Diane Wright Art Journal

At the Zoo Continued....

2012-01-02T16:10:00.002-06:00

Here are my final images for the "At the Zoo" series.

At the Zoo

2011-12-28T15:26:00.000-06:00

I have half of the drawings completed for the next Royal Brush project. Here they are!

More Backyard Birds

2011-12-28T15:23:00.001-06:00

I decided to do a couple of the birds over as well as add a couple more. The collection will be called Backyard Birds (minus the Parrot, parakeets and fruit doves...that will be used for a later project).

Sparrow

Cardinal

Robin

Woodpecker

Goldfinch

Colored Pencil - Birds

2011-12-18T12:02:00.002-06:00

Colored pencil is a new medium for me and I am delighted with the results I am getting. This series of birds are for a Sketchbook Project I am doing for Royal Brush Company. All of these were done with a simple 12 color set of colored pencils by Royal Brush. The colors are primary - red, blue and yellow. Secondary colors of orange, purple and green. And light blue, light green, pink, white, black and brown.

Parrot Barn Swallow

Eastern Blue Birds Blue Jay

Cactus Wren Chickadee

Fruit Doves Gold Finch

Hummingbird Indigo Bunting

Parakeets Cardinal

Blackwing Sketchbooks

2011-09-21T13:40:00.000-05:00

I am delighted to introduce a new Blackwing Sketchbook series created by www.pencils.com.

http://pencils.com/blog/sketchbook-preview/

This is so exciting to be featured on the cover of such a high quality product. Visit www.pencils.com to discover all the excellent products offered by California Cedar Products Company.

Wolves - Revised

2011-04-23T10:12:00.000-05:00

I've reconsidered the wolf composite drawing and made some modifications. I fixed the center wolf's facial features, making it a bit more wolf-like. Also you will notice I've replaced the wolf on the viewer's right with a howling position. I think the composite looks much better.

Baseball - Still life

2011-04-09T21:06:00.001-05:00

For all the basebase fans out there! Spring is here so let's play ball!

This is a still-life study for Royal Brush. They will be making a sketch kit out of this one. It was actually really fun to do. I used the magical Palomino Blackwing pencil for the glove base texture and used the Palomino 2H and 6B for the lights and darks. These pencils worked perfectly on the Canson Foundation Series Bristol smooth paper.

Three Wolves

2011-04-03T14:44:00.000-05:00

It may seem quiet here lately, but I promise I have been drawing! I've continued to do commission work for Royal Brush Company. Here is a composite of three wolves for one of their sketch kits.

Dalmation Composite

2011-03-13T08:39:00.000-05:00

Here is another composite drawing done for Royal Brush.

Keeping the young artist in mind, minimizing details

and keeping it simple.

Wolf Composite

2011-03-13T08:30:00.000-05:00

I have been commissioned by Royal Brush company to do a series of drawings for their sketch kits. They are very open to any subject matter that I draw, but encouraged me to try my hand at animals. Here is the first of the series.

Keeping in mind that these are kits for younger adults, I try and keep the composition and subjects relatively simple while still capturing a strong level of realism.

I have high respect for any artist who can draw fur.

Enjoy!

Drawing Techniques Packet

2011-02-01T17:06:00.000-06:00

Drawing Techniques Packet

by Diane Wright

Derived from Drawing Techniques Workshops conducted by Diane Wright, this packet includes simple, easy instructions, lots of hands-on exercises and a spattering of drawing samples for guidance. Artists of any level, beginner to advanced, will find lots of valuable tips and technique specific to landscapes. It's a perfect companion to Diane's book, “Drawing Made Easy: Beautiful Landscapes” and her on-line tutorials.

The best way to learn is to actually draw. That is what this packet is uniquely designed to do. The reference photos and exercises are printed on card stock that is smooth, durable and perfect to draw on. Extra drawing sheets and a transparency grid are included.

Techniques include:

Shading and Erasing
Pencil Strokes
Light and Shadows
Contour Drawing
Important of Sketching
Value Drawing
Negative Drawing
Blending
Textures
Good Drawing Techniques
Drawing Tools and On-line Resources

For an additional benefit, purchase the email assistance plan. This gives you the opportunity for one-on-one email support with Diane. Email her questions and scanned exercises for her advice and assistance on any technique included in the packet.

“It's like attending one of Diane's workshops without the costly travel expenses!”

For more information visit: http://www.dianewrightfineart.com/ or click here

Written, designed and published by Diane Wright

Inspiration

2011-01-20T15:42:00.000-06:00

I received an email from a young artist studying art and design in the UK. He asked me a question that challenged me to put in writing what I have been mulling around in my head for quite some time. I’d like to thank Lewis Treleaven for posing the following question and wish him the best in his studies.

What inspired you to base most of your art around natural beauty and the wonders of the natural world?

I started drawing again in 2002 after a 20+ year lapse. Life seemed to get in the way and my career path went in a different direction from my art. But I finally picked up my pencil again, rediscovered my love of graphite and also found a form of meditation. Drawing is relaxing and releases a lot of tensions and stress from my day job and life in general. The subject matter of nature enhances this meditative process. The following is what I have discovered while studying nature:

Nature holds the key to revitalizing our spirit and restoring balance into our lives. It’s as simple as taking a walk in the woods and open your senses to what surrounds you. Listen to the leaves rustling in the autumn breeze or watch the diamond crystals as the sun dances on the surface of the water. Time slows down to let us catch our breath from the craziness of our daily hustle.

Each drawing that I create is a snapshot of the simplicity and splendor that surrounds us. It’s the simple things that are often the most awe inspiring. It’s the serenity and strength of nature that I want to capture. This is the footprint I want to share for others to experience.

My motto from my website:

~live life with a quiet passion~

~seeing beauty in the simplest scenes~

~that is what makes life so rich~

Drawing from Line to Life by Mike Sibley

2010-12-31T14:10:00.000-06:00

This is THE Drawing Bible. There is not any other book available that covers drawing as completely as Mike's book. It reads like a novel, as each chapter builds upon the next, but it also is a great reference tool. AND it is a piece of artwork itself - beautifully illustrated. Mike is not only a talented artist but an excellent writer. He writes as though he is personally talking to you. I guarantee you will be inspired and captivated after the first chapter. (yes, it's that good...)

For a limited time, Mike is offering free shipping!! Don't miss out on this incredible offer and order your copy today: http://www.sibleyfineart.com/pencil-drawing-book.htm. Are you sure one copy is enough? I just bought a second copy today so I can share one with my drawing classes while preserving my original copy.

Drawing Techniques - Workshop

2010-12-26T07:45:00.000-06:00

Drawing Techniques Workshop

with Diane Wright

Professional artist and author of "Drawing Made Easy: Beautiful Landscapes", Diane Wright is now offering a local drawing workshop.

Diane covers drawing basics not taught in general drawing classes. She will share her techniques and in-depth information to get you on your way to making successful and realistic landscapes.

Day 1 We'll introduce ourselves and discover your goals for drawing. We will take an in-depth look at drawing pencils, paper and tools. There's more to graphite drawing than just a wooden pencil and paper. Lots of examples to be shown and explored.

Day 2 Through exercises we will explore techniques from pencil strokes to application of line and tone. Blending, layering and creative erasing will be covered as well as an introduction to Negative Drawing.

Day 3 Using these techniques we will apply what we've learned to drawing textures. Wood, rocks, leaves, etc. Understanding what to look for and how light interacts with surfaces will also be discussed.

During all these sessions, she will work with you personally to assist and demonstrate these techniques. No matter what your present ability, you will leave with new-found knowledge of how to draw and use textures to benefit your work. You'll discover that Drawing is Fun!

Where: Kreativ ent
306 1st Ave W
Newton, IA 50208

When: 9:00 - 11:00 am Saturdays, January 29, February 5 & 12 (6 hours total)

Cost: $50.00 Class size is limited to 6-8 for personalized attention!

Price includes minimum supplies of: sheets of paper as required, Staedtler pencils 4H, 2B, Staedtler kneadable eraser and chamois.

Please bring your own drawing board and other drawing tools you use.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Drawing Techniques Workshop with Diane Wright

January 29, February 5 & 12

Name:___________________________________________________________

Address: ______________________________ City: ______________________

Phone: __________________________ Cell Phone: ______________________

Email: __________________________________________________________

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

...and a Merry Christmas to you all!

Les and I spent an afternoon exploring the renovated Union Station in Kansas City. It is the second busiest freight railroad center in America. It has a rich and diverse history dating back to 1914. The architecture of this building is incredible and the ceiling is breathtaking.

I sincerely thank everyone who has followed my postings this year and wish the best of the Holiday Season to you all!

Diane

Artist Reception

2010-11-21T11:24:00.001-06:00

Artist Reception

for Diane Wright

December 9th - 5-7pm

Kreativ ent.

306 1st Ave W

Newton, IA 50208

You are invited to attend an artist reception for Diane Wright.

Visit with the artist, share some wine/cheese,

and see her artwork on display.

(artwork and signd books will be available for purchase.)

Fading Light

2010-11-20T09:20:00.001-06:00

Fading Light

This is an attempt at creating a "moody landscape", working with light and dark composition to create a mood. The viewer is slowly led into the dark veil of the woods with just hints of the trees deep in the shadows.

Here is a detail of the water. There is a tendency to leave the water in light values. But to create both transparency and depth, the water streaming over the rocks must be darkened. I used 2H and H chisel point leads to create the smooth flowing water. The turbulence and splashes use negative drawing...working in the shadows and base of the waves.

New Tutorial: How to Draw Grass & Weeds

2010-10-26T19:15:00.001-05:00

New Tutorial: How to draw Grass and Weeds

I am pleased announce that my newest tutorial is now available on my website - "How to Draw Grass and Weeds". For your convenience, a downloadable .pdf is available at the bottom of the page.

A Blackwing Monday

2010-10-26T19:12:00.002-05:00

The Blackwing Pencil is starting to make it's name amongst the graphite artists. Here is another fun story!

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A Blackwing Monday
Woke up yesterday-very early which always makes me grumpy. There was messy white stuff - SNOW- on the lawn. Certainly not a mood enhancer! BUT things improved , the mail came early for a change bringing with it only 1 bill & (drumroll please!) my package of Palamino Blackwings. Oh, the joy, oh the anticipation, oh the sleek black box ! I sharpened just one. By the way the Palomino Long Point Pencil sharpener is great.

I'm not on the marketing committee for the company, I've just been strangely influenced by the rest of you- scary, but it is Halloween week.
So far, I've just gone back over some old sketches with the Blackwings. One insipid tree really came alive. I may even have the courage to post it when I get my new printer-scanner set up. My old one went to electronic heaven last week.

Do you understand why the simplicity of a 'pencil' brings such joy? Aren't we blessed by our craft? Treat yourselves- these pencils are worth it.

Linda Fode
graphite artist

*************
I think Linda has it right. There is something special about the simplicity of a pencil and to a graphite artist, it's pure joy!

First Impressions - Palomino Blackwing

2010-10-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

It's good to know I'm not the only pencil fanatic!

Here are two wonderful first impressions of the new Palomino Blackwing pencils by two great artist friends. Be careful graphite artists....the Blackwings are addictive.

*************************************************************************************

Stranded at home while my car is in the shop this morning, I opened the package that came in yesterday. I saved it for this morning, knowing that I'd be cranky.

My roommate was unsympathetic. She knows I went to Goodwill yesterday to find a raincoat and paid $10 for it. So she pokes at me for spending twice that on a dozen Palomino Blackwing pencils.

"It's a pencil." she says, after I let her pick one up.

Granted, she hasn't finished her coffee yet. And she was waiting with irritation for her laptop to come up so she could read the news. But she accused me of 'fondling' my new pencils and said it was 'disturbing'.

I poked at the pencil, discovered that the eraser can be removed. Sharpened it. And picked up a rough sketch of a fallen sycamore on the lake shore that I had started a few days ago. I filled in an area blocked off in the shape of a pine tree, using my new pencil. It took me about 2 minutes to achieve a lovely, dark pseudo-realism.

I held it up and she blinked. "Wow. Cool. It builds up shadows fast, doesn't it?" She said. Sipping her hot coffee with a slurp. Then she turned to her e-news. "But it's still just a pencil."

Sigh.

Planning to go to DC this afternoon, if my car gets done, and I'm taking pad and Palominos with me.

Here's my opinion after a weekend of experiments: As dark as Ebony drawing pencils, but with thinner and dryer lead. Sketches lightly, with good control and produces dark lines quickly and easily with less shine than 4-5B lead. Not as covering as higher 8-9B leads, but much nicer for sketching.

Karen J. Newhouse
CapallGlas Studio
http://www.capallglas.com/

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Karen - LOL! That's a cute write up of the pencils.

I got mine as well. They are not just a pencil. No, no no...They are magical pencils, that take you to places that only your imagination can conjure up. They are special pencils.

I quickly got the box open, grabbed a pencil & sharpened the wood off. I just couldn't make myself to cut the lead yet. I went to work & just wrote with it. Wonderful, exquisite, smooth, dark.

Toby Levin
moleskin sketching artist
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Toby - I think you might have said it all when you called the Blackwing a magical pencil. On different paper surfaces, it becomes a whole different experience!

Karen is such a creative writer as well as an excellent artist. I can't wait to see what she creates using the Blackwings on gesso panels!

Here are a couple of sketches using the Blackwing on Bristol Board Vellum. The Vellum has a rougher texture and the graphite slides on creating a beautiful texture and with a few layers, a rich black. I'm loving this pencil more and more....

The Palomino Blackwing

2010-10-07T17:00:00.001-05:00

I received my box of Palomino Blackwings in mail today. That was quick delivery and wow...what a nice packaging!

I would love to hear from all my graphite artist friends who have purchased the Palomino Blackwing pencils. I'd like to know what you think of them....both the good and the bad.

Be sure to give it a good work out! If you remember reading my assessment of the pencil, I initially did not give it very high marks. But since then, I've given it a full workout on a couple of drawings, and it has proven to be an excellent tool for building beautiful mid-value graphite tones.

In the drawing "Agnew Meadows", I used the Blackwing in the darker trees in the foreground. By applying initial graphite layers by the Blackwing and then applying 2B over this, I created a beautiful rich dark tone. In the past, I frequently would end up with an uneven tone with spots of the "dreaded" graphite shine. But the Blackwing seems to have a nice matte finish providing a wonderful base.

As with any technique, your approach, type of paper or unique style may provide different results. I'd love to hear what you think of these unique pencils!!

Diane

Blackwing UTube Advertisement

2010-10-04T19:18:00.001-05:00

I have the honor of being featured in a Blackwing UTube advertisement. Perhaps in the next generation, I will be considered one of the Famous Blackwing users and listed along side, John Steinbeck.

To view the full article visit:

http://timberlines.blogspot.com/2010/10/blackwing-project-take1.html

Featured Artist

2010-09-18T10:07:00.001-05:00

I am a featured artist on pencils.com. To read the entire article visit:

www.pencils.com/blog/Diane-wright-queen-landscape-pencil-art

Agnew Meadows

2010-09-08T19:35:00.002-05:00

This has been a whole new approach to drawing...working in the darker tones and leading the viewer through the scene by the lighting. Let me know what you think of this composition and style.

The Palomino Blackwing Pencil

2010-09-07T18:38:00.006-05:00

A new pencil with a completely different feel

I was selected to test out the new Palomino Blackwing pencil. The original Blackwing 602 was discontinued by Faber Castel and is now being re-introduced by the Palomino producer's Cedar Co of California.

Part of the test was to compare it to the original Blackwing as well as the Palomino HB pencil. Since I never even heard of the Blackwing pencil until a month ago, I felt it important for me to find the real thing. I coughed up the $$ and purchased one from ebay. It is a pre-1958 vintage Ebarhard Faber Blackwing 602.

Now on to the comparison of the new Palomino Blackwing to the vintage model as well as to the Palomino HB .

I think the hype regarding the vintage as being the best pencil ever made, is just that...hype. The wood in the vintage pencil was difficult to sharpen, leaving a rough texture and reminds me of why I have never cared for using wooden pencils. The new Palomino Blackwing matches the other Palomino's top quality wood and sharpens clean with no splintering. The new Palomino Blackwing slick design and white eraser is also much improved over the vintage model.

The new Palomino Blackwing is an unusual pencil in that it doesn't feel like graphite. It has a carbon or clay feel to it and it doesn't leave a super shiney layer. It also compares more closely to a 2B than an HB grade in both softness and tone value. The CEO of Cedar Co., Charles Berolzheimer, says I'm the first to make this comment. He thinks it could be that since I use a wide variety of graphite leads, I am probably very sensitive to the grades. He may very well be right on this as I use a variety of grades from 4H to 6B.

During my testing and comparison, I didn't care for the new Blackwing. I have to be honest and say that I did not give it a good rating when I reported back to Charles.

But I couldn't stop at just a few pencil strokes. The real test is to see how it lends itself to drawing.

I am pleasantly surprised that the new Palomino Blackwing's "non-graphite" characteristics can create rich black tones that are incredible. But I will let the drawing speak for the pencil....

Here is my current work in progress using the new Palomino Blackwing for the canopy of dark trees, a 2B .5mm mechanical pencil for the grass, and a 4H chisel point clutch pencil for the background trees (using the Blackwing to layer the darker areas on top of the 4H). The darks lay down quickly and evenly and create a rich "black".

My final report to Charles? This pencil is DEFINTELY a keeper and I am looking forward to pushing my landscapes to a whole new level of rich darks. Thank you Charles!!

Silver Reflections

2010-08-21T15:27:00.003-05:00

As with any new tool, you need to explore just what you can do with it and new pencils are no different. So I pushed from the lightest to darkest using only two of the grades, 2B and 2H, of the Palomino Pencils. The sky is done using a light layer of 2B chamoised smooth, with subtle changes to reflect the clouds hovering on top of the mountain peak. The distant mountain texture is taking advantage of the 2B graphite grain on the paper (300 Series Strathmore Bristol Board smooth). The 2B is continued to be used to create the mid and foreground trees.

The water is created using the 2H. The harder lead lends itself well to create the glass smooth stillness of the lake. Using horizontal strokes, the gentle and subtle reflections are drawn in.

Silver Reflections

4-1/2 x 7- 3/4

This is from a reference photo taken by my nephew, Kyle Clark, during a recent mountain bike trip to Mt. Shasta in California.

Palomino Pencils

2010-08-14T14:50:00.002-05:00

Joey Centanni of Pencils.com requested that I try out some of their premier Palomino pencils. I kind of chuckled because if there is one thing I don't use is wooden pencils. But since they are featuring my artwork on their website, I thought the least I could do is to see if I liked their product.

I am pleasantly surprised and very impressed by the wonderful graphite quality of these pencils! They are encased in high quality cedar wood and the graphite is as smooth as silk. The lead grades range from 2H, H, HB, B and 2B. But don't let that fool you! The 2H is comparable to an HB and the 2B is more like a 4B without the graininess!!

I'm an avid mechanical pencil user so I didn't think it was possible, but the Palomino just might make a convert out of me! Here is my first drawing using these pencils.....but I guarantee it won't be my last.

Gentle Cascades

Change is Good

2010-07-31T08:07:00.004-05:00

I've given my blogs a facelift and fresh new look. Let me know what you think.

You can visit my sketch blog at: www.dwrightsketches.blogspot.com

Duey's Drawings

2010-07-20T18:28:00.003-05:00

One of the best graphite portrait artist's that I know is Brian Duey. Brian has a comprehensive series of drawing tutorials on his website: http://www.dueysdrawings.com/drawing_tutorials.html. I highly recommend these tutorials as they are clear and concise. I frequently reference them in the art yahoo groups that I moderate and I personally refer to them anytime I am working on portraiture. Check out Brian's artwork and see if you agree with me!

Diane

Mike Sibley Workshops

2010-07-17T08:58:00.017-05:00

I've been working this morning on the underside of the tree and grass using techniques that I learned during Mike Sibley's drawing workshop in Indiana.

It's been almost a year since the workshop and the improvement on my artwork has been incredible. And the revelations of "ah-ha"! are still happening!

To attend one of Mike's drawing workshops is an opportunity that any graphite artist should not miss. It doesn't matter what your subject matter preference is or your drawing style (from realism, sketches or abstract) the concepts and techniques Mike demonstrates can be applied to. Spending three days with one-to-one attention with a master is an experience that I will never forget.

Mike is coming back to the United States in September to conduct 4 more workshops! Visit his website http://www.sibleyfineart.com/ for workshop loc ations and information.

Here's the section of my current drawing. I've been pushing the branches on the underside of the tree back into the shadows. Using negative drawing techniques, I'm able to create the blackest areas between the leaves, allowing them to subtly appear deep in the shadows.

Barn...continued

2010-07-02T16:15:00.004-05:00

Here's the next installment.....

The barn is slowly taking shape....working on balancing the foreground tree with the barn. The barn is tucked in between the trees.

Misty Morning over Shaver Lake

2010-06-27T12:55:00.002-05:00

Here's a quick rendering from a photo taken by my friend Peggy Allsman. Her son spent a scout weekend at Shaver Lake in California. It's a small drawing just 4x8"

Wisconsin Barn

2010-06-26T13:21:00.004-05:00

It's been almost a year since my last barn drawing, so I'd say it's about time for a scene closer to home. Just on the east side of the Mississippi, Wisconsin landscape displays beauty at every turn. This barn is tucked between trees with a vista that spreads out behind.

After playing with a number of different composition possibilities, I've got decided to get started and see where the pencil leads me. Here are the steps I've done so far. The size of the drawing is 10x18 on Mellotex paper stock. It's a relatively new paper for me and is ultra smooth.

The sky is created through a series of cross-hatching and chamoised smooth. I started with a F .5mm mechanical pencil and cross-hatched 3 layers of light, smooth pencil strokes. Then using a chamois to smooth the layer out. 3 layers of 2B cross-hatching, chamoised smooth with a final 2 layers of 2H cross-hatch applied with a light chamois blending to finish a smooth silver-toned sky. I have lightly blu-tacked the clouds. These will be developed as the rest of the drawing develops.

The trees behind the barn are starting to be formed. I start at the tips of the trees and work my way to the dense centers. I keep the leaves loose and open at the tips, allowing much of the sky to peak through. The open areas are as important as the leaf bundle placements. This gives way to the character of the tree. A 4B chisel point clutch pencil allows me to 'paint' the layers of leaves into the trees.

Shadow Lake Outlet

2010-05-22T07:41:00.010-05:00

With some assistance from a wonderful artist friend, Vince Whitehead, I tweaked a couple of areas and really brought depth to the drawing. Added darker trees to the lake edge and added some highlights to the water, and lightened the mountain as it touches the sky. Vince is a talented pen & ink artist, http://www.rural-route-one.com/, and we share a common interest in rural landscapes.

Strong pencil strokes and and negative drawing carries this drawing to completion. Keeping the entire composition loose with minimum detail helps to emphasize movement and energy.

This is another from the Yosemite series. I started this drawing a bit differently than usual as I wanted to block in the foreground rock bluff on the left. (Since I'm a lefty, I typically start in the background and work my way right to left).

I then roughly sketched in the trees behind the rocks. These will get much darker as I work my way through the scene. I'm not getting too detailed as this is more an exploration of composition of light and shadows..... but then isn't that true for any drawing?

Whenever you are using reference photos, try various crops. The brush in the foreground is too dominant. By just cropping a bit of the right and bottom off, the central focus of the scene pops out.

Shadow Creek Falls

2010-03-27T09:33:00.003-05:00

I have enjoyed working on this beautiful landscape. While there is probably a lot I could still work on, I think I'm going to call it done. Leaving portions of it unfinished leaves the eye content to stay in the center of the gorge...as it should be.

Enjoy

Diane

Shadow Creek Falls - WIP4 & 5

2010-03-26T10:13:00.005-05:00

Wip 4: Here is a small update. I am slowly working

my way down the cliff. The tree on the right will eventually blend into the cliff behind and won't be as prominent.

Wip 5 : I'm bouncing a bit between the lower left area and the area around the tree on the right. These two sections will need to balance each other in both detail and darks. I'm also starting to tone down some of the highlights on the rocks. The whites need to be retained for just the brightest highlights.

Shadow Creek Falls

2010-03-21T10:10:00.012-05:00

Shadow Creek Falls is nestled in the southern portion of Yosemite and is part of the Ansel Adams Wilderness Trail. This continues a series of drawings from my son's hiking trip to Yosemite last fall.

Part of the challenge to working with an impressive vista is to decide what to include and exclude. I am posting the reference photo to show you just how complex of a scene this is. Matt does an excellent job taking reference photos. He takes full scene shots as well as zoomed-in areas. He has a great sense of balance and composition that makes his photos a pleasure to work with.

My goal is to minimize the complexity and to emphasize the inter-play between the shadows, the tension of the boulders lodged between the crevices and the water finding it's way under, over and round the rocks.

The first step is to crop the image eliminate much of the 'extras' in the scene. Just this small change makes quite a difference.

Wip 1:

I have started with the distant background of the the mountain range. Snow is still visible on these glaciers in September. The tree line diminishes as it reaches to the top of the range.

Drawing Specs:
Paper: Fabriano Watercolor Hot press
Size: 11x17
Pencils used in the background: 2H flat chisel point clutch pencil and F .5 mm mechanical pencil for the trees.

Wip 2 - This scene has a number of background drops or layers. The mountain range creates two layers, one overlapping the other. Then another group of rocks fall between the range and another grove of trees. These have more form and definition to them but mostly drawn using negative drawing. This means drawing the dark space between the trees instead of drawing the actual trees. Once the tree shape is formed, detail is lightly drawn in to give the tree texture. Pencils used at this juncture are: 2B and F .5 mm mechanical pencils.

Wip 3: The Fabriano paper offers the ability to build up many layers of graphite. Starting with 4H - 2H flat chisel point clutch pencils allows large 'blocks' of shading to be done. Then alternating B and 2B creates subtle darkening. The darkest areas demand a strong application of 2B.

This is just over 1/2 of the image as the falls will continue to emerge down on the paper. I believe the image will remain unresolved on the edges, so the focus of the eye will remain on the falls itself.

Shadow Creek Falls - Sketch

2010-03-21T10:07:00.002-05:00

This is a prelimary sketch of a drawing that I am currently working on. I wanted to explore the shadows and the shapes of the rocks/boulders as they envelope around the water falls.

Lake Ediza

2010-02-28T11:39:00.002-06:00

My son will be keeping me busy with all the beautiful scenes from California. Over Labor Day weekend he went hiking in Yosemite. As they entered an opening in the trail, this is the view they were welcomed with. This is part of the glacial area. Snow is in the mountain all year round. They just reached Lake Ediza as the sun was setting.

Human Portraiture

2010-02-07T10:49:00.004-06:00

There is a small group of artists who belong to a yahoo group called "Drawing Line to Life". We started the group to study Mike Sibley's book of the same title. I am the moderator and over the last few months have started to review Mike's book again. We have reached Chapter 8 where Mike demonstrates drawing his granddaughter Charlotte. We have decided to expand the topic to encompass human portraiture.

This is such a big topic that we have decided to it break down into smaller segments. As we finish up on our first topic, eyes, I thought it might be beneficial to layout the schedule for the next few weeks. I would like to welcome anyone interested in exploring the topic of drawing human portraiture to join us in our discussions, step-by-steps and sharing of our progress.

Feb 1-13 Eyes
Feb 14-27 Nose
Feb 28 - Mar 13 Mouth
Mar 14-27 Ears
Mar 28 - Apr 10 Hair
Apr 11-24 Head
Apr 25 - May 8 Hands
May 9-22 Clothed Figure Drawing

I am the first to admit that I am not a portrait artist, but I am using this opportunity to stretch my skills and I hope you all join me in this journey into human portraits. After we have exhausted this segment on portraiture, we will resume our study of Mike's book with Chapter 9.

I would like to invite you to join us.......

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DrawingLinetoLife/

Diane

Editor's Choice

2010-01-31T16:32:00.002-06:00

I am so excited! I made Editor's Choice on Mike Sibley's Starving Artist site. It has been 5 years since I've had this honor. It is a hall of fame that I feel very priviledged to be a part of.

I have had a gallery on Starving Artist for 5 years. It's a great site for exposure, as Mike gets well over 10,000 hits per month. Walter Foster and Quarto publishing both "discovered" me from his site and it is an excellent match with my own website.

I can't thank Mike enough for all his support and encouragement over the years. He's been the greatest influence on my development as an artist as well as my success. Thank you Mike.

www.starving-artists.net

Commissioned Artwork of Small Proportions

2010-01-07T17:41:00.003-06:00

I recently completed a commission for a client of small proportions. He requested three landscape drawings 3"x 3" square in size. He plans to matt them together. Here is what I created for him.

Season's Greetings!

2009-12-23T07:27:00.007-06:00

Wishing you all the warmest greetings

for this holiday season!

From my hearth to yours,

Merry Christmas!

This is Copper, one of our five fur kids. I put up our Christmas tree and he instantly started chewing on the artificial needles. I scolded him and this was the look he gave me. Sort of a combination of sheer disbelief and "I am king, how dare you scold me!" .....priceless.....

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Diane

Harvest Moon

2009-11-01T18:45:00.003-06:00

Les called me outside this evening to take in the moon rising in the night sky. What a beautiful harvest moon - weaving in and out of the clouds. I'm not much of a night photographer but a couple of the photos turned out. Our neighbors tree added some rich reds. And our soft maple has just a couple of leaves hanging on. Fall has definitely taken hold.

Tree Stump

2009-10-28T18:06:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it's relaxing to do a simple drawing. I have been wanting to do this old tree stump for a couple of years and I finally got around to it. About 10 hours on Fabriano watercolor paper.

Enjoy!

Trail to Lake Ediza

2009-10-04T08:39:00.008-05:00

Here is an update.... the foreground has been layed in and surprisingly it ended up quite dark. I really didn't want the foreground to hold the viewers attention for long, but let it gradually follow the water up thru the trees and into the background.

Here is a small update as I didn't have much drawing time this week. Continued to work on the middle-area rocks, crevices and shadows. I've also sketched in the foreground rocks and placement of the wildflowers.

Expressive lines

At first glance of the scene, the cracks in the rocky landscape may "visually look" like nothing more than a line. But if you observe closer, you will see the irregularity of the crack or crevice. It will be darker and wider where the crack is more open and thinner and lighter where it is narrower. Closer observation and understanding of "what" you are looking at will help you determine that a straight and evenly applied pencil stroke will not realistically represent that crevice.

Let's take a focused look at a crevice in this rocky landscape. Here is a section enlarged. Mentally describe to yourself what you are seeing. "The ends of the crevice taper. There are darker shadows where the drop off is more vertical. The edges are not all smooth." This mental description will help you coordinate your eye to mind to hand dexterity. You will not just draw a straight line to represent it because you now know it's not just a straight line.

The more you observe, the more you understand what you are drawing, the more realistic your drawing will become.

The background is proving to be a challenge. Balancing the shadows and level of detail is so important. The scene is slowly coming together.

My son lives just 4 hours south of Yosemite National Park. Labor Day weekend, he and a friend went day backpacking through the Ansel Adams Wilderness just east of Yosemite. It was a tough hike, but they made it to Ediza Lake, camped overnight and then hiked back to Agnew Meadows. Matt got some really awesome photos for me. What a beautiful scene of my favorite subjects, rocks, water and trees!

Enjoy!

Royal Langnickel Sketch Kits

2009-09-24T16:58:00.008-05:00

Last year I designed the artwork for a series of Sketching Kits for Royal Langnickel. They are now available in hobby stores! They are very well put together and I am quite pleased with the finished product.

If per chance you purchase one the kits, however, I would highly recommend that you use good quality drawing paper instead of the board stock included.

Of course, there just had to be a barn in one of the kits!!!

Rick's - Japan Water Wheel - Update

2009-09-05T14:30:00.001-05:00

I posted an update to Rick's drawing, Japan Water Wheel under the following post:

Pushing into the Shadow

Indiana Barn

2009-08-30T12:18:00.008-05:00

Wip 8: Added a bit more shadow to the left and shaping of the foreground bush....

Wip 7: Shaded the face of the barn even darker, especially behind the bush and putting some detail back into the barn boards.Starting to define some of the grass in the foreground. The bush to the left if starting to be defined as well.

Drawing Stats:

the paper is mellotex

size: 7" x 8"

pencils: 2B and 4B 2mm clutch pencils

approx. 30 hr...so far

Wip 6: Really working on the deepest shadows to the right of the barn. Darkening that corner has really pushed the barn right out the page!

Wip 5: The background trees are adding depth to the scene...little spaces of sky peak through to keep the trees 'airy'.

Wip 4: Starting to take shape. I really like the splash of highlights on the left upper tree. And I'm starting to shape the trees in the background. I'm slowly texturing in the ivy and the barn face is deepening in shadow as well.

Wip 3: Again, I am really trying to force myself into creating dark areas and practicing some negative drawing as well. The entire left side of the tree will be deep in shadows...eventually

Wip 2: Working my way up the barn and into the shadows under the roof line. The holes in the edging of the roof line creates beautiful jagged shadows across the side of the barn.

Wip 1: Starting with a light outline of the barn and placement of the trees and bushes. I started in the center of the drawing where the most detail and contrast of values reside. My goal of this drawing is to work on tonal continuity/composition and really pushing the darks. I'm forcing myself to use some pretty dark/stark negative drawing to get me jump started.

This photo was one of the only barn shots I got traveling to Indiana....but what a shot it is! The lighting was great and the overgrowth of ivy incredible. This was is a true 'drive by shooting', taken while we were driving on Interstate 80 at 70 mph!

Pushing into the Shadow

2009-08-29T16:07:00.017-05:00

UPDATE: Sept 5, 2009

Diane: Using the 2H to burnish the dark areas, creates a nice rich and solid dark. What a great finish!!

Rick: I've enclosed the latest touch up effort using a 2H pencil and dropping the water into the wheel. Although I can still see area's that require additional touch-up I realize the for now the time has come for me to leave well enough alone and apply everything that I've learned from this drawing to my next effort.

Once again, thanks to you this drawing has been pure pleasure for me and I look forward to starting my next one.

Rick: I finally found the nerve to pick up the 4B pencil and give your "push the blacks" a go and I will be danged! "Henrietta began emerging right off the paper." Thank you much young lady! I may be an old dog but I see that even I can learn new tricks by paying attention. I still have a log way to go (I'm shooting for the moon) but as Neil Armstrong might say "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for Rick"

Diane: Wow....look at the difference!

Rick, a dear artist friend of mine, graciously shares his love of drawing landscapes with me. He sent me a drawing of his most recent accomplishment and asked me to critique it.

When asked if I could share this, Rick said “Posting the drawing along with your comments/improvements on your blog and on the DLL site would be terrific for me and certainly helpful for others. I am pleased that you asked.” I’d like to thank Rick for his generosity as this is an excellent instructional sample that others can benefit from.

Rick: “The below description of Mike and his instructions to you on drawing the hen really struck home when I remembered your critique of my water wheel drawing "Just keep pushing those darks. You will find a wider range of values to work with and objects will emerge with even more dimension."

"Every time he would walk by, he'd be gently coaching me to "go darker". This didn't really sink in until I started working on this final exercise. Henrietta is emerging out of a dark area and most of her body is in the shadows. As I started drawing the hen, I couldn't get this figured out. Mike stood behind me and kept saying "push the back of her body into the shadows". Through a leap of faith, I shaded the body into the shadows and like magic, Henrietta began emerging right off the paper." That was a terrific way to describe your success. I would love to look at my drawings and be able to see the same thing occurring.

Will you take another look at the water wheel drawing and apply your comment "Henrietta began emerging right off the paper." to my drawing?”

Diane: I love it! I can see that you are really enjoying drawing. This drawing has a beautiful feeling to it. The trees are so soft and atmospheric. I can see you are delving into the depths of shadows! Just keep pushing those darks. You will find a wider range of values to work with and objects will emerge with even more dimension.

Before I start, remember that I think your drawing is beautiful as is. Here are a few comments that I hope will apply the comment "Henrietta began emerging right off the paper." to your drawing:

This bottom area would also benefit from pushing into the shadows. There should not be delineation between the wheel and the shadows here.

Really work on building up the darks here. Use a 4B 2 mm clutch pencil and layer and layer. Use a clutch pencil with the sharpest tip you can make (something else I learned from the workshop! I bought a staedtler pencil sharpener on my way home!)

Be careful of obtrusive dark pencil strokes – instead “feel” your way into the darkest darks with circular or irregular small movements of your pencil.

Look at my exercise from Mike’s workshop…under the cart, the weeds behind the wheel. I kept pushing the weeds into the shadows.

Rick: I really appreciate you taking the time to look over the drawing and adding your comments. Now that you have brought certain things to my attention, I can readily see how these changes would add to the drawing, and I appreciate the fact that they will surely help me improve. That is exactly what I was looking for. I usually find that I am reluctant to go over a drawing once I complete it for fear of messing it up. This might be my one exception; however I will think about it a bit more before proceeding.

Diane: Don’t hesitate to practice on another piece of paper before making changes to the original drawing! You always want to draw with confidence as your hesitancy will be reflected in your rendition.

Drawing Old Weathered Wood

2009-08-25T16:34:00.009-05:00

Close observation of old barn boards can help you see and identify common characteristics of old weathered wood. Adding these "clues" as you draw can help create a realistic rendition.

- knots in wood

- grain of wood

- weathering (lighter areas)

- small cracks between the boards

- the bottom edges of the boards are more worn and uneven

- nails and old hinges, etc.

While it is tempting to use blending to create tone on old wood, there is a better way. I use a 3 layer approach to drawing weathered wood.

Layer 1 - Using a B or 2B .5mm mechanical pencil , sketch linear lines to match the direction of the grain. These are the areas of the wood where moisture has darkened the wood the most. Also add in knots, grain patterns and "flaws" in the wood. Add all the dark cracks or dark spaces between the boards using a 2B or softer lead. (rich blacks are recommended in these areas)

Layer 2 - Using a 2H chisel point on a 2mm clutch pencil, burnish a layer of graphite over the board. Use a firm even pressure in the same direction as the grain of the wood. This creates a light even-tone over the wood without losing any of the detail previously sketched in.

Layer 3 - Add any additional dark areas on top of layer 2. I like to add a few horizontal marks to "roughen" up the texture of the wood. Also, using a tacky eraser to drag in some highlights to create weathered areas can be done at this stage.

Diane

Fire Sky

2009-08-23T06:59:00.005-05:00

Les and I were dining at one of our favorite restaurants downtown, Hessen Haus. It was a beautiful evening so we were on the patio and the sun was setting. Les told me to look over my shoulder and this is what I saw....the Des Moines skyline was on fire! Actually the clouds were reflecting the sunset....these are the real thing, no alterations in photoshop!

It lasted for only a few minutes and then it was gone. I just so happen to carry a Nikon Coolpix camera with me all the time.

Sibley Workshop Exercise

2009-08-22T10:43:00.005-05:00

This is the final exercise Mike presented to us during his recent workshop.

Well, I'm coming to an end here. I've spent the afternoon experimenting with the weeds. I keep pushing them into the shadows and playing with some of the light highlights. (it's really such a cool technique!)

After two weeks, I am almost done. I've darken the facial features on Amy and pushing the rusty wheel under the cart and into the shadows. The plants are taking an unbelievable amount of time. I am focusing on the negative space between the leaves...working dark to light.

Louie, the cat, is peaking out amongst the weeds and Amy is starting to take shape.

Adding the wheel and weeds behind the dog, Amy.

Adding in the wood:

Mike tailored his instruction to each student's artistic skill levels. Since he is familiar with my artwork, I think he knew exactly what he wanted to emphasize to me. He really worked with me to understand the importance of pushing the darks...and I mean really push the darks. Everytime he would walk by, he'd be gently coaching me to "go darker".

This didn't really sink in until I started working on this final exercise. Henrietta is emerging out of a dark area and most of her body is in the shadows. As I started drawing the hen, I couldn't get this figured out. Mike stood behind me and kept saying "push the back of her body into the shadows". Through a leap of faith, I shaded the body into the shadows and like magic, Henrietta began emerging right off the paper.

Sibley Workshop - Indiana

2009-08-22T09:05:00.016-05:00

August 7-9 - Sibley Drawing Workshop - Indiana

It seems that anytime I converse with someone regarding my drawing journey, the name Mike Sibley always seems to be spoken. If there has been one individual who has influenced my development as an artist, it has to be Mike. He is not only a fantastic graphite artist, but he is also my web designer, my mentor and has become a very dear friend over the years.

I had the distinct pleasure of attending a drawing workshop presented by Mike in Goshen, Indiana. I finally got to meet Mike and his wonderful wife, Jenny.

The workshop was held in a unique venue. An old bag factory has been turned into a collection of specialty shops, galleries and artist's studios. We had the 3rd floor of this old warehouse as our gathering.

We had 12 artists participating in the workshop. So we received a lot of one-on-one attention from Mike. Here is a group shot of us all. There were several folks that I have conversed with on-line that attended so I felt as though I was meeting "old friends". Carl Wilson and Richard Fuller were amongst those. Amanuel is a another artist that I spent some time talking to as well.

My husband, Les, wandered around the workshop videotaping and taking snap shots. He was on his best behavior and I think enjoyed himself immensely just taking in the 'artist' scene. Les and Jenny explored the amish countryside and even took in an antique car show at the fairgrounds. Here is a photo of Jenny, Les, Mike and myself.

Carl Wilson, Les and myself hung out one evening and shared a brew at local pub. Carl lives in Maryland and had a 10 hour drive.

A public gallery reception was hosted Saturday night. Mike has several of his original drawings on display. I have a couple of his prints, but it was a special treat to see his original artwork. Images on-line and prints just do not compare to seeing the originals....seeing every pencil stroke and the incredible detail he obtains.

Vincent Whitehead and his wife Cheryl made a special 3-hour drive from Ohio for the opening reception. Vince is a pen and ink artist that shares the same love of landscapes and old barns as I do. Here is a link to his incredible artwork: http://www.rural-route-one.net/

The workshop was amazing. Mike spent quality one-on-one time with each artist. He covered topics of pencil techniques, textures and negative drawing. Mike's workshop is truly for artist's of any skill level...from beginners to well-seasoned artists. He assesses each artists skills and tailors his instructions accordingly.

Here is a shot of Amanuel, Mike and Carl. Mike is demonstrating how to draw hair.

I'm sitting next to Carl in class and that's fun too! We are helping each other as we do the exercises. It's tough to teach an old dog like me new tricks, so Carl is catching on quicker than I am! Carl is to my right and Mike is trying to explain to me to "DRAW MUCH DARKER"!!

Negative Drawing - This is challenging and amazing stuff! Finally the light bulb is lighting up! We were all working so hard, you could have heard a pin drop.

The last day of the workshop was dedicated to practice all the techniques Mike presented the previous two days. This allowed us to really absorb and test out our understanding of creating textures and negative drawing.

One of my most memorable moments was having Mike stand behind me and coach me as I was drawing. Mike gently repeated the phrase "push the subject back into the shadows." Then trusting his advice and watching things just appear on the paper....pure magic!

We finished the day with hugs and good wishes.

For me...this has been an experience of a life time. To have the chance to meet and work with Mike has been a dream come true. That I would ever have the opportunity to meet Mike Sibley in person!

I have to share one more thing...Sunday was my 50th birthday and Jenny bought a birthday card and had everyone attending the workshop sign it. Les bought a birthday cake and the group sang happy birthday.

Thanks for the bestest birthday gift ever! The gift of friendship.

Chain Maille Chess Set

2009-07-15T20:35:00.008-05:00

My son, Matthew, just completed this chain maille chess set. He has spent approximately 500 hours over the past 2 years creating the individual chess pieces and chess board. The rings are aluminum, copper and black anodized aluminum. The framed artwork is approximately 24"x46".

He is extra creative and decided to frame the chess board to save table space. The shelves are glass and he hand polished the edges smooth.

He has this at his office and there is a continual chess game going amongst his co-workers.

This is truly an beautiful and unique piece of functional artwork. Not bad for an aerospace engineer ( aka rocket scientist!!)

Detail of chess board:

Sample of the knight and pawn pieces:

One set of chess pieces:

Clouds Breaking

2009-07-12T13:57:00.006-05:00

There are days that the sky is so blue and crystal clear with soft cottony clouds billowing up. We've had some beautiful cloud formations this summer, typically an indication of thunderstorms brewing. I could watch these clouds all day long! Enjoy!

Red Rock Lake

2009-06-07T14:50:00.004-05:00

Red Rock Lake is located just west of Pella, Iowa. This section of the lake is the Elk Rock State Park area. We've spent quite a bit of time camping here and I love sitting down on the old driftwood logs listening to the water lapping the shores.

The shoreline is rugged with lots of jagged rocks and driftwood. Iron and coal deposits run through the bluff creating beautiful rusts, creams and charcoal colors with the backdrop of deep green trees.

This drawing is on mellotex paper. It's a smooth paper that accepts graphite well. It's easy to build layers of graphite and the sky was very easy with just a bit of graphite smoothed with a chamois. Time: 2 hours.

Size: 8 x 12 - Leads 4B, 2B and F.

Diane

New Book - Drawing LifeLike Subjects

2009-06-05T09:16:00.004-05:00

Walter Foster is releasing July 2009 a new book featuring highlights from 4 artist authors from the Drawing Made Easy series. The four artists are Diane Cardaci, Nolon Stacy, Linda Weil and Diane Wright. This book is 8-1/2"x11" and so the artwork images are twice the size of the Drawing Made Easy books.

I will not be selling this book directly but if you use the link to Amazon on my website, I will receive a small commission.

Tehachapi Mountain Park - A Bit of Paradise

2009-05-25T14:54:00.001-05:00

Tehachapi, California is a wonderland of different landscapes. This little rocky area in the park is an artist's dream... I could spend days exploring all the possible rock and tree groupings.

The rocks are rough with lichen and moss covered. But I concentrated on the shape of them. I opened the path up just a little bit.

Enjoy!

Tree Bark

2009-05-03T07:42:00.002-05:00

I started this drawing several months ago and set it aside unfinished. After such a break, you see it with fresh eyes and with a few hours more of work, I can call it completed.

This is a study of oak tree bark. The rich deep furrows, the rough textures and the movement of growth around the scarred limb cuts were wonderful to explore.

Enjoy!

Diane

Drawing - Structures and Buildings

2009-04-23T15:35:00.016-05:00

Buildings can create interest and diversity to a landscape. It can be the focal point or it can be a supporting actor. It can create a scene that tells a story, it can help put people or animals into perspective or create a backdrop for the scene. Buildings are one of the easiest ways to identify geographical regions. From urban skylines to country cottages, fishing shacks to barns, mines, mills, churches and historical architectural wonders - they are an endless resource for artists

COMPOSITION CONSIDERATIONS.

How much of the building do you want to include? Perhaps it's just a window, a door, or a corner of a building is used to create an interesting composition.

A part of the structure or the entire building may be drawn. But even if the building is the focal point, the surrounding landscape is just as important. It should complement and embrace the building.

Be sure objects are of the proper proportion. Checking the size of windows and doors to match the height of people, animals or other objects is important.

How to lead the eye through the scene? A road or a path can lead
and control the viewer's direction into the scene. The sway of the grass or a branch can also bring the scene together.

PERSPECTIVE

Drawing realistic buildings requires an understanding of perspective. If perspective rules are ignored, you will find the building will not 'sit' in the scene correctly. My book "Drawing Made Easy:Beautiful Landscapes" briefly touches on the subject. Two other good books include: Perspective (Artist's Library series #13) by William F Powell and Drawing Scenery: Landscapes, Seascapes and Buildings (The Art of Drawing) by Giovanni Civardi

Using perspective is fundamental to making a building structure look correct, but it should not dominate the artwork. Diligently drawing straight lines to perfect perspective sucks the life right out of the piece and the artwork will start to resemble illustration or architectural drawings. My preference is to use a t-square to confirm or correct my sketched outline. I will then deliberately freehand over a ruler line to breathe life back into the edge.

Perspective is used to create a sense of depth for the buildings, but paying attention to placement of objects, overlapping of objects and aerial or atmospheric perspective also have key roles in the success of the scene.

Consistent light source. Identify the direction of the sun and create the shadow angles consistently. This will create a solid 3-dimensional structure. Try doing thumbnail sketches to change the light source direction from early morning, to noon to late afternoon. Changing the direction of the shadows may create an entirely different mood or feeling to the scene. It can also help you understand the value composition better.

NEW v. OLD BUILDINGS

New buildings - The window frames and angles need to be sharp and crisp. On an older building these can be relaxed slightly, but they are still critical to the success of the building. On old buildings, perspective still applies. Unless the building has an intentional lean or ready to fall down, the vertical lines are still vertical and the side angles still converge to a vanishing point.

TEXTURES

This is where the fun begins. Bricks, stonework, shingles, window trimmings and old wood are just a few of the wonderful textures to explore when drawing buildings. I don't attempt to draw every brick or every stone in a building so I am always experimenting with pencil strokes to find just the right pattern to 'represent' the texture.

Graphite Art Reproductions - Creating High Quality Prints

2009-04-04T18:58:00.008-05:00

I am frequently asked questions about the process of creating high-quality prints of graphite artwork. Here is a series of Q&A from one such inquisitive artist and will hopefully take some of the mystery out of the print reproduction process.

Thank you so much for offering to help me.

You are most welcome. I am happy to help fellow graphite artists.

Disclaimer: In no way do I claim to have all the answers or even the best solutions but I am willing to share what I have learned through my own personal experience with creating prints.

I don't have a good scanner, so I usually take a picture.

This is great for computer usage, but as of yet, I have not been successful using anyone's digital camera image to create good prints. Since I don't charge much for my services, I can't afford to spend the time anymore, so that's why I require a scanned image.

The problem I see using a photograph is the image may lose those subtle grays. Even with a tripod, the camera's inherent nature is to create a unified image, thus losing the crispness and detail of each pencil stroke that a scan can pick up.

You mentioned that a person shouldn't send in an edited digital copy of a drawing. Is this because the monitor shows the drawing differently than a printer prints it?

Exactly, most images look better on the monitor when the contrasts are punched up. The printer doesn't need the contrast increased to that level. The more adjustments that are made, the more subtle grays are lost. Since I don't have the original drawing to compare to, I request the unedited and unadjusted images. I can't restore those grays once they are gone and some folks don't understand why their prints don't look like the original. My success rate on creating prints on the first attempt is over 95%. Occasionally I miss the mark and make them too dark or too light, but not very often.

When you print drawings, do you have to tweak them to make them come out right or are you able to just print them and they look great?

How much tweaking do I have to do? Not much.

Step 1: Scan the artwork at 300 dpi in color. Scanning at a higher resolution does not seem to increase the quality of the image. In fact, my scanner starts to pick up the texture of the paper if I go to a higher resolution.

Step 2: Open the image in Adobe Photoshop and zoom in on the image to visually look for any eraser residues, small flakes or blemishes and use the stamp tool to 'clean' these up.

Step 3: Then using the shortcut keys >CTRL< L to open the Balance histogram screen, I usually lower the white scale 3-5 points and increase the dark scale 3-5 points.

Step 4. Crop the image to the size you want and save the file in either .tif or .jpg format. Save the image in color.

Step 5: Use the printer's monochrome setting to create the monochrome prints.

When I take the picture I end up with the paper being gray rather than white.

I'm not a photography expert but I believe it's the white balance setting that needs to be adjusted. Scanning can produce a gray background as well. Try scanning at night to reduce the amount of shadowing that can occur. A Photoshop technique I've used on many artist images is to use the lasso tool, outline the image (such as a dog portrait), use the feather option at 30-50 and copy to a new layer. Then insert a solid fill layer that is white or off white depending on how much 'gray' is in the background. I can usually produce a print that has a "clean" background and is either white or 'less' gray. But there are times, when I have to retain the gray background as the alternative would be to lose the subtle grays.

I don't want to take my digital copy to any of the local printers, pay to get prints and find out they don't look like the original. How did you get into printing your own pencil art?

As other artists can contest, trying to get prints created from local printing shops is not easy. My experience was terrible. They had my original drawing for 3 weeks and after multiple phone calls, I finally picked up the print. The quality was so poor that it was unusable. And it was so expensive! $75 to scan the drawing, $75 setup and $75 for each print. At that moment, I was determined to create my own.

Do you know anything about lithography? How does it compare to what you do?

I don't know a lot about lithography other than the setup is expensive. Typically the production runs are 500-1000 to make them affordable. I don't know about you, but I can't store that volume or keep that kind of inventory! By creating my own prints, I don't have to keep any inventory and only print them as needed.

Lithography longevity ratings would depend upon the printer's materials used. Unless they specialize in artwork reproduction, they probably have no idea what their longevity ratings are.

The Epson archival ink is rated to last 92 years and the museum quality paper is rated to last 100 years. I produce high-quality prints that I don't hesitate to say will last between 25-50 years depending on the environment, lighting, framing etc. It is best quality that I create, I am confident in the materials and methods that I use, and ultimately that I am in control of the creation of my artwork from start to finish.

What kind of ink do you use to make them last a long time? What is Archival ink?

Here is a quote from the Epson website: Permanence, or how long a displayed print will last before noticeable fading, is where third party ink cartridges really pale in comparison to Epson ink cartridges. In a recent study, Henry Wilhelm, a leading authority on photo longevity, projected Epson inks to last for up to 92 years, while third party inks printed on the same paper were projected to last no more than a year.

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/store/landing/genuineink.jsp

When comparing printers be aware that there is a difference between lightfast inks and archival inks.

Do you have any suggestions for questions I should ask at the print shops I go to?

Here is a list of questions to ask:

Do they have experience in creating artwork reproduction and specifically graphite artwork?

Do they have examples of their work?

What kind of ink do they use and what is the longevity rating?

What kind of paper options do they have? Do they use museum quality paper? What kind of texture is the paper? Glossy or textured. Can you see a sample of the paper?

What is their guarantee? If the reproduction is not satisfactory, do you have to pay or will they work with you until it is?

What is their minimum number of prints required before a discount is given? 10,25, 50, 100, 500?

How large of artwork can they scan? Will you receive the scanned image on cd in a .tif or .jpg format? (I got my image in a format that would only work with their software...that was really useful!)

I'd like to learn about the printing process and what works well, so I can do my own, but I don't know where to start. I can't seem to find much info online.

It's not a difficult process as you can see from the steps listed above. Ultimately, it takes trial and error and experimentation to develop the steps that work best for you. Here are some on-line references:

www.epson.com

www.inkjetart.com

www.inkjetmall.com

Here is what you need to make your own prints:

1. A computer that has a minimum of 2 gig of ram. Scanning images can produce large files. A photo editing software is needed such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. A free editing software called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is available for Windows, Max and Unix systems. http://www.gimp.org/

2. Purchasing a good scanner is not a huge investment. Any of the Epson scanners are excellent quality and run about $150. Most flat bed scanners are only 8.5x12. The expertise comes in learning to Photoshop to 'stitch' scans together. Rich Adams has a great instructional tutorial on this topic over in the Artpapa zoo forum. http://www.artpapa.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18781

3. Recommended archival ink printers: Epson 2400 or Epson 4800

The only difference between the two printers is the size of paper it can handle. I have the Epson 4800 and use 17"x40' roll paper.

I use the Matte Black ink cartridge to create the graphite artwork prints. Since I do not use my Epson printer for creating glossy photos, I do not need to swap out the glossy and matte black cartridges.

4. Paper - Museum quality

I did a lot of experimenting with tons of paper samples. I am now exclusively using the Hahnemuehl Photo Rage one-sided paper, 188gsm. It is the most consistent and versatile paper that I have tried and produces beautiful prints.

http://www.inkjetart.com/cart/photo-single-sided-c-1_6_59_60_737.html

The smooth surface of Photo Rag can be used for many different applications. This quality – 100% cotton rag - is especially ideal for archival printing of black and white and color photographs.

Datasheet:

http://www.hahnemuehle.com/media/downloads/23/102_css19-photorag188-rev02.pdf

Spend some time on the www.inkjetart.com website. They have an incredible amount of information on printers, papers and inks and is one of the largest information resources available on-line.

After working and creating prints for artists, they asked enough questions and understood the process well enough that they purchased their own scanner/printer to make their own prints. I think that is great since it is by far the best way to stay in control of your creative process from start to finish. For other artists, they are more than happy to have me do the scanning/printing of their prints. And that is fine too.

Diane

2009-03-07T08:33:00.004-06:00

This is a rendering of a beautiful vista as we were leaving the Sequoia National Forest in California. We started our day in fog and clouds and we were worried we wouldn't see much, but the clouds quickly burned off leaving just a few cap clouds left.

Just around the corner, the terrain quickly changes from beautiful tall sequoia pines to the stark barren Mohave desert.

Cap clouds form directly over the mountaintop and occurs when humid air is forced to flow over the mountain, condensing into a cloud. The title adds just a little push to where the viewer's focus will ultimately rest.

This is a small drawing just 6.5" x 9" on mellotex paper. I started by toning in the sky, blending it smooth with a chamois and then worked from the background to the foreground. I used a 2B .5mm mechanical pencil for most of the drawing. Some of the broader mid-tone areas were done using a chisel point clutch pencil (2H).
Enjoy!

Diane

Lingering Winter

2009-02-28T10:41:00.004-06:00

Our winter has been a long one in Iowa. We've had snow on the ground since November. Spring is just around the corner but winter is lingering. This is a small stream that snakes it's way across a field just west of Mitchellville. It's visible if you look just between the trees from the road and after a heavy snow, it really made a beautiful scene.

Enjoy!

Summer Shade

2009-02-07T15:21:00.007-06:00

This is more of a study than a finished piece. I was intrigued by the dark shadows of this tree and wanted to see how dark I could go in the branches and bring depth to the tree.

Since the focus is on the tree, I thought I would keep it there by cropping the barn.
The image size is 5.5" x 7.5". I used 4B, 2B and F lead hardness.

Season's Greetings

2008-11-30T10:22:00.005-06:00

This morning we woke up to a snow winterland. Just enough snow to cover the trees. My husband asked if I wanted to go out and take photos, so I jumped at the opportunity! The roads were slick and a gal had run off the road. My husband stopped to see if she needed assistance and she was fine. As he was helping her, this was the view out my window.

So what a great story to start the holiday season and a great way to wish you all a Very Merry Holiday Season!

Diane

Sea Creatures

2008-11-29T14:14:00.005-06:00

Here are a set of 6 sea creatures that are being submitted for another project at Royal Brush Company. These are for sketch kits for 3-5th grade level junior artists.

Royal Brush Commission

2008-11-29T14:11:00.004-06:00

Over the past few weeks I have been working on a series of drawings for Royal Brush company. These images are going to be used 8 x 10" sketch kits. The age level is teenage to young adult.

Church of the Land - Living History Farms

2008-10-05T16:06:00.003-05:00

"The Church of the Land stands as a tribute to the idea that people of different religious faiths can live together peacefully.

The Church of the Land in Walnut Hill was built in the carpenter gothic style. The narrow points at the top of the windows, the ends of the pews, and the pulpit imitate the gothic cathedrals of Europe. During the 1870s, it was popular to mix different kinds of woods in the same room. At the Church of the Land, the ceiling is made from hemlock, the dark beams are cedar, and the pews and altar are red elm. The doors, window sashes, windowsills, and baseboards are pine, while the floor is fir.

The Church stands on the same hillside where Pope John Paul II spoke to an estimated 350,000 people on October 4, 1979. " (for more information, visit www.lhf.org)

This drawing will be available as open edition prints and notecards.

Fiber Artist - New Website

2008-09-29T20:57:00.003-05:00

I am so excited to share this new website!

http://www.fabricationsbydoris.com/index.htm

Doris Deutmeyer is an extremely talented artist who creates beautiful artwork by using fabric. Visit her website today and email her to welcome her into the international world through the internet!

2-1/2 Moos and 2 Barns

2008-08-09T15:31:00.008-05:00

The grass was really bugging me...so I chopped it all up. Instead of creating long wispy grass, I figured short choppy stuff might be better. It's looking better, but still needs some work.

Here is an update on the barns. I think I'm almost done. I've really attempted to develop strong tonal values through out the scene. I think it's working to bring everything together. Now if I can just figure out the clumpy grass and rough ground...it's just not quite right yet.

Well, the cows are in place. It seemed that I was losing the spacial depth between the two barns, so I have sketched in some fence. Hopefully this will put some distance between the two barns and put the cows in better perspective.I have more details to put on the barns and the roof needs to be shingled yet. The grass needs to be clumpy and the ground roughened up. I'm pushing the darks further as well.

Step one - Working on the the barn on the right and the shingles....

Moo.....

The original photo: The cropped version:
The cows....

Subscription to Blog

2008-07-31T16:48:00.003-05:00

I have added a new feature! If you regularly check in to see what I am working on, now you can subscribe via email and receive a notice every time I post an update!

Mike Sibley, my webmaster extraordinaire helped me figure this "widget" thing out! Thanks Mike!

Diane

Home Portrait Continued

2008-06-22T11:18:00.005-05:00

July 13, 2008

Well, I think for the most part this portrait is completed. I've added the driveway rock center, added shadows from the trees across the driveway and planted the hostas and grass in the foreground.

The foreground tree has been quite a challenge. It has enough detail to add interest to the portrait but I've had to be careful that it doesn't steal the show. I have a bit of gardening to do to plant some hostas around the roots and the driveway is left to do. Getting closer!

I've started working on the foreground tree here. The leaves are canopied to lead the eye to the house.

Here is an update to my current drawing. it's been slow developing but I really want to capture the wonderful details of this home. Springtime was a perfect time to take a photo as it allowed more open skies and the background trees are delicately placed in with light rendering.

The Many Faces of a Bridge

2008-06-14T09:53:00.002-05:00

This is the view from my office. The Des Moines River has made national and international news this week for showing it's angry side. Over the past 11 years, I have seen the many personalities of this river and the bridge. The flood picture is from my window just yesterday morning…during the last trip in the building before they closed the area.

Here are just a few of the many faces of the Court Avenue Bridge and the Des Moines River…

Iowa Flooding

2008-06-14T09:01:00.004-05:00

I have had a number of folks asking how I am faring through the Iowa flooding. I want to thank everyone for their checking up on me!

I am fine and my home is dry. However, my office building has made national news. It is located at 100 Court Avenue right next to the Des Moines River. It flooded on Wednesday evening, flooding out the Buzzard Billies Restaurant in the basement and destroying the power supply for the building. I have spent the past two days carrying servers, computers and printers out of the building and relocating to a temporary office space.

Here is an image from my office window just yesterday morning during my last trip in before they closed the area for evacuation....doesn't that look scary!? Just a few feet left before it goes over....

Home Portrait II

2008-06-01T07:21:00.005-05:00

The landscaping really accentuates this house. Unique bushes decorate the front of the home.

After a slow start, I finally got into a rhythm of drawing the stones. Once I figured that out, the house has started to immerge on the paper.

The first step is to create a light outline of the structure and details. Placement and proportions are determined at this point. I then shade in the tone of the sky. This allows the white of the paper to be used only for the highlights.

I have been commissioned to draw another home portrait. This one is in Beaverdale and is a beautiful stone house. It has a lot of features that remind me of Frank Lloyd Wright designs.

Home Portrait - Commission

2008-05-10T08:31:00.016-05:00

Well, looks like I've almost got this one completed. I've just got a few minor touch-ups. ....

I'm continuing to work on the trees behind the house. Just one more foreground tree on the right sweeping over the garage and it should be close to being completed.

I've added the foreground tree on the left....just a bit of overlap on the house to give some understanding to the tree reflections on the house. I've got a bit more shaping to do on the leaves and branches but it's almost there. Then it's the foliage at the back of the garage to frame the house nicely....

I've almost completed the house.;.. I need to do some adjusting of the tree reflection values but I'm going to wait until I finish the grass and trees.

With the bushes completed in the front and just a hint of the pattern on the garage door, the portrait is starting to come together. I'm saving the best for last...the trees, foliage and grass!

This view was taken in the early evening. This allowed some beautiful tree shadows to play across the front of the house. I don't want to draw too much attention to them but they will certainly add interest this portrait.

More of the house is completed and I'm just starting to add the trees in the background. Since this is a newer architecture, the corners and trim need to be more crisp and true. But it's coming along nicely.

I'm starting at the top of the house and working my way down.

I start the drawing with the house framed in - care is taken to make sure all the angles and perspective are 'just' right. Then I shade in the sky and lift off areas for the clouds.

This is the reference photo for a commissioned work. Paul is getting married at the end of June and as a wedding gift he requested a graphite home portrait be created of his fiance's house. It is a simple 1-1/2 story home, but it has so much charm. What a unique gift to his bride.

Featured Artwork

2008-03-24T17:02:00.008-05:00

Two new art instruction books have just been released by Quarto Publishing Company of London. Both of these books feature my artwork! For those of you who follow my artwork, you may even recognize the cover of the Landscape book - The Mitchellville Barn #2!

Each book features 3-4 of my artwork. If that isn't enough to convince you to purchase them, well each book holds lots of great information on how to draw Still Lifes and Landscapes.

The Still Life Sketching Bible by David Poxon
ISBN: 0-7858-2362-X

The Landscape Artist's Drawing Bible by Hazel Harrison
ISBN: 0-7858-2361-1

DIANE WRIGHT
Artwork Featured in two new books!

Westwinds Ranch VA

2008-03-16T11:26:00.003-05:00

Here is the completed drawing cropped, adjusted and changed to grayscale.

There is a slight tractor path where the grass is crushed. I used this to help lead the eye into the distance.

And before I knew it, the drawing was complete.

I hope this all helps you in your drawing endeavors!!

I am working on a number of things in this phase. I have sketched in the rest of the tree branches. Again, I am very careful where I place the branches and making sure I keep the viewer’s eye in the frame by bending the branches gracefully down.

The barn has these beautiful logs for the boards in the center section – I don’t know if I captured them very well, but the texture seems right. I also danced a few tree shadows across the front of the barn which adds a lot the scene and allows me to keep those logs a bit bleached out.

I continue to work on the shorter grass in front of the barn.

This is #7. My left-handedness took over and I’m working right to left again. I worked from the background trees forward into the overgrown grass and weeds. It looks like the tree is actually in front of the fence, but I pushed it behind and kept it less distinct. The weeds and grass are difficult for me to describe how they show up on the page. I just start drawing long and short pencil strokes. I then use my battery operated eraser and go over them – creating layers of grass, then I shade in-between the blades to create depth. I have multiple layers of this process until they look okay.

I am very observant on the direction the weeds point. I don’t want them leaning out of the frame as that will lead the viewer’s eye out the picture. I really use the weeds and grass to lead the viewer’s eye through the drawing.

I worked the shadowed side of the barn in at the same time as the grass. I actually did the barn first and then used my battery eraser to create thin strips of grass. I use sandpaper to shape the tip of the eraser to a point. After I have them laid in, I draw back in the dark areas to thin and shape the grass.

I have built a bit more depth to the foliage on the right. I have added some tree branches and shaded areas at the base of the trees. I also darkened the corner of the barn roof to give more contrast between the roof and the trees.

I have also toned down my foliage on the left using a chisel point clutch pencil – H. I also gave highlights to the orange tree and a bit more shading – to give it more roundness.

Continuing on….I have shaded in the darkest areas in the barn. If you lighten the reference photo or look very closely, you can see the rafters inside. I always try and give a hint of something inside the barn. This adds interest and intrigues the viewer to explore the shadows and use their imagination of what they see.

The roof of the barn was created using a clutch pencil with a chisel point. The hardness of the lead was H. I used long strokes of the pencil making sure I followed the slope & angle of the roof line. I also added the tree shadows on the roof. Be careful to not draw the shadows with angled pencil strokes. The shadow needs to lay on top of the barn. The pencil strokes therefore have to be in the same direction as the barn roof.

I have started to lay in the tree behind the barn. I am getting the first layer down with little depth. It is more to get the texture and shape of the area.

I have decided to cut the picture frame down some. I should have done this before I started. If you look at the image the barn is almost centered in the frame. If I remove about 2-1/2 “ of foliage on the right, this will move the barn over to the right, making the composition more pleasing. Also I will pull the bottom of the frame up and not draw as much grass. I like my drawings with a tight composition. I consider the extra foliage on the right and the grass on the bottom unnecessary ‘stuff’. It doesn’t add to the picture, so I remove it. I have cropped this image so you can see my new size. I will erase the extra sky before my next scan.

I am really enjoying this drawing. I am purposely keeping everything loose and attempting not to overwork any section.

WIP 5

I have roughly laid in the trees (the dense foliage). Because of the distance it is from the barn – there really isn’t much detail to them. Concentrate on the shadows, work dark to light. I like to put in the detail tips of the trees first and then work my way down the trees. I use negative drawing to put the dark shadows behind the lighter trees.

I might come back and soften some of the rougher pencil lines, but I wanted you to get the feeling of how I ‘scribble’ in these forms.

I used a F lead .5mm mechanical pencil using my underhand grip to draw these.

Wip 4 and detail

I have lightened the sky where the mountain range and sky meet. I used a tortillon to smudge in the distant mountain ranges. I have a tendency to put in too much detail in the distance – so I’m purposely keeping this very vague.

Here is Wip 3 and a detail of the distance mountain.

This project is a joint effort by Rick Chancey and myself. I have been working with Rick over the past few months giving him pointers on drawing. Rick discovered this beautiful reference photo taken by John Hirt http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2320563120083311768NLCRQF. John has graciously given Rick permission to draw this scene and use it for our project.

Rick and I have decided to draw this scene together. Rick has encouraged me to post my wips and step-by-step process to assist others as well.

The paper is 11x14 300 Series Strathmore Bristol smooth. I printed the image off in a 4x6 photo paper and I also printed a copy 11x14 in grayscale. By printing off a copy the same size as the drawing image, I don’t have to work so hard enlarging the image. The grayscale also helps me get my values closer. I will actually set my drawing next to the grayscale image for comparison. I did save some time by using a light box to draw the building. While I definitely can draw the barn freehand, I save hours of time by lightly drawing the outline of the barn.

The barn in this image is placed well, so it lends itself to a straight transfer. You always want to make sure the vertical lines of the building are 90 degrees to the paper. Once I have the outline in place, I turn my paper upside down and lightly crosshatch the sky area. You can see I was fairly heavy handed in my crosshatching. I used a HB .7 mm mechanical pencil. If I really wanted a smooth sky, I would have used several more layers using a F hardness. But this sky has clouds and trees that are covering a large portion of the sky area, I’ve chosen to keep it fairly rough. I use a chamois to blend the cross-hatching smooth. I use an F hardness in a couple of layers to help smooth out some of the rougher areas. Then I use a t-square ruler and erase the over-blending from the edges. You can see that I have blended over the trees and the background mountain range. I’ve used a white eraser to lift out the clouds. I’ve smoothed them out with a chamois. As I work on the foreground, I will typically fiddle with the sky to smooth it more and define the clouds if needed. That’s it for Wip 1 and 2. Now I am going to work on the background mountain range and I will keep you posted!

Wip 2
Wip 1

Featured Artwork in New Book

2008-03-05T17:08:00.003-06:00

"Different Strokes - Pencil"

By David Poxon

This is a unique drawing instruction book as it gives 15 side-by-side demonstrations of the same subject by two different artists. They are very complex subjects and offer very good insights on the different approaches taken on the same subject matter.

And I had the wonderful opportunity to contribute a step-by-step demonstration for this book!

ISBN 10# is 1-60058-054- 8

ISBN 13# is: 978-1-60058- 054-3

It is available for purchase at Amazon.com

Diane

Mabry Mill

2008-03-02T11:02:00.002-06:00

March 3, 2008

Many times I will have more than one piece on the drawing board. This is one of those times. While I am working on the Nature Scenes, I have been working on this beautiful scene of the Mabry Mill. The photo I am using as a reference was taken by Gayle Swanson of California.

I was taken by this scene due to the wondeful lighting. Something that I am attempting to improve in my artwork.

Nature's Talons

2008-03-02T10:58:00.005-06:00

I took the plunge and punched up the values throughout the scene. I have textured the rock and made a few angles and crevices.....

I've done a lot of messing around with this one. I've pushed, shaded, highlighted, textured and basically over-worked this piece. I might try this one again, once I figure out just how to contrast the rock and tree roots textures.....

Nature's Talons

This is a drawing that I have started over at least 3 times. There are a number of challenges in this piece....I want to really capture the strength and depth of the roots as they wrap themselves around this rock. I want to contrast the textures of the rock and tree bark. I really want to create/use the lighting for more drama and finally, I want to make the background very atmospheric. With all these criteria, this one has developed the farthest. I'm not sure if it will be the final version...but it's getting closer. This is difficult as I am making subtle changes from the reference photo to my drawing image. Something I am continuing to strive for. I am free-handing the objects to allow my 'vision' of the scene be more interpreted. I am finding the lighting to be the greatest challenge. The reference photo has the sun behind the tree causing most of it in shadow. I am attempting to pull the sun to the right to create cast shadows of the roots onto the rock to create more drama and depth.

Piute Mountain Series III

2008-03-02T10:31:00.004-06:00

Continuing on my Nature Series of the Sequoia National Forest in So. California, here is another view.

This drawing is 8.5 x11" on mellotex paper. I am still trying to get use to drawing on this smooth surface. Creating smooth skies is a breeze as well as drawing rocks and pine trees. I am challenged by the bed of pine needles that cover the ground and drawing grass. I will have to keep working on develop different techniques on this paper.

Enjoy!

Piute Mountain Series II

2008-01-13T09:06:00.002-06:00

Here is the completed drawing. I worked on the movement of the branches in the tree. I attempted to keep the area between the branches more open, leaving more of the sky and background visible. The area on the bottom left had me stalled for awhile. But I decided upon added a few rocks to keep the area simple allowing the focus of the drawing to be in the middle plain.

Here is the completed drawing. I worked on the movement of the branches in the tree. I attempted to keep the area between the branches more open, leaving more of the sky and background visible. The area on the bottom left had me stalled for awhile. But I decided upon added a few rocks to keep the area simple.

The tree branches are a challenge. I am trying to make sense of the tangled branches. Using caution not to be too organized but still control the flow and direction of them. The rocks behind the tree still need some work. The two dark ones next to the tree need a bit of adjustment as they ended up being the same size and look like two eggs instead of rocks.

Doing a preliminary sketch first and then sketching out the scene for the final drawing is providing me with an extra opportunity. This allows me to exaggerate limbs or slightly alter the placement of objects freely on the paper. Something I rarely do. This drawing is approximately 7 x 9" and is again on the mellotex paper.

The sky is done by laying down a light crosshatching of "F" .5 mm pencil, then chamoising smooth. The next foggy layer was done with a dirty tortillion and the distant pines are done using a 2B .5 mm pencil with short strokes and a tad of blending with a tortillion.

The rocks and tree are boldly shadowed by 4B .5 mm pencil - something I rarely use right off to bat but seems to be working well.

Continuing on with my nature studies, here is the reference photo. This is another view from the Sequoia National Forest in California. We visited our son and took a day trip through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Below is a sketch I did to get a feel for the scene.

Piute Mountain Series I

2008-01-10T18:12:00.002-06:00

I have darkened the rocks on the left and lightened the black 'halo' around top rock. I have also darkened the foreground and gave more definition to the foreground rocks.
This drawing is 7" x 9-1/2".

I have adjusted some of the rock edges. Making them a bit less straight and more angular. I extended the path all the way to the top of the ridge and I 've been working on darkening the path.

Is this a retake of a previous drawing? Well in a sense. I am trying out a new paper - Mellotex created in England. It is an ultra-smooth, ultra-white paper with a matte finish.

I think I may have overworked some areas but this is really giving me a great opportunity to play with textures. It has a wonderful flat matte feel to it that I enjoy. I can layer and layer and layer. And I can create the mid-tones easily, which is something I have always struggled with.

I still have a bit to do with this scene yet. The foreground and the path needs some work yet.

Enjoy!

Nature Study

2007-12-01T08:41:00.003-06:00

I think I am finished with this study.....

I've finished the tree (although I think I need to do some more shading for depth on top.). I starting to work on the small path between the rocks. I've blocked in the rest of the rocks on the left as well.

I'm progressing on the pine tree in the background. It is more of a silhouette than much detail. I should have toned the sky before I started. This would have allowed the highlights in the rocks stand out more. I'll call this one a nature study as I really am just experimenting with textures and shadowing.

This is the first WIP. I am still experimenting with trying to capture the rocks. Between the fluid cracks and the subtle shadows and textures, they are a real challenge to do.

This fall we had a wonderful opportunity to visit our son in Tehachapi, CA. He recently moved out there to work at Scaled Composites in Mohave. We spent one day in a delightful trip to the Sequoia National Park. Taking a narrow, mountain road we reached the top at 8,000 feet elevation. This was one of the peaks. I was thrilled to get a number of great photos of rocks and trees.

Jawbone Series

2007-10-07T15:42:00.000-05:00

Two hours after finishing & posting the deer....here is Mr Bob. This tortoise is 109 years old and lives at the ranger's station. I worked as quickly as possible, attempting to capture the textures and strong shadows.

I've just completed the third one in the series: a mule deer. Just look at the size of those ears!

Here's the second in the series: A little kangaroo rat.

While visiting our son, Matt, a few weeks ago, we stopped at the Tehachapi ranger station. Robin, the gal from the station, requested that I create some Death Valley critter notecards. It sounds fun to do and a chance to draw some unusual little creatures.

This is the first of a series that I will be creating. This is an antelope ground squirrel:

Morning Coffee

2007-09-29T18:25:00.001-05:00

Now onto the towel. The folds in the towels and the edging add interest to the bottom of the drawing. The highlights pull out the folds nicely.

Now onto the wallpaper. I have no intention of drawing the intriquit design of the wallpaper, however, just an impression of the design has been rendered. I have shaded the top corners to draw the attention right back to the coffepot and grinder.

I might make some minor changes yet, but I think I just might be done!

I have added the burlap sack and coffee beans. The intent of my drawings is not to include every detail of an object, but just to give an impression of it. This holds especially true to the sack and beans. I have only given the hint of threads in the sack and the beans are more texture and shade than individual beans.

I have been able to get a little bit done this week on the coffee pot. I am using Arches Watercolor Hot press paper which has a much softer feel than the usual paper I use (Strathmore Bristol Smooth). It also scans with a very creamy color. I have not changed the image to a grayscale. But will shortly.

Still lifes really provide an excellent opportunity to explore different textures and the how light plays on different types of surfaces.

I've been contemplating a still life using a coffee grinder for quite some time. Finally have found the right ingredients. I just picked up the coffee pot today, borrowed the coffee grinder from my best friend, Char, and made the burlap sack and filled it with Starbucks expresso beans. Found some material that looks like old fashioned wallpaper of the 1890's. I think I'm ready to start. Now I just need to decide what kind of lighting to use......

Haceta Light House - Oregon

2007-09-09T07:47:00.000-05:00

"Joseph01" from ArtPapa.com shared a photo of a beautiful lighthouse with me. It is called the Haceta Light House by Florence, Oregon. THANKS JOE!

I started this drawing as a drawing demonstration at the local art store. They were having a grand reopening this weekend (Sept 7-8) and asked me to participate with a book signing and conduct drawing demos. I had a great weekend meeting a lot of nice folks! And even sold a few books!

Old Weathered Barn

2007-08-18T15:36:00.000-05:00

I have continued to work on the grass and the left side. I think I need to add a worn path the barn door on the left as well as develop the tractor road in the foreground more.....

It's coming along nicely. I have just a bit of the grass and the background trees to complete and it is almost done!

I have been very busy at work, so my progress on this drawing has been very slow. But it is progressing well.... I blended the sky with a very light tone. This allows the whites on the silo to be the whitest part of the paper..... I am adding a tractor path to the barn and opened the doors. A few minor changes to enhance the overall composition.

Mike Mac was gracious enough to allow me to use his photo for this scene. The original photograph can be found on his Ohio Barns website:

http://www.ohiobarns.com/miscpages/weatheredbarn/wb13.html

This big beautiful barn has so much character with the ivy growing on the barn as well as the decorative louvered windows. This one just called out to me to draw.

Adam & Andrea

2007-07-21T10:12:00.000-05:00

I think it's done! I have lowered Adams bangs and defined the area on the right side of his face.

Here is a big jump from the last scan to this one. I didn't want to stop and scan! There might be some minor tweaking to do but I do believe it's almost done!

Adam's face is very angular. It makes it much easier to get shadows and placement! I will be softening them up yet. But it's coming along.

Okay, with the help of my son, (he has an excellent critical eye) I am attempting to get Andrea look a bit younger and more of a likeness....

I continue to bring 3-dimensionality and form to Andrea's face. I am going to move over and start on Adam's features as I want to build both faces tonal features as consistently as possible.

I start by creating a very light outline of the facial features of both Adam and Andrea. This is used as a guideline for placement and positioning of the features. I start with a 2B .5mm mechanical pencil and create the eyes. I use the 2B lead to shape and shade the form of her face. Using a chamois I smooth out the graphite and then lift out the highlights with a kneutgummi eraser. This eraser is much softer that the Blu-tack that I typically use. It lifts the graphite much easier and works well for this feature.

This is Adam and Andrea.

Tiger Lilly

2007-07-07T07:34:00.000-05:00

I think this is completed! It is easy to overwork a subject like this, so I am going to stop before I lose the freshness. The background is left very rough and gives just the impression of stems and leaves.

I am working my way around the flower. I have to concentrate on making sure the pedals flow consistently and smoothly to the center of the flower. Not always easy to accomplish. I have had to make continual modifications of the white seam as well as the edges of the pedals to to keep the flow looking natural.....

I erase the white seam of each pedal with the white eraser. I then start working in the detail of each pedal using a F .5mm mechanical pencil. The subtle changes of values is important to create depth, while keeping the velvety texture. I work the background at the same time as I draw the pedal. I will be keeping the background blurred and indistinct.

It might seem odd to draw a flower in graphite. The brilliance of color to represent the subject matter is tempting. I feel flowers are an excellent subject matter to explore in graphite. The soft gentle pedals against a textured and abstracted background lends itself well to contrasting textures, light and shadows and the whole gambit of drawing exploration.

Flowers can be treated as studies, still lifes, or incorporated into landscapes. The possibilities are as endless as the varieties themselves.

To create the soft look of the pedals, I use the same technique as I use for skies. I cross-hatch the pedal using HB lead, then chamois the area smooth. I erase the over-smear to a crisp edge using a white plastic eraser.

Red Rock Canyon

2007-05-29T07:01:00.001-05:00

I have been requested to post some detail shots of the tree.
So here are a couple of close-ups:

I'm not sure how much farther to work this drawing. I have a feeling I am finished, but I will let it sit for a few days and see if anything calls out for more detail. ENJOY!

I've worked some more on the background mountain range. It's tempting to put more detail in but it really needs to remain fairly non-distinct. The branches on the ground are also slowly taking shape as well.

I am working the background in before I get to the edges of the tree branches. I want to make sure the background is going 'behind' the tree. You can see the background bushes increasing in size adding depth to the scene. I have also sketched in the branches laying on the ground. This tree is so hardy...even the broken branches are still green with needles.

I am starting to lay in the background. Using a 4H chisel point clutch pencil, I start layering the desert ground. With a F .5 mm mechanical pencil I start to draw the small bramble bushes in the background. I have darkened the branches in the the shaded areas and it seems to be helping to bring life to this unique tree.

I am ever so slowing making my way through the tree. This is very time consuming as there is so much rich detail I don't want to miss! I have been working on this drawing off and on since January. But in the last 3 days I've made a bit of progress......

Last fall my husband and I vacationed in Las Vegas. While Vegas didn't hold much interest for me with all it's neon lights and gambling, we spent a couple of days outside of town. Red Rock Canyon is just 15 minutes west of Vegas and is truly a beautiful wonder to behold. This cedar tree is not very tall - perhaps 10 -15 feet, but what a rustic character it is!! I start the drawing by lightly cross-hatching a layer of graphite using 2H down for the sky. I then chamois this smooth. Using a white eraser I lift out just a hint of clouds. I start the tree's needles at the tip and am concentrating on the dark sections. I am using negative drawing to 'draw' around the trunk areas, leaving them white.

Tennessee Barn - Continued

2007-04-29T12:39:00.000-05:00

It' s been a while since I've had the opportunity to work on this one. I think I am done with it but the grass may need just a touch more...

Hawthorne Tree Study

2007-04-11T14:24:00.000-05:00

This is a Hawthorne tree that resides in North Yorkshire England. My good friend, Mike Sibley, was so kind to take photos of some local trees for me. It is a small tree but has so much character with it's old knarly bark and knots and distinct leaves with small red berries.

This was drawn on Arches Watercolor paper, hot press. Size is approximately 9x12".

Barn Commission

2007-03-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

I believe this one is ready for a signature. I have laid in the grass and the lane gently curves into the picture...leading the viewer right into the scene. The tree shadow blanketing across the lane adds interest as well.

This is coming along nicely. I have the fence lines in and the driveway is starting to take shape. The grass is slowly taking form as well. The foreground tree on the left wraps the scene nicely together.

I've got the garden planted! This sure brings back memories of all those garden fresh vegetables...cabbage, carrots, beans, tomatoes and corn. I've started on the fence work and the lane as well....

I've drawn in the silo. It has a metal dome with lots of sun reflection. The silo itself is a brick one. Consistent with my approach, I do not draw every single brick. Instead I draw just enough to give the impression of bricks. I am careful to indicate a curve to give the silo a cylindrical shape. I continue with the trees in the background and the shed to the left of the building.

There is a maze of fences to decifer in the front part of the barn. I will have to look closely at the photo reference to see where they go.....

The barn is next... I have added just a few wispy clouds in the sky. Just enough to add interest, not enough to compete with the rest of the scene.

Since I am left-handed I work from right to left. For me that is a natural progression. It might seem a bit backwards to most people. I have decided to include just a few of the round hay bales but they disappear into the trees on the right. The background tree line and field are added as well.

I start by creating an outline of the barn and surrounding elements. I then create a smooth, toned sky.....

The size of this image 17.5 x 10".

I enjoy doing commissions for people. But when the subject matter includes a old family farmstead, it is even more enjoyable. This one is no exception!

My client provided me with a couple of photos of a barn. She is giving this drawing to her mother for her 75th birthday. What a beautiful barn and a wonderful gift....

Here are the two reference photos that I am working from. The panoramic is of the barn just before it was torn down. The black and white is how they all remember it looking like. I will be combining elements from both images to create an image from the past.....

Tennessee Barn

2007-02-04T09:50:00.000-06:00

I've had to set this drawing to the side for just a bit, but promise to get back to it soon!!!

Fellow artist, Gregg Stone, shared a wonderful photo he had taken of a Tennessee barn. I've been itching to draw it ever since he sent it to me. This drawing is currently on my easel while I have been 'meeting the public' at Barnes & Noble.

Barns in Iowa don't weather (age) like this one! This has such rich beautiful darks. It's the darkest I've ever attempted in a drawing. I have much of the barn face completed and will be starting on the background soon!

Enjoy!

Barnes & Noble Display

2007-01-08T16:20:00.000-06:00

Here is my display at Barnes & Noble! I plan on returning in the evening to take more photos so I don't get so much glare on the artwork glass. But I couldn't wait to post some photos.

Lessons at WetCanvas!

2007-01-03T13:31:00.000-06:00

Well, it's official. I will be conducting a series of drawing lessons on Wetcanvas.com starting January 11, 2007!!! I am really excited about this opportunity!

Many artists are intimidated at drawing landscapes. By breaking each component of a landscape down into smaller pieces, anything is possible! We will start by exploring skies. Then we will learn techniques on how to draw rocks, water, grass and trees. We'll finish up by combining all of these components into a complete landscape.

Come join us at www.wetcanvas.com in the Drawing & Sketching forum. See you there!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T20:29:00.000-06:00

It has been a great year and I am really looking forward to what the new year has in store for me! It is New Year's Eve... my son is home from Houston, Tx and has a number of his friends over celebrating.

And I'm cloistered in my studio drawing......rocks. Yup that's right. I am doing a rock study for a rock tutorial. Thought I would share! I have the rocks completed, now just have to finish the ripples in the water, and some grass and leaves.