Derwent Art Lessons

Derwent Academy has a series of

art lessons on-line. (click on the top Tool Bar

on the Derwent site to create an account)

 This is Lesson 4, Color and Tone-

Blending Colored Pencil.

Some friends recommended the class

because when you've completed the

six lessons, Derwent will send you a

 small set of their colored pencils!

Since I don't have any of the 

Derwent colored pencils, I used

Crayola brand colored pencils, and 

various brands that have accumulated 

over the years. They are not as 

intense in color, and the scan is a bit light.

Quote from this lesson:

"It's all about describing what's in

front of you by using different marks."

--Dee Cowell, Derwent Academy instructor

I was rather pleased with the outcome

of the sketch of the cockerel,

considering the image on the computer

screen was a bit difficult to see.

The border around the video obscured

the feet so I just had to 'wing-it!'

And the instructor shows how to 

layer color over each other for

more depth and variation. (not sure

if you can tell, but there are blue and

purple beneath the black)

A fun exercise!

Art at Random

Sketch of a 2 year-old...

they don't sit still much!

Pencil in my pink journal...

(double click on any image for enlargement)

Day of the Dead postcard.

Mixed media: fabric, watercolor and pen.

Notes from my visit to the art museum

(before they made me stop sketching

in the exhibit). Pen on index card.

Watercolor added when I returned home.

What random art did you make today?

Collage and Drawing

Mixed media collage on a 4 x 6 index card.

I buy them in a spiral pad so I can take 

them with me. I can work on them 

while on vacation or while waiting

for someone to get done with

an appointment. More fun than

looking at outdated magazines...

A drawing on ledger paper, with some

stamping, purchased tags, and

triangular banners of scrapbook paper,

and painted card stock.

A sketch for some canvases I am thinking

of painting.  3 tall skinny canvases, but

grouped together as one composition.

Colored pencil in my visual art journal.

The right hand larger circle is a light blue. 

On my monitor it is too pale...

trying to use mauve, browns & tans

with accents of blue & purple.

Yesterday's post gave me some trouble,

and I don't know if it was Blogger or

operator error. It will disappear and

this takes its place.

A bit of a dry spell right now,

but hoping to make progress

and get into more drawing!

Art Deco in the Art Journal

The woman's face was inspired by an
Art Deco painting (1925) by Tamara de Lempicka,
called Self Portrait (Tamara in the Green Bugatti)Quotes are from the book
The Great Gatsby

The spread started from the stylized flowers
and grew from there...
sketched first in pencil,
inked with Sharpie xfine point marker,
color added with colored pencils.

Fifties Fashion

circa 1950, copyright A. Janet Burggraf Bishop
Pen and India ink, colored pencil on typing paper
Fashion drawings done by my mother.
She is not sure how old she was when she did these,
probably a freshman or sophomore in high school.
Apparently I inherited some artistic genes
from her. I remember that she often
doodled eyes and lips when she talked on the phone...
not faces, just the face parts!

My mother's drawing is above, my art journal drawing at the bottom. Mom's is in India ink and colored pencil, mine is in ballpoint pen. She drew these models from magazines and clothing patterns.







I attempted to draw the girl in the sweater on my art journal page...the profile is not quite right in my opinion.




A. Janet Burggraf Bishop, 1950

Dianne Bishop Carey, 2009

DESSERTS

Make-it-Monday challenge for Nov. 3 on Go Make Something was the color Purple...so my art journal page is a celebration of that color...with a humorous quote thrown in...

Mixed media artists are susceptible to artist's block, doubt, the need for inspiration... Quotations are a source of inspiration that often give me a boost, a prompt for creating an art journal page, or just a reason to smile...hope you enjoy these...
***
"Next week there can't be any crisis. My schedule is already full." --Henry Kissinger
***
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy." --Norman Vincent Peale
***
"It's not what you go through that defines you; you can't help that. It's what you do AFTER you've gone through it that really tests who you are." --Kwame Floyd
***
"No matter how good you get you can always get better and that's the exciting part." --Tiger Woods
***
Success in life is a matter not so much of talent or opportunity as of concentration and perseverance." --C.W. Wendte
***
"We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough." --Helen Keller
***
"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not." --unknown
***
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."
---Ralph Waldo Emerson
***
The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is DEDICATION." --Cecil B. DeMille
***

Monster Art Doll Sketches

Two art journal pages inspired by a challenge on Mixed Media Art Friends...just brainstorming ideas. Haven't made any of these yet. Of course, the actual creation usually turns out differently than the original sketch.

I really love Maurice Sendak's classic story "Where The Wild Things Are" and he does great monsters!

"And now," Max said, "let the wild rumpus start!"

I probably won't do a Max doll or green monster doll...I will probably make the pumpkin man paper doll. If you have been making Halloween inspired art and showing it on your blog, please leave a comment so I can check it out.

Absurd Idea

Here are a few more quotes from one of my art journals...this is a small format, about 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". The artwork is done in ballpoint pen and colored pencils...I especially like the quote from The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron:
" Some of the best creative work gets done on the days when you feel that everything you're doing is just plain junk."