Self Portrait with Sunglasses

Well I haven't done any work on the squirrel. I have been in the mood to do a portrait, so I thought I'd go ahead and work on my portrait for the Wetcanvas Self Portrait Project. This took me about 3 hours in front of the TV watching Lifetime Movie Network this afternoon. It's Prismacolor colored pencils on Uart 500.

It was a lot of fun to work on the glasses. That was my reason for choosing this picture for my self portrait, I thought the sunglasses would be a good challenge. They really weren't as hard as I thought they would be. But there are a lot of different colors in there than I thought there would be, so I did have a lot of fun with them.

Now that I've put it up on the computer, I can see some areas where I could do some tweeking. But I'll save that for another time. Now that I've gotten the portrait out of my system, it's time to get back to the squirrel! I'll jump on that tomorrow and maybe post it tomorrow night.

Nicole Caulfield Workshop

I am back from my first workshop. Nicole Caulfield is an awesome artist. I've followed her work since I joined Wetcanvas in December 2004. Since then she's been one of my favorite colored pencil artists.

I went to the workshop with my fiance's sister. We both enjoyed it and plan to look into other workshops that come near our area.

Nicole is really nice (as I already expected from having communicated with her through Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk), and I found her mannerisms in person reminded me a lot of my friend Hope.

I will admit, that I found that everytime Nicole would walk around to look at our work, when she stopped in front of or behind me, I stopped. lol. I was too intimidated to keep working while she was watching me! lol. I did try to force myself to keep going when I noticed myself doing that, though. And usually when I did stop, it opened up an opportunity to get help or advice on what I was having trouble with. So the intimidation did work to my advantage a little bit. lol.

I really liked watching Nicole work, in person. I've always thought that Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk were great resources for artists, and that you really learn a lot from being able to see photos of the work in progress, along with a written description of their technique and what materials they used and stuff. But it just doesn't compare to being able to watch an artist work in person. I liked to watch the other artists work as well. I was seated next to Nilda Rodriguez and I was in awe of how beautiful her work was. I kept stopping to watch her work on hers! lol.

I really didn't think that I would learn much that I didn't already know, because I've been reading Nicole's blog and posts on Wetcanvas and Scribbletalk for 4 or 5 years now...but I actually did.

Here are some pictures from the workshop. You can click on a pictures to enlarge them.

Day #1: Eggs Prismacolor pencils on Uart400 paper

Mine is the first one in the second row. My fiance's sister's is right above mine. Nicole's is the last one in the second row.

Day #2: Portrait with Polychromos on Fischer400 paper

Mine is the fourth one in on the bottom row, and my fiance's sister's is to the right of mine, and Nicole's is the second one in on the bottom row.

Day #3 Red Patent Leather Shoes with a watercolor underpainting, on pastelbord

Mine is the second one in on the bottom, and my fiance's sister's is to the right of mine. Nicole's is the top right hand corner. The watercolor underpainting was done on just the front shoe, and the back shoe was done without. We didn't have time to finish them, though because the last day of the workshop was only a half day. I do want to finish mine, though. Actually, I may start it over because I'm not happy with the way it turned out. lol.

I do look forward to trying some of her techniques on my own work. I can't wait to finish my squirrel so that I can start something new. lol. But I need to go back to that. I didn't get to work on it at all the last 2 weekends. So I better get moving. Next post will be an update on that one. Talk to you all real soon :)

I'm Engaged!!!

My boyfriend of almost 5 years came home tonight and told me I had to go on my blog, and read a comment that someone had left on there. So I went on, and he told me to scroll down the blog award post, and read what some guy wrote. So I did....

no, I'm not going to make you go off to read that.....I'll paste it here:

that guy said...

Jenna...

You are an amazing artist, in every sense of the word. When we met, I thought = damn. this girl is amazing. In so many ways you have shown me that you are everything and more that anyone could hope for. Not to get theological, but an answer to a prayer would not be embellishing.

Two years ago I proclaimed that I would marry you... It's taken some time, but my feelings have only grown stronger. I want nothing more than to spend the rest of my life with you. So, without further adieu... WILL YOU>>>


OPEN THIS BOX OF CHOCOLATES???

I turned to look at him and he was holding a box of Norman Love chocolates. So he got down on his knee and presented it to me, and watched me open it.




So then I started crying and got all mushy and stuff. So my boyfriend proposed to me on Friday the 13th.....and I think, it couldn't have been more romantic! :)

Work in Progress III

Well the portrait of my uncle is coming along. I had to fill in background color to be able to see how I was doing on the shape of his head. I'm not going to leave it like this...I do want to finish the background...but for now, I need to put this one down for a while so that I can look at it with fresh eyes. to see if I'm missing anything. In the meantime, I will get back to work on the squirrel, because the CPSA entry deadline will be here before I know it.

After that, I have a 3 figure portrait of my cousins to work on for my aunt. (The only family member I can think of that doesn't own a drawing of mine yet!) I also signed up for a self portrait project on Wetcanvas, so you can be looking for that soon as well. Oh, and in 2 weeks, I'll be at a Nicole Caulfield workshop for 3 days, so I'll probably post whatever I work on there when I come back. So you have a lot to look forward to in the next month or two. So, I'll be back next with an update on the squirrel.....see you soon :)

I Got a Blog Award!

I'd like to thank Lori Talbert of the Twin Cedars Drawing Board blog for awarding me with this Art Blog Award. Now I am supposed to name 7 things that I love, and then pass the award on to 7 other artists. So....let's see.....

1. I love my family. My family will always come first no matter what.
2. I love my boyfriend. He has put up with a lot, and I really don't think I deserve him.
3. I love my friends. They are few, but they are the best I could have.
4. I love my dog. I don't care what anybody says, she is smart!
5. I love to draw with my colored pencils. The better I get at it, the more I love it.
6. I love to please people. Even if it's something simple, like if they ask me if I have gum, and I do. But if I don't have any gum, then I actually feel a little disappointed because I let them down. Silly?
7. I love my job. Wouldn't trade it for another for double the money. I work with some fun people, I have no stress, my boss is cool....who could ask for a better job?

So that's 7 things you know about me. Next, I have to pass on the award to 7 other artists. I could name several that I'd love to give it to, but some of them don't have blogs, and the one's that do have probably already received this award. I know one that I can give it to...but tomorrow I will take a look through all the blogs and see if I can find 6 more that don't already have it.

So for now, I present this award to Robin Zebley. Robin works in colored pencil as well, and does mostly dog portraits. Robin's blog is the first one that I started following. But I've been following her work on Wetcanvas for a few years now.

Thanks again for the award, Lori. :)

Portrait Work In Progress II

I spent about an hour making adjustments tonight. I moved his right (viewer's left) eye down and slightly to the right. And I did a lot of shading. I'm still not liking the right side, that eye bothers me...but I think it's the shading. I will fix it eventually, just have to keep playing with it. I still have to fix the shape of his head...but I think I will have to put in a background to cover up the parts of the head that I can't erase. Unfortunately, this paper does not seem to be eraser friendly. But it has enough tooth that I can easily layer over my mistakes with more colored pencil...so if I add in a background, I can layer over the weird head shape.

Other than that, just a few minor adjustments, and he's done. So look for maybe one or two more updates on this portrait, and then I must get back to my CPSA entry.

By the way....have you subscribed yet? If you subscribe, you will get a convenient little email everytime I post, and you can even read the post right in the email, or you can click on the title and go straight to that post in the blog. Talk to you later! :)

Portrait Work In Progress

So like I said last weekend, I wanted to give you something new to look at. A break from the squirrel. (And I guess I wanted a break from working on it too. lol). So today, for the last mmmm...about 4 hours, I've been working on this portrait study of my uncle.

There is definitely something off here, but I can't quite put my finger on it...and after working and reworking for the last hour or so, and severely screwing up that eye on the viewers right, I'm tired of looking at it and decided to put it down for the night. I've posted it to WetCanvas and Scribbletalk so that my artist friends can tell me if they see what is wrong, and right after posting it, I saw a few things right off the bat. It is a very strange thing, that you could stare at a drawing and the reference photo side by side for hours and not see where you went wrong, but the second you post them on the computer, and see them on the monitor, tons of things jump right out at you.

This is done on UART 400 Grit, a sample piece which I requested from the company. This is my first time working on the UART, which is much like fine sandpaper. In fact, it basically is, it's sanded pastel paper. But I've used Prismacolor Colored Pencils, on this piece. There is a lot of tooth left over for reworking. But I am worried about how I'm going to fix his head shape, because I've found that I can't erase too well on this paper. So I will give that some thought...and post an update in a few days. :)