gretchen evans parker

I am back!

2011-07-27T14:06:00.002-04:00

It's been a long time and much has happened to keep me away from painting and teaching for the last year. Some has been happy time traveling to see family and a new granddaughter some of it not when both my parents died this past winter.

I have been busy showing my work locally with Art in Public Places Lexington http://www.southcarolinaartists.com/

We just hung a big show in the Lexington County Building on S. Lake Dr. This morning. It is a wonderful show and covers three floors right now. If you get a chance go take a look!

Almost done

2009-08-15T13:26:00.004-04:00

I was able to bring Rachel's hairline down. I lifted a bit of color from the top of her head and blended in some 10% French Gray.

I also narrowed her face and neck by widening the shadow of her hair on the left.

She also got more hair on the right side of her forehead. This looks more like Rachel now!

As you can see I have deepened all the tones on her face. I did it by walking up the skin value scale to level 5 using mostly the pinks along with burnt umber and terra cotta.

These were some pretty major changes from where she was a few days ago. By keeping my strokes light I was easily able to add more color where I needed it. The key to portraits with CP is a light light touch!

Finished at least for now.

2009-08-15T12:39:00.005-04:00

I have deepened all the shadow areas with Henna, Terra Cotta and Dark brown. They were then blended with either Clay rose or rosy beige depending on the value level of the area. .

I widened the background on the right and added more hair to improve the crop.

The last step is to go over her entire face and neck with cream, light peach or beige depending on the value of the area to blend and smooth the skin.

That's it!

Day four.

2009-08-11T22:12:00.002-04:00

I didn't do much today but I did decide to check my work. Using a piece of Mylar film I traced my reference photo. Whew! I should have done it sooner! I have a lot of work to do.

I have laid my Mylar line drawing over my painting. While I have her features pretty accurate. I sure do need to lower her hair line and make her face and neck a bit narrower. I also need to make that area under her chin a bit more narrow. These are easy fixes. Had they needed to have been made wider it would have be a lot harder. I will post my progress here as I get time maybe later this week.

Day Three Step 1

2009-08-10T22:08:00.006-04:00

There are eight steps in this session. You will have to click "older posts" to see them all.

I started the work on Rachel today by getting the mouth closer to the values I saw in my reference photo. I added some 70% French Gray to her teeth and blended that with 10% French Gray and Cream.

I added some more Carmine to her lips and also some Henna. I blended that with Rosy Beige and Clay Rose in the darker areas of her lips. Henna was added to the gum line in darker areas.

90% French Gray went on her back teeth to help deepen and turn her mouth.

Day Three Step 2

2009-08-10T22:06:00.003-04:00

The area under Rachel's chin needed to be darkened a bit.

I have added Yellow Ochre and Terra Cotta under her neck and then blended it with Pink.

Day Three Step 3

2009-08-10T22:02:00.004-04:00

I have added pink to her nostrils and darkened the on on the left with black. It is darker on that side because of the way the light hits her face.

I think her eyes are too blue so I have brightened them turned them more Hazel with Goldenrod over the blue. Because CP is transparent it is easy to change the color a bit by mixing yellow into the blue to make her eyes a bit greener.

I also deepened the blue around the edge of her iris with Indigo Blue

Day Three Step 4

2009-08-10T21:59:00.004-04:00

I have lightly layered Burnt Ochre over the dark areas of Rachel's face.

Day Three Step 5

2009-08-10T21:56:00.003-04:00

The Burnt Ochre has been blended with Peach.

All of these colors have been applied with a #1 pressure.

Day Three Step 6

2009-08-10T21:53:00.003-04:00

I have continued to contour Rachel's face with Pink and Light umber. The light umber will look really dirty if you don't lay down pink or a warm color first. I have used these colors in the areas I want to push back into her head a bit further, around the eyes and in the hollows around her mouth.

Day Three Step 7

2009-08-10T21:50:00.004-04:00

I decided that I wanted to really darken the left side of Rachel's face. I have done it by continuing to walk up the skin value bar using Henna and Dark brown. I even added some dark umber. I blended it with Clay rose and then lightly brushed it to smooth it a bit.

There's one more step after this one. Click on "older posts" below.

Day Three Step 8

2009-08-10T21:26:00.003-04:00

I have blended all of the darkened area and added a bit of pink to the right side of her face. I have also worked some more on the eye on the right to contour it a bit more.

I am far from done with this piece but it's all I can do today. These eight steps represent about 4 hours of work.

I finished up the work today by adding more color to Rachel's lips with Pink and Carmine.

Reference Photo

2009-08-08T20:34:00.002-04:00

Sorry I haven't uploaded the reference photo before this. The file it was in became corrupt some how. I finally was able to clean it up so I could open it.

I hope this gives you a better idea of what I am talking about.

Step one for Sautrday!

2009-08-08T16:57:00.003-04:00

I didn't like the way my photos looked last night of the work I had done yesterday. I scanned my work today and I think you can better see what I am trying to show you.

Here's a scan of where I started today.

If you click on the photos your browser will take you to a larger image so you can better see what I am talking about.

I think I have finally gotten the hang of putting these lessons on line for you. I hope you have and are enjoying them.

The best part is after a day of hard work at the drawing board I can take my computer down to the dock and enjoy a glass of wine with hubby and write these lessons while I relax.

Step Two

2009-08-08T16:42:00.004-04:00

I have worked on the contours of Rachel's face with Goldenrod.

Then I used the same color to start contouring the darker areas of her neck. I didn't use it on the right side of her neck where it's lighter. It's a high light area and I want to keep it very warm and pink.

I have also added some Carmine to her lips.

Rachel step Three

2009-08-08T16:37:00.003-04:00

Concentrating only on her neck I have darkened the shadows of her neck with Burnt Ochre. For now I am going to disregard the area of her neck under her chin.

Step Four

2009-08-08T16:32:00.004-04:00

Using Pink I gave washed over some of the darker contours of Rachel's face and then down into the dark areas of her neck to blend the Burnt Ochre a bit.

I have worked into into her forehead with it and around her eyes, nose and mouth. Her nose is starting to lift away from her face a bit and her eyes are starting to recede into it a bit with these areas darkened.

Not her ear on the right. I had to get rid of that light patch of skin. Using at one one color from each value level I walked that earlobe all the way up to value 6 with Tuscan red and black at the end.

Step Five

2009-08-08T16:25:00.003-04:00

Looking for the darker areas I have lightly washed henna over the dark areas of her neck only. I didn't think the first wash was enough so I did a second one to get it this dark.

I have stopped washing over her face and just am going to concentrate on her neck now for a while.

Step Six

2009-08-08T16:17:00.004-04:00

Boy a lot happened here didn't it???

Using my value finder I realized I was nowhere dark enough in the dark areas of her neck. It's really scary to do this dark! Trust me I never get over that fear!

Grabbing my French Gray and holding my breath I did the deed and really darkened my baby girl's neck down. Stepping back from my drawing board I was pretty disappointed with myself. I didn't like it at all.

Sooo........... I grabbed my trusty blending brush and scrubbed her down. Big mistake. I used too much pressure. I lost a lot of the dark! I couldn't believe it.

I blended it all again with Pink and carried it over into the right side of her neck following the contours I saw in my reference photo. Then I blended it again with light umber.

It made me feel better. The blending brush really helps get rid of the little white flecks that makes skin tones look ashy and dry. I wasn't expecting it to remove as much of the color as it did though. That was a bit of a surprise. Next time I will not scrub so hard and use a lighter touch with the brush.

Rachel step Seven

2009-08-08T16:09:00.004-04:00

All that French Gray was really making me nervous. I HATED her neck. It was looking like she used to when she came in from horseback riding! I wanted to blend those two lighter areas in her neck a bit more and make them look like they belonged as well.

Using light umber I soften those edges of French Gray and darken the lighter areas on the left.

Then I went over her entire neck with a #1 pressure and a very sharp Beige, blending and filling in those tiny little holes that make skin look like it needs a good dose of lotion. It made a huge difference.

Rachel step Eight

2009-08-08T15:59:00.004-04:00

OK I am feeling better about the little area under her chin. I knew the next step was to address that. I like it now. I think that it gives perspective to her face and lifts her face away from her neck.

In this small area under her chin I have walked up the value scale from my first two washes of cream and light peach. I used at least two hues from every value level. A yellow and a pink. Using a #1 pressure I took it all the way up to henna and then a little used just the tiniest wash of 90% French gray.

I still didn't like the way her neck looked so I ever so lightly brushed it pulling color from the dark side over to the lighter side on the right. It softened everything and I really like the way it looks now and it didn't lift too much color. Whew! That's a relief!

I started this work at 11 AM today and ended about 3:30 with a break for lunch and beating my husband twice at backgammon. I've been on a winning streak for the last 3 days and it's killing him :o) His turn will come!

Eyes

2009-08-07T22:29:00.003-04:00

At this point I feel like she needed that other eye in place.

I completed it similarly to what we did in class yesterday.

This sequence represents about 2 hours of work.

I wish these photos were a bit clearer so you could see better what a difference the contouring is making.

After adding each new value layer I dropped back level and blended the new layer with the value color one step lower. It helps to smooth and mix the color as I go. I will do that again as I move up the value scale and again at the end when I have all the color on her face.

I hope to get more time in on this tomorrow. I want to finish her neck first I think. That dark area will guide me in my choice of color for the rest of her face.

Step three

2009-08-07T22:23:00.003-04:00

That dark area on her neck was just screaming at me to come next. I continued to contour her entire face and neck with yellow ocher and blush pink. I used henna to bring out her nostrils.

You can see that I am starting to contour the areas around her nose and up the center of her nose. Again with blush pink.

Through all of this I am using a #1 stroke. Very very light. Around her nose where I have begun contour her cheek folds and dimples I have taken the pressure up to about a #3.

Under her chin I have gone up the value scale to level 4 using goldenrod.

Next step

2009-08-07T22:20:00.003-04:00

After using my value finder I decided I needed to deepen her skin tone so I covered her entire face with deco pink.

I have also started to contour her face a bit with Jasmine.

I used peach to define her nose a bit.

August 2009 CP Class

2009-08-07T22:14:00.003-04:00

This is basically where I left off in class yesterday. I have done a bit to Rachel's hair by darkening it with light umber on the left side. I have added some burnt ocher to both sides.

No I didn't fall off the edge of the earth!!

2009-04-01T15:09:00.004-04:00

But we did spend six weeks away! We drove out to California to spend time with our son and family. The goal was to spoil them so much they wouldn't want us to leave. Mission accomplished Evan asked us why we couldn't stay longer when it was time to head back east!

Before we left I tore my studio apart and started painting it. So that needed to be finished when we got back. Also I wanted my very dark carpet out to get more light in the room. Sooo a visit to Lumber Liquidators and a week later I had a nice new LIGHT floor! Lots of work. The next project was to paint our windows on the outside. After 13 years in this house it is starting to look a little tired and then there's our daughter's wedding in June. We needed the sprucing up!

During rest breaks I was able to do these two paintings of my grand nieces using Ampersand Pastel board as the support.

Noelle admiring her white flower girl dress was done on white pastel board. Perky little Madie is on tan. Both colors worked for different reasons.

It was easy to render Madie's skin tones on the tan. There's a lot of skin in that close up so the tan really worked. A white support made it easier to create the white in Noelle's dress. So I guess what determines the color of the pastel board to be used is what the predominate color of the finished work will be.

Noelle's white dress was a challenge. I wanted to both capture the sheer fabric as well as render a believable white. It turns out white is not white if you really look at it. There's lots of color in it! I didn't want to use grays to contour the fabric. I would have ended up with a dreary looking white. Using my lightest value pencils I layered the complementary colors grayed lavender and cream created believable fabric folds and lively grays. I blended using white and cool grays ranging from 10% to 30%. I am really happy with the result.

Janet's Nova Scotia Tolling Retrievers

2009-01-09T17:05:00.003-05:00

When my email friend Janet sent me this photo I begged her to let me paint it. I started it last November. Life got in the way along with all the bustle of the Season. I finally got it finished last week.

I hope now that it is a new year I will have more time to paint.

This one is a combo of watercolor under painting for the back ground and wood. The dogs are all colored pencil. And the detail of the wood is CP.

No time for CPs in October.

2008-11-04T09:29:00.006-05:00

Whew! I apologize to my September portrait students for not getting this done sooner. October was a busy month and I didn't get time to pick up a single CP! We had two trips and put over 3000 miles on the car. I also had a big woodworking project to get done.

So at long last here it is. Tao's finished portrait. If you scroll down to my Sept. 27 entry you can see where I left off on this. All that was left was rendering the forehead and adjusting the face.

Getting the forehead as dark as needed on the left side is scary. I had to keep using my value finder to check for adequate dark value. In order for the brown to not look muddy I had to bring up the color with Pink and Henna to keep it looking warm and real. You can see this is the progress photo. If you go to the darker hues before bringing up the value and getting the colors fairly bright the darker shades look dull and dry. I took Tao's forehead all the way up the skin value range to the darkest ones including Tuscan Red and Dark Umber. I blended it with Goldenrod and Pink to warm it up again. The only place I didn't bring the value up so high was on his chin where I wanted to indicate his beard and have it look scumbly and beardy ;O).

September Class is over :O(

2008-10-03T11:41:00.003-04:00

We had a great time in class again this time. Many of the students want to continue to learn more about CP so I have decided to hold an Open Studio Day once a month.

It will be in be in Lexington at my home. The first one will be Tuesday November 11 at 10 AM. Charge is $20 for the day. The class will be 3-4 hours. All are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch. Students will work on colored pencil projects of their own choosing. For those having trouble picking a project or beginners please consider one of Ann Kullberg's CP kits: www.annkullberg.com

This open studio day is available to those who have had CP classes in the past as well as those learning about CP for the first time. The class is filling fast. There is room for only about nine people. To reserve a spot drop me an email gretchenparker@earthlink.net

Yorkie lesson

2008-09-30T21:12:00.004-04:00

Here's our project for today. The progress photos are below this reference photo.

We did a water color underpainting in class today to chop away at the sections of hair.

Photo 1: The eyes have been washed with Light Umber and I have placed the pupils. I also impressed little dots to the left of the pupils to indicate the high light. It probably will not show up on these photos.

The nose has been washed in Clay Rose, 20% Cool Grey and Dark Brown. Before I laid in these colors I impressed all those little hairs around the edge of the nose. The nostrils have been burnished black but I saved that little highlight around the bottom edge of the nostril.

Photo 2: The eyes have been colored with 70% Cool Grey then burnished with 10% Cool Grey to indicate the reflected light. The edges of the eyes were darkened with Dark Umber and then deepened more with Black. Before I did that I impressed a line in the white of the paper to save that highlighted eye rim on the right.

The nose has all been covered with 70% Cool Grey then the shadow area was pushed back with Black along the upper left. The front of the nose was blended with Rosey Beige and the nostrils were highlighted around the edges with it as well.

Photo 3: I just had to put the hair in around the eyes. I inscribed tiny lines along the edge of that light area between the eyes. Then I did negative drawing with dark brown around the feathery hairs in that light area to set it off. I filled my left hand with Jasmine, Burnt Ochre, Terra Cotta, Peach, Tuscan Red, Light Umber, Dark Umber and Black and just attacked the area blending the darker colors along the edges of the areas and the lighter colors in the lighter more highlighted areas.

Last I used very sharp French Greys in the area between the eyes and used short directional strokes to put in that fuzzy little area. I left a lot of my under painting showing to indicate the lighter hairs.

Nose Demo

2008-09-27T14:45:00.005-04:00

This face is coming right along nicely. See the photos below.

It's time to start lifting the nose up off the paper. It is done by shading the sides of the nose and paying attention to the highlights along the bridge and around the nostrils.

As I began the nose I noticed his eyes didn't look quite right. I got out my mylar sheet and sure enough the fold above the eye on the right was turned wrong. You can see the correction by comparing the second photo with the third.

Once the eye was right I used Peach to begin pushing up the side of the nose. I felt like I needed to "anchor" the nose so I started the cheek on the shadow side of the face. I slowly built up the cheek color by using at least one color from each skin tone level working up the value scale all the way to level six which includes Dark Umber and Tuscan red. As I worked the cheek I worked the value level of the nose along with it. To develop the cast shadow on the cheek along the edge of the nose I had to go to black because that side of the face is in such deep shadow. I rarely go that dark in a portrait.

I used my mylar sheet to check the shape of the nostrils. Though they are tiny but they must be the right shape to make the nose look right.

It's important to save the little white highlights on the nose tip by working color around them. Those highlights help move the nose tip forward and give depth to the face. The nose tip generally tends to be shaped like a partial ball and should be shaded like the ones all artists practice when first learning to render a sphere. The nose bridge should be thought of as a cylinder and shaded much like those cylinder lessons we all did when we were learning to draw.

You can see in the last photo how the nose curves and turns as the shading is developed. Apply the lessons you learned in rending curved surfaces when you first learned to draw. The important thing to remember is that color does not matter nearly as much as value. If you have the value level right the color choice is secondary. The secret is to work in light color washes if you need to adjust the color you can easily do it.

The Mouth

2008-09-24T14:16:00.003-04:00

Class moved on to the mouth yesterday. A closed mouth smile is of course the easiest to render. If teeth are showing it's best to not draw the teeth but draw the spaces around them. They tend to look less like Chickletts!! Also if you are rendering teeth really look at their color. They are never stark white. You will often see Cream or a mauve or even some blue but never all white. There may be a tiny white highlight where the light catches here and there.

While rendering the lips shown here I discovered Prismacolor's new colors Chestnut 1081 and Mahogany Red 1029 work really well for the colors I need on this dark face. I used them to map out the shapes in the lips.

Next I used Peach to start mapping out the shapes around the lips. Henna was used to continue rendering the lips and adding the shape of the lips.

In the fourth photo I have used Tuscan read and Dark Umber to fully deepen the shadows between the lips and at the corners. Little spots of black have been added to the darkest most deep set areas. The color of the lips was then blended with Rosey Beige and Pink Rose.

To anchor the lips I have completed the shadows around the mouth moving up the value scale to Dark Umber, blending it all with Beige. See the last photo.

As with the eyes, later I will adjust and deepen all these colors as I complete the rest of the portrait.

The Mouth

2008-09-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

Portrait Class Eye Lesson

2008-09-19T19:41:00.009-04:00

Click on the photos to go to larger photos. Use your back button to return to this page

My second class has started and the people who attended my class in July have come back to work on portraits of their own using Prismacolor pencils. To teach this class I am working on a portrait of my future son-in-law, Tao, as a demo. The reference photos are all presented below this text.

Yesterday I started his eyes in class. To keep up with the class I spent four hours this afternoon working on Tao's eyes. I realized after starting on it that the eye on the right was not quite the right shape. So I got my mylar sheet out and traced Tao's eyes as you can see in the second photo. The left arrow points to the tracing. The right arrow indicates the edge of the mylar. Laying the mylar over my work I could see the that right lower lid was a little too narrow and too much white of the eye was showing. The mylar overlay is a great tool for helping to correct this sort of thing.

In the third photo you can see I have started to mold the contours around the eye with Peach. I also reshaped the pupil a bit and deepened the Dark Brown and Pumpkin Orange a bit. Then I blended it with light umber and added black to the edge of the iris. I also drew some delicate lines of black into the iris.

In the fourth photo you can see where I lightened the highlight on the lid with sticky stuff and blended the entire area with Jasmine. I have also added in the eyelashes. I have deepened the shaded areas with Burnt Ochre. It's important to get the areas I am going to make dark brown bright first so when the brown goes on it does not look dirty on the skin. I have added Pink and Terra Cotta to the area that will be the darkest. I have also begun to contour the area below the eye with Blush Pink.

In the fifth photo you can see that I have blended the dark areas with Light Umber. You have to be very careful with Light Umber. If you get enough bright colors under it first it is easier to control as you use it to lightly blend and darken that shadow area. As I worked around the eye I added color in the area where the brow would go. The skin can be seen through areas of the brow. Before I laid in the brow I blended the area with Yellow Ochre and Goldenrod.

Photo number six shows more Pink under the eyebrow and over the deep area of the eye socket. Also it is clearly was time to add the eye brow. Scary because it is so black! I have added Dark Brown to the deep shadow of the eye socket and lid. Putting in darks is hard when the rest of the face is not done. They can look too dark! I can use my little value finder on my photo to determine that I need to take the colors this deep. The rest of the face will blend with this later. I will have to adjust the colors a bit more when I have more of the face done. The areas are still too light.

Number seven, I have pretty much finished both eyes. I put skin tones around both eyes and started the forehead so that I could get all the other colors of the eyes right. The eye on the left will be darkened considerably as I work on the rest of the face. I love the drama of the lighting in the reference photo and I want to reproduce it in this painting. Also the right eye looks a little larger because the face is turned to that direction. When the painting is done this perspective will look right. For now it looks like a mistake.

Next class we will start the mouth.

Sandlapper Grand Gala Celebrating Creativity in SC 2008

2008-09-04T21:32:00.006-04:00

Well today was sure a suprise.

I entered an art competition last spring at a newly reopened gallery in Lexington called the Sandlapper. I met the owner over ten years ago when she had her first gallery in the Old Mill. She and I lost track until I found her again at the Old Mill last spring.

Tonight I won Best of Show at the grand opening of show with this watercolor painting! This was my first Best of Show and a huge shock. There was a ton of great art by many outstanding artists entered. I thought mine would never do anything and I was even a bit embarrassed about having entered it!!

Goes to show you never know what a judge will like. The owner said he chose mine because it best reflected the theme of the show, Carolina Sun Carolina Rain.

This painting will be featured on the website of the hosting gallery the Sandlapper http://www.sandlapperart.com
It will also be on exhibit in the gallery for a couple of months.

This has sure been an amazing year!!

Mom's Tulip is done!

2008-09-01T11:23:00.003-04:00

Mom's Tulip is done and for sale in my Ebay Store. Just click the photo.

The last petal was a bit of a challenge getting the veins just right. I used a lot of neon colors in it and then finished the final detail with Verithin pencils.

I used a colorless blender to soften the edges of the veins on the tips of the last petal.

In the end I didn't feel like the background was dark enough so I lightly went over it with indigo blue and then brushed it to smooth out the grainy appearance.

Good News!!

2008-08-29T11:10:00.002-04:00

The folks at Wingard's Nursery have asked to use my landscape in their advertising to be placed in two local magazines. Between the publications one or both end up in virtually every house in the Lexington/Richland County area! Of course I said YES!

Mom's Tulip Progress

2008-08-28T17:12:00.004-04:00

I am getting to the fun part, the petals with the detail and I am frustrated! I can't get those delicate little veins near the petal tips looking as lacy as I would like! grrr!

I guess I will have to play with it some more tomorrow.

I also think I may darken the blue/green background more as well. I think it is distracting right now. I will wait until this is done before I make that decision though.

I am using a lot of neon red, pink and orange and I really like the way it pops! Who knew I would EVER use those colors! I just told my class last month not to buy them! Now I think if you plan on doing florals you just may want them!

Stay tuned for the next installment of this project sometime this weekend!

New Floral on White Ampersand Pastel board

2008-08-25T20:53:00.004-04:00

Being the glutton for punishment that I am I had to try another floral layout. AND because my family is loaded with gardeners and thus great floral photo ops I have tons of flowers to paint. This one is my Mom's tulip.

The top photo is my reference. I altered it in in Photoshop Elements by making a more pleasing background. Elements is a great way to find out what colors would work with my flower. I also deepened the red of the petal in the rear so the pink and yellow petal in the foreground would pop.

In the second photo you can see my background which I basically just scribbled in with WC pencils and then wet with clear water. I really liked the effect I achieved with these pencils. The secret of doing a background this way is to wet the lightest areas first and then the dark and let the darks bleed into the light. While it is still wet you can drag the darks into the lights and let them bleed a bit too. This gives some lovely soft edges and a feathery look to the background.

Once again I wanted a watercolor wash on the flower so I would not have so much white to cover up in the flower itself. What you can't see is that I outlined the red area with red CP before I wet the background WC pencil. I did it to keep the dark colors from running into those lighter areas. When the background was dry I added in the red. I followed the same steps in the pink area.

The CP worked fairly well as a resist to keep the water where I wanted it except where I got a little sloppy. I have to learn to let watercolor dry before painting a different color next to it. CP has me spoiled. No waiting for it to dry and it doesn't bleed into other areas if I goof.

You can see the CP I have laid down in the red areas. I used a lot of black cherry to create the shadows. It does not show well here. I am finding I really like to put in a layer of CP then smooth it with a brush into all the nooks and crannies of the Amapersand. By doing this the next layers of color go on smoother and blend better as the rest of layers are all laid down.

In the last photo the dark red area is done. I committed a big no no according to some CP artists and used neon red and pink in those areas where I want the light to appear to be shining through the petals. I really like the way it looks. The color really pops!

I laid the photo reference out yesterday afternoon but I didn't lay out the painting until late this morning. I had errands to run and really only spent about 3 hours working on this painting today. Very quick work for CP!

Yellow Rose Challenge

2008-08-22T20:12:00.006-04:00

decided to challenge myself yesterday and see if I could do a painting in a day. This is on an 8" x 10"piece of white Ampersand pastel board.

The first photo is the watercolor under-painting. Because Ampersand is really grainy I figured the white would be sort of hard to cover with colored pencil and I wanted to get the white covered quickly without having to worry about having a lot of little white flecks showing through the colored pencil.

I laid down the watercolor in the morning and then took a couple hours to run errands while it dried. I started adding the CP around 2 PM. My husband was not home for dinner and it's good he was not. After a quick lunch break I worked pretty steady on it. When I looked at the clock again it was 7 PM and it was completed! That's an amazingly quick turn around for a CP painting!

I have to admit I did play a little bit with it today to tweak the darks and the veins in the outer petals but 99% of the work was done yesterday afternoon.

What I learned from this painting is when working on Ampersand you don't need as many color layers to get a good color mix and build up. I also like the way the pencil blends with a cut off bristle brush. It gives a smooth finish to the pencil. Also if you try to mix darker colors with a pencil that is too light you end up with a chalky look to the color. It’s best to blend with a darker value pencil of a similar hue.

Wingard's Azaleas Colored Pencil on Stonehenge 8.5" x 27"

2008-08-12T17:32:00.005-04:00

What a fun painting this has been! All those tiny flowers and leaves really appealed to my compulsive side. I am about done but may adjust a few tiny things, like those white spots in the trees where you can see the sky, they are distracting and look like flowers.

I added shadows in the parking lot that were not in my reference. But as my artist daughter says painters can do a painting any how they want! I had to take a couple shadow hunting trips to get the idea in my mind of how to render them. One thing I noticed is in summer when the light has warmer light cast shadows are more blue and the light they surround is warmer. So I laid my shadows on the parking lot in with cool grays and then blended them with blue violet. Then I went over the lights in the shadows with light peach. When there was enough color laid down I blended them again with a heavy hand using both the blue violet and the light peach. This softened the edges and made it all look more shadowy.

The Wingards are going to have an open house and arts event on October 10. I wish I could be there but I will be out of town. I had thought I would have this painting there but the State Fair will be on going then and I have entered this in the Fine Art Competition at the fair. Shucks!!! A giclee will just have to do!

Not enough hours in the day to paint!!!

2008-08-06T20:10:00.004-04:00

Whew! Busy weekend and week and not much time to paint. I rotated out a show I had up at Continental American Insurance. I don't really know what happened to the rest of the time. I finally was able to get back to Wingard's today. I hate it when I can't work on a painting a little bit every day. I feel like I lose touch with the work and it feels like I am starting over when I don't paint daily.

The way I paint sort of helps when this happens. I tend to think of each area as a little painting unto itself. I started doing this when I was taking in one of Ann Kullberg's (www.annkullberg.com) portrait classes. She pointed out that each part of a face has different colors in it so using the exact same colors on one side of the forehead would not necessarily be the ones used on the other side. This happens because the light is different in every area of the face (or anything else for that matter) and it's ok to work on one area at a time. I know this is sort of contrary to the way painting is taught formally but I have never been one to do things the way educators do it.

Everything seems to work and fit together in the end painting this way. With little extra adjustment when the work is done it seems to work just fine working on one area at a time. I actually find it pretty easy to lose my way in a painting when I try to work all over it instead of just working in one area. This may be unique to the CP medium.

I am getting really excited about Wingard's. I think it's going to be a fun landscape. I have already entered it in the SC State Fair. I have never entered a painting in a competition before it was actually done. This means I have got to stick with it and get'er done because I still need to mat and frame it as well!!! Entering an unfinished painting is probably not one of my brighter moves!

Progress slowing now

2008-07-30T19:32:00.003-04:00

Now that the trees in the background are done I am getting to the fun part. The fine detail. I have not had time to work on this as much as I would like but this stage will go slower now too. As you can see in the close up the detail is starting to appear. I love this stage. The painting is starting to look like the place I am trying to represent.

Friday progress on Wingard's Nursery

2008-07-26T11:19:00.009-04:00

Ahhhhh the background trees are about done! Standing back from my drawing board I really like what I see but I will still adjust them as I work on the rest of this.

As you can see I have put in the first wash of color on the roof, finished the chimney and made a start on the lattice of the gazebo and the arbor on the right. To finish the chimney I only put in a few bricks using a template. The viewer's eye will finish what I have left out.

Landscape progress today

2008-07-24T20:56:00.006-04:00

Faced with all that green in the background I decided to crop 2 inches off the top of this layout. It will make for a more intimate landscape as well.

Every time I do trees in the background I learn more. To speed things up I did blocks of color and then chopped leaf like shapes in a few areas by drawing in the negative space around the leaves with Indigo. To make the darker more distant areas look further back I went over all the dark areas with Cerruliean blue. Adding light areas in the background under the overhanging trees adds a feeling of depth and distance. I Did that with white pencil in little leaf shapes to show the little bits of light that makes it to a few leaves under the overhanging trees.

Leaving little openings through the trees so you can see the sky makes the trees look more realistic. I am going to add more later with white acrylic paint. If you study trees they are really lacy and you can see a lot of sky through them. These trees are a bit more dense in reality and you can't see a lot of sky through them.

By using different strokes for deciduous trees and pines helps move the work along. I only added a few areas of truly leafy looking work the rest is just clumps of color. This will let the eye of the viewer finish the area for me without drawing in all those leaves!

I laid down some yellow ochre where I wanted pine and then inscribed incised lines with my ball tip tool to indicate needles on the tree. Going over that with olive green and indigo makes them look piney. Adding a bit more yellow ochre at the tips delineates the clumps of needles a bit more.

This is an amazing amount of progress in one afternoon. I am happy with it. I hope to finish that background tomorrow.

New landscape

2008-07-23T21:27:00.005-04:00

I have had a landscape rolling around in my head for about a year now. It is Wingard's Azaleas on the corner of N. Lake Dr. and Pilgrim Church Rd. in Lexington. I finally got around to getting my photo shoot done this week. This photo is actually 4 photos stitched together in Photoshop Elements.

I started the layout (11" x29") yesterday and began the watercolor under painting today. Right now it looks pretty scary! I hate this stage!

Stay tuned I will update this as it progresses.

My class Yorkie is done!

2008-07-23T21:16:00.003-04:00

I finished my yorkie from last week's class. I love this little dog. The finished size of this one is 6.5 x 10" I think I will sell it in my EBay store. I am running out of wall space at home!!! ;O)

Good news I was able to get the church reserved to hold another CP class in September. This will be the last one I can do before next spring. My schedule is filling up!!! If you are intersted in joining us drop me an email. gretchenparker@earthlink.net

I have also taken my Ampersand Rose to the Art Spot Gallery in the Old Mill. I have several other pieces there too. If you are local go take a look. It's a fun place to see works by many area artists.

Last CP class tonight

2008-07-17T21:28:00.012-04:00

Tonight was the last class in this session. It's been a lot of fun. So much in fact we plan to do another one in September for three weeks. Let me know if you are interested.

Here are the photos of the progress members made tonight. Sadly some of our students got sick and missed the last few classes. Also I just realized I didn't get around to the stars of our class with my camera. Sorry Monica and Tyler. Your work shows promise! I sure am glad we didn't have to send either of you to the naughty chair! :O)

CP class last night

2008-07-17T10:48:00.009-04:00

We added a watercolor under painting to our project last night. Not being much of a watercolor artist myself I think many of the students could have taught me a thing or two. Here is what we accomplished last night. Tonight I hope to add a lot more pencil. I can't believe this class is going to end tonight. It's been a lot of fun and I think everyone has enjoyed it!

My First Local CP Class in Lexington

2008-07-16T13:43:00.001-04:00

Thanks to Paula Grookett's urging I have been teaching a local CP class at Pilgrim Church here in town. Paula took a class with me on Ann Kullberg's (www.annkullberg.com) CP Caribbean Cruise last spring. If you ever have a chance to take a CP cruise with Ann I highly recommend it! Ann is a blast and such a wonderful artist. She has some super artists teach with her. Nicole Caulfield (http://www.nicolecaulfield.com) taught with me on the one last spring. Ann has two more planned. If you are interested take a look at Ann's site.

I have spent this week trying to get a website up. I was able to get my own domain name: www.gretchenevansparker.com Too bad I don't have anything on it yet. I know a little bit about using Dreamweaver from my Ebay days but I have never tried to put up a website without using a template from the server. It's been an exercise in frustration so far and my resident computer geek, daughter, is on her way to Europe today. Stay tuned........

July 12, 2008 My First Blog Entry

2008-07-12T17:26:00.000-04:00

I decided I need a blog to share what I have been working on and to keep a record for myself too.

This past week has been eventful. I gave my first colored pencil class locally. There were 15 students for three evenings. It's been a lot of fun for me to watch them all progress. I will be giving three more classes next week and hope to get a photo of the class that I can share.

While cruising the Caribbean and teaching with Ann Kullberg and Nicole Caulfield in May, Nicole introduced me to Ampersand pastel board. When we got back home I ordered three 8" x 10"pieces in gray, green and sand to play with.

This was my first try on green Ampersand board. It is done from a shot taken in my husband's rose garden one morning after the sprinklers had run. The dark background is watercolor enhanced with colored pencil. Ampersand takes watercolor well!

Then after my California family went home last week I did this one of our granddaughter. I used the gray board.

I didn't like the skin tones so I did it again on the sand colored one and I love it! The skin tones are so much warmer.

I hope my California children will. I am going to give it to them.

I love working on Ampersand. The work goes so fast. These paintings would have taken me literally weeks on Stonehenge paper. While the rose took me about a week, I finished the first portrait in three days while cleaning up the house from our children's visit as well as throwing a dinner party. The second one was completed in less than 8 hours! Amazing for CP!