Post squares diptych 010313.

For this image, because the swan in the photograph from the Post was so beautiful, I found two different square inches to create a diptych.

I was so disappointed when the randomly chosen colored pencil for the white swan came up black. But now that the drawing is finished I see that the strong graphic shape works well.

The photograph, from January 3rd, illustrated the good news that the Chesapeake Bay may be regaining its health.

If you are just joining me here, I've been taking the main front page photograph of the Washington Post and finding a square inch (or, in this case, two) to abstract into a drawing usually measuring about 4 inches. I choose the colors for each section by randomly, and without looking, selecting a pencil from my box full of Prismacolors.

I'm using the photographs to start because I like to have a reference from something that I can abstract and make my own. Selecting random colors makes it great fun! I love to see how the piece is going to turn out, like a surprise package opened. And it gives me ideas for color combinations I might not think of myself, as well as pointing out ones I don't want to use in the future!

These pieces are studies I plan to turn into three-dimensional mixed-media work.

I'm not sure I want to have them be quite so representational as this one turned out, so I will probably work on abstracting the image more for future drawings.

Post square 010213.

Another abstraction of a square inch of the photograph featured on the Washington Post, January 2nd. It's part of a trellis over a celebrating, newly married couple.

I did the whole drawing in the layout pencil first, letting the colored pencil smear and blend with the graphite.

I've been experimenting with different brands of colored pencils and find I definitely prefer Prismacolor. They have a rich waxiness that allows for nice, opaque covering of the paper. I'm using a smooth-surfaced card stock.

This drawing, with its randomly chosen colors (I close my eyes and grab a pencil from my shoe box of colored pencils for each color section of the drawing) is 3.75" X 4.25".

Post square 010113.

I took the main front page photo of the Washington Post on January 1st, and found a square inch that I thought would make an interesting design. I made an abstract sketch from it and blew it up to a drawing measuring 4.5" X 4.25". You may recognize some of the classical architectural forms of the DC buildings from the photograph.

I used the graphite again, specifically an Ebony Layout pencil, under the colored pencil and smudged it. The stronger, little black squares on the pink are done with ink over the pencil. Again, using randomly chosen colors. The columns in the bottom right were royal blue with that yellow (yuk) and I toned it down by smearing over the blue with the yellow creating that sort of hairy effect and I like that.

Colored pencil drawing 123112.

5" X 4.25", another randomly chosen colored pencil drawing. I've used some graphite here, in the top swirl, under the colored pencil and love the smear! To finish this drawing I burnished the whole surface with a piece of tissue which gave it a wonderful satin finish and a hazy halo around the edges, which I like.

This is the last one based on a tile. Even though it's quite different from the original design, I still don't want to continue using the basic idea of another contemporary artist. A non-living artist feels okay, but not an artist who is currently producing. So, in the next drawings I have another idea...

Colored pencil drawing using an abstracted design from a tile and randomly chosen color. 4" X 4.25"

These are turning out to be interesting (to me, anyway!) color experiments. I'm building my vocabulary of colors and color relationships. I have never been a faithful student of color theory, so I'm still having a lot of fun seeing what color I'm going to pull from the box, and then seeing what it does in and to the design.

Experiment with rice paper.

Another colored pencil drawing (randomly chosen colors), this time printed on rice paper using my color copier. I crumpled the print, flattened it again and brushed it with black ink to enhance the creases. I painted the back of the print with acrylic medium, and while that was drying I rolled bond paper, with music printed on it, into tubes and glued them to card stock (next time I'll use mat board so that it stays flat). I formed the rice paper print over the tubes using acrylic medium to adhere it and also over the surface. The medium made the print somewhat transparent, so the music is visible through it. I formed the paper at the ends of the tubes to have an opening because I want to use this in a larger piece with something (not sure what yet) extending from the tubes. It's 5"X7"...so far.

Colored pencil drawing 122912.

Hey! I'm back. Happy New Year.

I wanted to show you the first in a series of colored pencil drawings I'm doing and that I really like. They are inspired by the project I did on Day 363 (last year) where I had to really work the pencil to get a saturated color, which I'd never done before. And, you'll love this part, the colors were chosen by picking out a pencil at random from my box of about 100 different colored pencils. When I see what my blind groping has come up with I say yikes! I would never have chosen THAT! and then it turns out to look more interesting to me than what I might have chosen on purpose. Random. Fun. Spontaneous! Oh, and the initial drawing (design) is a loose interpretation of a fragment of something I saw somewhere.

This drawing is about 4.5" square.