Prismacolor Practice

The first time I tried Prismacolor ... you probably don't want to see.

But you can if you want - 

Not the best.

Shading is not the best on the BEAR, looks too flat - but does give transition to charcoal.

So over this past week, I sneaked into my sister's room and found her stash of Prismacolors - hehehe

She let me ... No need for a suspenseful story. Anyway, I had some practice with those colors, I don't do a lot of Prismacolor pictures, so I needed to brush up on my skills (or would it be pencil up on my coloring skills). I penciled up pretty good and got some good shadings especially on the face of my second drawing.

I'll talk about my first picture first. Haha. 

How did I decide. With the help of my younger sister we got the idea to draw at random ... Yes, I'm talking statistics, - A math term - Don't worry, I survived. We found her Saints Memory Game and drew from Random, yes from random one of the Saints. Guess who I chose. No need to guess - just look below, or keep reading.

Our Lady of the Rosary - Yup! You guessed right ... Or maybe read right - those English classes really paid off then - Go thank your English teacher.

Our Lady of the Rosary

The value of the yellows really turned out well - my favorite color to shade with. I used yellows and browns to add the different tones. The faces were the most difficult because I couldn't figure out how to get darks and lights from the peach color.

Then I remembered - "Make your own colors" 🔴🟡🔵

I remembered that on my second picture. But overall I think I improved since the first time I used Prismacolor. Well done. 👏

Close-up of the faces

-My Second Picture

For my second picture I chose Saint Therese of Lisieux. This time I remembered to make my own colors for the face. I rummaged through my sisters massive stock pile of Prismacolors, actually only 24, and found a golden umbery color, a red, and a white and started creating the face. (all after I did a sketch the night before).

After many layers and shading with a blender, I added more layers and darks and lights and it looked much better than my first face.

I kept working on it that day and didn't stop until I did some more ... I finished the next day. I didn't stay up all night and hold a spoon so I wouldn't fall asleep - it might not have turned out the same.

And when I woke up it looked like this

It wasn't finished. That meant there was more to do. After many more layers and much hard labor it looked like this.

Saint Therese of Lisieux

And when I put it in black and white, it appeared to be colorless and looked totally different, yet the same.

Yes, now I saw much improvement, and with practice much can be accomplished. I think I'll start a series - I'll probably call it, 'Saints on 7.25 X 9.75 Paper' - More will come.

If you have a suggestion on which saint you would like to see next please suggest it in the comments.

What's Next In The Studio

I might start another 'Saints on 7.25 X 9.75 Paper' or maybe ... yes I should probably use up the last of my Titanium White that's waiting to be used up - I had left over paint on my palette (Ice cream bucket cover) that needs to be used - an excuse to do another painting. 

Titanium White: "Joshua, come paint me on your canvas, don't just leave me on this cover to die. Ohhhh! Aahhhh! Ohhhhh, come use me up, I'm drying out."

Joshua: "Don't worry T.W., I'm coming, I had to finish my other projects first ... and get another idea. You're always complaining, wait your turn. Prismacolor was in need of some attention this week.

Yes, I should probably paint so I don't get Titanium White too sad - maybe a hospital scene for my sister.

✏✎✐✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏✎✏

- “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”

― St. Therese of Lisieux

A little extra time to Art :)

That's Strange, they keep lengthening my break - maybe they are adding Spring Art, where you have two extra weeks to draw, paint or do art.

I guess inspiration comes in many forms - requests from others is how inspiration spoke to me this week. My cousin saw my Padre Pio painting and wanted one for herself.

I CANNOT PAINT MULTIPLE PAINTINGS OF THE SAME THING

So I decided to paint a different view of Padre Pio, in this painting he is at mass. This time I tried a undercoat/base coat with acrylic paint just to get some value down.

Acrylic Base 

A monochromatic with browns for the undercoat.

First Coat of Oils

Look how the oils transform those acrylics into a brighter picture.

Finish/Details

Those details really make the finished painting stand out

I've Still Got Another Week To Do Art! :)

I'll probably work on my drawing skills, maybe start a painting or do some small sketches.

Thank you for viewing my art.

- "In drawing, one must look for or suspect that there is more than is casually seen." - George Bridgman

An Oil Painting and ...

Here is the painting I've been working on for the past week. It is painted in oils ... wait!

Not 

-Engine oil

or Olive Oil

But

Oil Paints

I decided to paint a portrait of St. Padre Pio

The first day I worked on the face. It is much easier to blend in oils than acrylics because they let you have a bit more time, unlike acrylics who dry out on you.

DAY 1

The second and third day I worked the background in and brushed in his mustache, t-shirt, and cloak.

DAY 2 & 3

And the third and fourth and ... all the other days I worked on it, I added more details including the hair and beard, also touched up some blending.

DAY 3 to Finish

God enriches the soul which empties itself of everything.
-Padre Pio

This piece probably took about 10 hours to complete ... maybe a little less. (I should have kept track.)

This is probably one of my better faces ... but I haven't really painted many faces, so I still need to practice. 

AND as always,

What Will I Do Next

We'll have to wait and see. I have no idea ... actually I do ... but am not 100% sure. I'll wait for  Inspiration to come along and say, 

"Oh. Joshua, why don't you paint that gunny sack?" or "You should draw that chair."

And I would answer Inspiration something like, "You're right Inspiration. You are always inspiring me. What would I do without you?"

And Inspiration would say, "You wouldn't be inspired without me."

And I would answer back, "You have a sense of humor Inspiration. I think you would get along well with Hope, and Patience - probably Perseverance as well, they are all pretty funny."

He would answer, "I can't wait to meet them!"

"I'll introduce them to you when they come home from work."

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- "Drawing is the basis of art. A bad painter cannot draw. But one who draws well can always paint". Arshile Gorky

S'more dogs...

Nope, I did not roast any dogs. S'more was just 3 letters shorter than "some more."

But I did draw s'more dogs! But I am not sure who they are for. Probably some people that have dogs - the dog market?

I exploded, no no ... I enlarged the two dogs from one image - Magic, the magic of art.

The first dog had big ears! I'm guessing it's some sort of chihuahua - for people that want a small dog, but don't like cats. I've actually seen a dog cat. It looked just like a cat, but BARKED!

The Big-Eared Dog

Drawing fur is a bit tricky, so I did what I could.

The second dog had somewhat big hears, medium-ish and a longer face, just look below and you'll see. 

"Eye" like how the eyes turned out in these pictures - they have depth and realism to them. This dog seems as if he/she is looking for something, maybe his/her long lost friend or his owner to come home and give him bacon, or perhaps their shoe to chew on. You never know unless you imagine, or you actually do know.

The Somewhat Big Medium-ish Dog

Sometimes eye like to start another project to get some variety in, so when I wasn't drawing these two dogs I was working on this picture of Saint Michael.

Eye wasn't sure if this was done yet, so I darkened the background so the light areas would pop out more.

And the picture started glowing, like an angel perhaps. Because the dark background popped the light area out so much.

So I darkened some areas by the wings and added some more value in the lighter areas and this is how it looks now.

And what am I doing next?

- An oil painting.

- A portrait

I have it all sketched out on the canvas so I don't think it will change this time, because it's looking pretty good. Maybe I shouldn't add color then - a painting without being painted - my quickest painting.

No, I'll paint it!

Thank you for reading - until next time - when my painting is finished.

“I draw like other people bite their nails.” Pablo Picasso

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil." Balthus

My new form of Art!

Where is Art & Have I discovered something

It's just amazing where art can be found. Just look around, there is art everywhere.
I've been asked if I could draw a subject that is white - will a white subject show up on white paper? Very good question - as an artist we have to think, what is white?
There are many different shades of white just like any other color. But really when drawing, white will just be a lighter value - if we shade light and add dark shadows with lots of highlights we can produce a subject that appears white - high contrast will allow the subject to pop.

This got me thinking, what if I could make an artwork using no value at all - not visible to the naked eye!

"Incredible!"

Yes, indeed! So I created a piece of work with invisible ink! Wait. Can we still call this art?

Yes, of coarse! Just because we cannot see it, doesn't mean it is not there.

Here it is - I call it Hidden

It's very appealing to the eye. It moves the eye throughout the page very fluently as if nothing were there. It will introduce a new art form: Invisibilium. It will have critics talking from all over. Many of you may wander what it's like to be the creator of a new art form, to become famous - many of you will never know. I'll tell you though - if I knew how to express it. -but I have to give credit to my brother for the idea - (maybe someone has already done Invisibilium art).

My Current Work

My most recent work I am doing for a customer for their wedding gift for someone else. When enough people order my work I can say part of me is all over the world, from land across the sea.

Four dogs! That's a lot of dogs for one household - maybe they have a big yard. If we had four dogs at our house there would be no space to move around - packed like squash in a mason jar.

-The Sketch

Four dogs - a wedding gift

Dog #1

Dog #2

Dog #3

Dog #4 for the finish

This was a fun piece to do, I've done a lot of dogs lately - I think I'm getting pretty good at drawing dogs. It is pretty paw-some. Woof!

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Saxophone player is finished, but ...

Hello Everyone, I am exited to ...

I've finished my charcoal drawing of the saxophone player, but ... 

I did use Prismacolor!

Prismacolors

When I first started this drawing I thought for sure it was just going to be charcoal. My first idea was a drawing all in color, but my idea changed to no color, and then changed yet again to allow some color to show! Awesome!

COLOR!

I mean ... COLOR!

So here it is ... The final drawing revealed along with the story behind the artwork.

BUT FIRST ...

Let's face it,

Take a look at the face progression!

Now the final drawing, from start to finish.

Day 1: The Outline; finding the shapes and the basic layout.

Another Day: (not sure which one. probably a day I worked on it).

Yet Another Day: Looks like some more detail has been added to the jacket.

There's his neck strap

Ah Yes: That's very handy

Oh! There it is!: 

For a moment it seemed there would be no color. Finally! Color has shown up.

There it is! The bell is finished and

we can finally see the My Little Pony Sticker.

Oh Yeah! More color! Almost done.

And if  we look closer ... 

there appears to be a sticker.

Yes it is, it's a My Little Pony sticker.

And the finished drawing.

If you would like to read his story please keep reading.

The Story of Martin the Jazz Player

He was born with a musical talent - music was his life. His name was Martin.

At a very young age his grandfather taught him how to play the tenor sax - his favorite instrument, for his grandfather was a very well known jazz player. Martin looked up to his grand-pappy and wanted to be just like him.

Martin studied hard; he practiced everyday. He soon learned all the ins and outs of music and was getting better each day. His director skipped him through middle school band right to high school when he was just ten years old - the youngest high school student.

After high school he went on to study music at one of the finest colleges around; he was ranked highest in his class.

He soon found out music was not one of the highest paying jobs, so he was constantly busking on the street corner to try and support his wife and two daughters.

Georgia and Charlotte, Martins daughters, loved ponies and everything pink; so as a reminder of his promise to his daughters he kept a precious My Little Pony sticker on the side of his saxophone's bell.

He promised his girls that he would bring them to a My Little Pony theme park. He gets up at the break of dawn and plays til dusk for the love of music and every time he looks at that sticker he is reminded of his daughters and all their family memories from picnics in the park, to city strolling, to window shopping; Martin always makes time for his family.

As Georgia and Charlotte grew older, their dreams to a My Little Pony theme park changed to a visit to a pony farm. And as they grew into their late teens they dreamed of owning their own horses and going on rides together in the country side with their family.

Martin, their father never broke his promises, he would do anything to get his daughters a horse - even if it meant playing longer hours and booking more gigs at big-time stages around the globe and traveling with the Big bands.

To this day Martin still may be seen on New York's city streets playing his saxophone or strolling down the city streets window shopping with his family. His girls still love ponies and everything pink. And if you ever spot Martin, look closely and you may even spot that My Little Pony sticker on the side of his bell ever so faded from the sunlight. 

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Oh no! What am I going to do? That's bad!

Here We Go Again!

Ah! I have to go back to school now. But at least I had a nice long break ... lots of free time to draw and get some new ideas. I got some new sketches done, some random still lives and my version of Emmett's double-decker couch! - I thought it was a great idea, I don't know what Vitruvius was thinking - Lego legs don't even dangle over the edge of the couch!

The Still Life

This is the random still life. It was late, so I set my car keys on the table and drew them. That wasn't enough so I added a few things ... some money, a juggling ball (didn't turn out the greatest), and the Sharpie I drew the piece with. The Sharpie is my favorite.

AND EMMETT'S COUCH!

Wow! Look at that couch - What? ... it did save his life.

My Next Piece

Nope, not a Prismacolor piece ... my idea changed. It always does, I think I have a good idea and then a better idea comes up. I decided on a person, so I went on https://pixabay.com/ to get a free image and found a saxophone player ... awesome. I like playing the saxophone, I'll draw this. 

I got the sketch done, now I have to add some value. 

As I was sketching his sax I spotted a little sticker on the bell ... and then I looked closer and saw ... it was ... a ... my little ... pony!

Why does he have a My Little Pony sticker on his saxophone?

... but then I remembered ... a picture tells a thousand words.

I don't know this guy. I don't know his life story ... so the only thing I can do is ... make one for him.

So I created his life story.

The next post will reveal the finished drawing and this guy's story.

Original

My sketch.

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