hatching
c. not good hatching - you usually don't want to see where you pencil turned around and made a curve. It just looks sloppy.
d. you can be rough and sketchy! be creative, let loose, and have fun!
 Shading an object with 90º angles can make it look flat and dull (a & b). This can usually be cured by adding diagonal lines.
 Cross-hatching with diagonal lines from the beginning keeps it looking lively.
 And you can follow the contours while shading, adding depth as well as shape!
Remember: You don't have to be perfect!
I hope this helped explain cross-hatching more in-depth.
God bless you as you practice! |
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• October 30, 2008 - even da Vinci used Hatching!
• September 29, 2008 - finally here
It's official! I've finished the painting! This was my second two-page spread illustration for The Girlhood Home Companion. It is a scene of a mom and four daughters working in the kitchen, making pumpkin pies and gingerbread people.
I ended up adding a border all around the outside edge so I could more easily pull in a fall color scheme. This was one of the trickiest paintings I've worked on so far because cabinetry was involved!
 ~here is one of the girls, the littlest of them all~
she really wanted to help make the gingerbread men!
Once it was all done (what a moment of satisfied realization that was!), I took a picture of it and Emily fixed the coloring in LightRoom. The original looks so dull compared to the final edit we settled on. I hope Mrs. Novak likes it!
If you would light to own your own copy of the magazine this will be featured in, just click here to order!
I will get back to posting more lessons soon!
-Breezy |
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• August 15, 2008 - perhaps a blessings in disguise
I'd like to to begin this post by thanking all my faithful readers for their unending support. Even though I don't reply to all of your comments, please know that they are appreciated and I'm glad that you enjoy the lessons.
Many of you have left lovely comments on my drawings - because that is all I let you see. Well, my friends...
Today you're going to see my mistakes!
 For example, here is a fine specimen of a thumbnail I drew. Rough, yet the idea is safe on paper. The composition is simple and quite appealing if I may say so.
It was based on a drawing I made last year. Desiring to maintain the original feel, I kept the straight-on shot, directly facing the bookcases.
Mistake #1 - I didn't experiment. I had an idea, felt comfortable, assumed it would work, and then took off.
Good Idea #1 - I made a color sketch, no bigger than 3"x4". Mapped out where I wanted the colors to go, and got a general feel for the finished look I was going for.
Norman Rockwell made a color sketch for every painting he made, and I highly recommend this step.
When I posted about using water-soluble oils, I spoke too soon. Mistake #2 - I wasn't familiar enough with the medium to justify the expectation of a masterpiece. You can see the color sketch and beginning of the painting here.
 After waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the paint to dry, Mom coaxed me out of my stubbornness and had me begin again. This time in watercolors.
The base of the bookshelves had me worried for a while. I couldn't quite get it to appear in the shadows while maintaining the that old, warm, woody look. Eventually after painting layer over layer, scrubbing and reworking, I ended up with a very muddy, dissatisfying, crusty-looking angular mass dominating the lower portion of my painting.
Mistake #3 - Expecting the combination of cool and warm colors to not look muddy. I also believe the over-use of the ruler and painting within straight ink lines felt very oppressive. It literally felt like coloring in the lines with grainy mud rather than expressing a cozy, imaginative environment.
I felt depressed. I didn't even want to finish the books.
Mom talked with me a while, letting me pour out my troubles and woes. All of a sudden, she stood up and said, "Come on, let's go outside."
As we reached the oak tree, she told me run to the pine trees. I ran to the pine trees. When I returned, she told me to run to the grape vines. I ran to the grape vines. Knowing I needed the fresh air and therapy, I continued to follow orders, running here and there about about the yard.
Refreshed, and out of breath, we went back inside. Emily was working at the computers and needed to ask Mom's opinion on something. I lethargically sat at my drawing table and considered the possibilities of actually winning the battle of defeat.
Reaching for my black Prismacolor pencil, I jabbed at an idea. A happy stick person.
And then this emerged:
A humble thumbnail, no larger than a folded dollar bill. But it gave me hope. I proceeded to develop the new angle, a three-quarter shot of the bookcases. Inspired by Jesse Wilcox Smith's "Reading in Winter," I quickly drew another one, this time adding a younger (and cuter and more interesting) young fellow than before.
At that moment I began to adventurously wonder if this was "the one." I nearly screamed for joy. In fact, I did end up squealing very loudly.
Epiphany and inspiration had collided in one gigantic frenzy, proving that a phoenix can rise from the ashes. I ran back outside and danced around for shear joy. (I've become more emotional about my work lately.)
God is so good! To lead me to a point where I was so worn out, and then to lay in my lap a darling composition I am more than eager to work with could only be the Providential hand of God.
I can't tell you how much I like this painting I'm working on now! It will require lots of focus, but it will be a cheerful one, striving for just the look I'm going for.
-Breezy
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• August 1, 2008 - Painting and Drawing
After a long break from watercolors, I needed to jump back in. Its a fairly small painting, and to my delight it actually turned out kinda cute. I wanted to post some parts of it here on the Drawing Blog to show you that drawing does not need to be complex.
Even very simple drawings can be pleasing to the eye as well as fun to draw. Something doesn't have to look just like a photograph. If everyone drew like a camera, how would we all show our different feelings and personalities? Don't let the "rules" of drawing trap or limit you.
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