Debbi Friedman’s Blog

Here is a post of my newest drawing, another “Balancing Act”. . . in stages.  I started out, as I mentioned in my last post, working with only Faber-Castell Polychromos on Canson Mi-Tientes peach-toned paper.  I have notated under the images which colors were used in that particular photo/stage (reading left to right, top to bottom).  I know there’s a big jump from the stages to the finished drawing, but after a while it’s just too tedious to continue working in this fashion.  Perhaps the stones are calling, and I want to start to do the more creative blending and drawing?   I’ve now started work on a smallish  drawing of some gorgeous, aqua-colored stones from Hawaii that someone gave to me.  I’m using a different approach for this drawing, working on white Bristol Board paper with Caran D’Ache Aquarelles and then dry layers of Prismacolors.

Tomorrow I’m off to Dallas to join other artists at the 19th Annual CPSA convention and exhibition.  My piece, Counterpoint in Green, was juried into the show, and I’m also excited to be receiving my CPSA Signature Status this year.  This is awarded to artists who have been juried into three shows within ten years.  I’ll post some photos from the convention when I get back.  Meanwhile it’s time to finish packing the coolest clothes I can find!

Here is my first oil painting in two or more years!  That was a long time to be away from painting, and the tubes of paint let me know in no uncertain terms, as they were stuck shut and I needed to use a pliers to get the tops off!

I completed this small (12″ x 12″) painting in about two weeks, working on it part-time, as I also have another drawing going, which is also almost finished.  Basically I’m pleased with what I accomplished which was to get back into painting.  It’s a little clumsy in places, but  a decent effort overall.  I set up several rock piles on some bookbinding fabric, and the fabric has a sheen to it, so it changes from one color to another (or two) depending on which way the light is hitting it.  One thing that is so much quicker and easier about oils, versus colored pencils, is doing the backgrounds.  Large areas of color can be laid down and gone over again more quickly.  However, I miss the unusual and vibrant colors achieved by layering transparent pencil colors.

I’m trying to push myself outside my comfort zone, and to that end, I’m going to continue working an oil painting along side a drawing for the indefinite future.  I’m off to start a new oil painting today, and part with a quote from the Boston Globe’s “Reflection for the Day” that I found rather amusing:

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.      Benjamin Franklin

Another week and a new rock drawing underway.  Isn’t that green paper wild?  It feels so to me.  I’m not sure I entirely like it, and it’s difficult to control the colors I want for the rocks with the green base.  But it’s fun to experiment with these things, and overall I’m enjoying and liking the drawing.

We’re going to Little Compton, Rhode Island for the weekend, and the beaches are covered with these rocks.  That’s where I collect most of my rocks, and I plan to do some more collecting this weekend.  I’m always looking for interesting shapes, colors and rocks with lines on them, rocks that are very flat, rocks with interesting flaws, rocks that are almost round. . .. .. pretty soon I’m going to have the whole beach in my studio!

Wow that was a long break, and believe me, I did not spend all of that time working on this drawing.  In fact, I have had very little work time lately, and none at all this past week.  This drawing is basically finished; and as always, I will probably go back and tweak some areas for a day or so.  I like the way it came out, especially the light filtering through the glass vase, and the colors.  It was also a lot of fun to switch back and forth between colored pencils and Derwent Graphitint pencils.  I may try doing a drawing with the Graphitints exclusively at some point in the future.

I have another idea for a drawing of rocks that I will have to play around with and see if I can make it work.  I saw such amazing rock cliffs and formations on my recent tour of the Desert Southwest, and I have a vision in my mind that may or may not work!

It has been interesting to use the Derwent Graphitint pencils in combination with regular colored pencils to draw these rocks.  The soft tones of the Graphitints lend themselves very nicely to shading stones.  At this point, I’m jumping all over the drawing to get an idea of what it will be like, and balancing out the values and space.  Nothing is finished yet – the glass  vase, stones and bird’s egg, and foreground all need a lot more work.

I’ve started a new drawing experimenting with Derwent Graphitint pencils.  I was intrigued by them last winter when I received the Derwent commission to work with their Graphite Collection, thinking they would be interesting to use for a rock drawing.  Stones have so many subtle colors in them and lots of grays, and these pencils are graphite with just a tint of color.  You can also use them with water to intensify the color.  However, since I’m working on Canson Mi-tientes paper I’m forgoing the water, as this paper is not really intended for wet applications.  I decided to put the stones in a vase to “contain” them, and added one different element (a bird’s egg) for variety of interest.  I like the juxtaposition of the transparent glass with the solid heaviness of the stones.  I’m posting a photograph of the set-up, as this time I’m working strictly from life.  Often I will set up a still-life right on my drafting table and draw what I see right in front of me.

Other times I will use several source photos and combine them, using certain elements and eliminating others.  This was the case in the drawing of the Wellesley Public Library’s fish tank.  Below are two of the photographs I resourced from, as well as the finished drawing.  You can see that I eliminated most of the fish, and worked to create the composition I wanted – adding in more empty space and using the placement of fish and plants to lead your eye around.

I am almost finished with a new piece of a pear on a tabletop in front of a window. I purposefully left the background out of focus, to contrast with the detail of the pear. It’s very small (4 x 6 inches), done on green pastelboard, and using new colored pencils for me: DerWent Inktense and DerWent Coloursoft Pencils. I used the Inktense for background color, washing them with color to get a relatively quick lay down of initial color. Those are bright colors. They don’t look like it when dry, but add water and lookout! They bloom. Then I used Coloursofts for the drawing. It was interesting for me to experiment with new materials and pencils.