Debbi Friedman's Blog » colored pencil

Birding and art in Ireland

Debbi — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:59:45 +0000

My husband and I recently went on a nine day trip through parts of Ireland, and one of the absolute highlights was staying at the Dromoland Castle in Newmarket-on-Fergus and participating in a private falconry walk. David Atkinson runs the Dromoland School of Falconry, and has an amazing array of birds of prey available for walks, educational talks and more. More can be learned about it at: Dromoland School of Falconry. These photos show the castle, David walking through the grounds with Bruce, and Bruce the Harris Hawk standing on my gloved hand. It was such a thrill to have Bruce alight on the glove. David would make sure to put a chicken leg on the glove (or some other poultry body part) and Bruce would eat the tidbit the moment he landed. He was so quick I never got to see him actually eat it. We also got to see several Peregrine Falcons, a Great Gray Owl, a Barn Owl and a Long Eared Owl.

We spent the last three days of our trip in Dublin, which is a wonderful city and easy to walk around. One afternoon we came across this store, Read’s, and since they have colored pencils prominently displayed in their street window, we decided to take a look inside. Wasn’t it a thrill to find the Derwent Graphite Soft tin with my drawing on it sitting the shelves. Please indulge me, it’s quite a hoot to see a little bit of one’s artwork in a foreign country!

Green Vase drawing is complete!

Debbi — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:48:33 +0000

I am very excited to have this drawing at it’s completion! It’s actually been finished since the end of last week, but as usual, I have spent a little time tweaking it here and there to tidy up some edges and colors, etc. I particularly love the area where the rocks and water line meet and all of the complexities of those interactions. Now it’s on to trying to come up with a name for this piece. That’s one of my more challenging tasks. I usually end up using somewhat mundane sounding titles, basically they help me to know which piece it is, but I find it difficult to convey much more than that in a title. Any comments or suggestions from other artists out there?

I’m moving on quickly to a new piece, and will write more about that when it’s underway. Meanwhile, it’s been a busy spring with several shows going on in the New England area. Lapis Light was just accepted into the Connecticut Academy of Fine Art’s 99th Annual Juried Show, which is up at the Mystic Arts Center (Mystic, CT) from May 28th to July 17th. More information can be found at either of these websites: Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts or Mystic Arts Center.

One of my favorite little drawings, Nocturne at Sea, is currently hanging in the Academic Artists Association’s Annual Member’s Exhibition, and was awarded the “Art Patron’s Award”.

Happy upcoming summer to all, and thanks for checking out my blog!

Vase with Stones in Green – Stage 2

Debbi — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:26:31 +0000

With the the glass vase complete it’s on to the really fun stuff! But as I write that I should note that the vase isn’t really finished. Already since I’ve taken this photograph I’ve deepened some areas where it interfaces with the rocks. But the fun stuff it watching it all pull together and come alive as each stone is drawn. I start with the darkest stones and move on to the lightest; and in this drawing, the darkest stones are the three on the bottom. I like the way the glass and reflections have developed, but it won’t really pull together until it’s all in place, and one can see why certain reflections are where they are.

New Drawing Installment and News

Debbi — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:22:45 +0000

I’ve been working on this new drawing for about four weeks and the background and top of the glass vase are almost done. It’s a large drawing (about 20 x 15 inches) on Bristol Board, and it’s interesting to switch back to a flat paper surface after working on the textured Rtistx for a couple of pieces. I have to be very careful to leave the whiter/lighter areas intact, as there’s no going back once they go too dark. On the sanded surface, you can keep changing the color, adding whites or light tones on top of darks, nothing is a problem. But on paper that type of option is lost very quickly. I started the background by layering two to four different shades of Caran D’ache Aquarelle pencil colors and then blending the colors with a wet brush. Then I started in with Prismacolor pencils, first using Limepeel, then Grass Green, Olive Green, Peacock Green, Black Cherry and some Dark Umber. Certain lighter places have some Yellow Ochre in them, and most places (except the darkest darks) are burnished with a pale light blue. I know it’s not the most simplistic approach, but I love the color transparencies that one can achieve by layering this way.

My drawing “Amber Bowl” is currently in the Academic Artist Association’s 60th Annual National Exhibition in Springfield, MA, and was awarded the Windsor-Newton Award. The big red letter day fast approaching for all of us colored pencil artists is the announcement of the jurying results for this year’s CPSA International Exhibition, which will be made public on April 26th.

Latest Drawing is complete

Debbi — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:56:59 +0000

I’m very excited to share this new drawing in my Stones series. Will you look at those colors! It’s so stunning when the pale, discreet colors of the rocks become submerged in water. This still life has a straight above, bird’s eye view, and the bowl is cropped; in comparison to the Amber Bowl, which is viewed slightly at an angle, and the bowl is entirely contained in the composition. As a result, in this piece the water is less prominent, but different and interesting aspects are created. I had so much fun exploring the different ways light and reflection danced around the piece.

I’m starting a graphite drawing of stones reflecting in a mirror, and planning to resume work on the last oil painting I posted a while back. It’s been sitting on the back burner (in this case, my studio easel) for too long!

Amber Bowl wins First Place in the Artists Magazine’s On-line Media Competition

Debbi — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:36:17 +0000

My colored pencil drawing “Amber Bowl” was awarded First Place in the Graphite, charcoal and colored pencil category of the Artists Magazine’s On-Line All Media competition. I am so honored to receive this recognition for my work, especially as there are so many fine entries for them to judge from. I spoke with Chris McHugh, the Managing Editor of The Artists Magazine, who told me that there were over 1,800 entries this year. You can see all of the first place winners and honorable mention award winners at The Artists Magazine.

In spite of my lack of blog entries lately I have been working hard. I’m planning to post a photograph of my latest drawing, last written about on February 11th, by next Monday. So please check back soon!

Azure Bowl – work in progress, stage two

Debbi — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:05:30 +0000

Here is an installment after two weeks of work. I approached the beginning of this drawing in the same fashion as the still-life that I featured in my blog post of October 15, 2009. I worked in the background first, and then started in on the bowl from the outside in. This will leave the rocks and water for last. I’m having a lot of fun working on this, but there is a challenge in the colors, as I’m slightly tweaking the color to a more “blueish” shade than a more “purple-ish” shade. There are no blacks in the drawing, so the darks are made by layering blues, purples and browns. I am so excited to move on to the reflections that continue on the glass down into the water.

Starting a new drawing on Rtistx board

Debbi — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:27:02 +0000

When I start a new drawing on paper, I jump right in and start laying out the drawing directly on the drawing surface. Not so with a sanded surface, such as the Rtistx board I’m using for my new drawing of stones in a bowl of water. The sanded surface is nearly impossible to erase lines from, so I follow a system that seems to work well for me, and I think many artists must do very much the same. (I would be most interested to hear what others do when laying out a drawing on Ampersand Pastel board, Rtistx, or a sanded paper – so feel free to share!)

My first step is to create a basic line drawing – not too detailed, but everything in it’s place, on drawing paper at actual size, as below.

Then I make a copy of this drawing onto a piece of tracing paper, as follows.

Next I take the tracing paper drawing and layer it on top of the Rtistx board, with a piece of transfer paper in between, to offset the drawing onto the board.

Below is the finished product, a transferred line drawing of my future drawing on the piece of Rtistx board.

I’ve been working on this piece for a week and making good progress, so my next post will include a recent photo of the drawing. To close I wanted to share something that I discovered for the first time, which I know many other colored pencil artists have experienced. . . . inconsistent product color. As you can see in the photo below, both pencils are Prismacolor Grayed Lavender, but the lead color is quite different. Fortunately I had several pencils of each, varying shade and was able to continue without difficulty. But it was a head’s up for me to always check the consistency of color when changing pencils.

Stones in Vase with Water/Drawing

Debbi — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:49:51 +0000

Okay, it’s not very often that I will unabashedly state that I love one of my drawings. I love this drawing! I was so skeptical when I started it that it was going to amount to anything. If you look at the last post, you can see that the prelimary background work is nebulous. There is still some detail to be added to a couple of rocks, but the combination of the paper color, background work, rock tones, and glass reflections have combined, in my opinion, to make one of my more interesting rock drawings.

I welcome any comments or critiques! I’m on to a new oil painting – a small 8″ x 10″ panel of a rock still life. I want to make it have a very “jewel-like” appearance. I want to do two more oils and then assess where I am with this series.

Debbi — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:48:48 +0000

I’ve started a new drawing and I find it interesting to note how different my approach is to this one compared to a similar one I recently completed. Both are of stones in glass vases, but in the first one I drew the rock and glass first and the background last. With this newest drawing I executed the background first, then moved on to the glass vase, and saved the rocks and vase interior for last. This drawing also contains a water element; the rocks are resting in water in the vase. In the first drawing there isn’t any water. I’ve posted the comparable stage post below.

The new drawing is almost complete, and I’ll be posting a photograph of it soon! Listening to books on tape/CD is really helping my output, especially when the genre is mystery/thriller. I can’t stop working and can’t wait to get back to work . . . .