Open Tulip-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I can't say this looks very promising at this stage. I've been wanting to paint this open tulip for a while, from a photograph I took in Toronto last year. It's on a 12 x 12-inch square of masonite.

China Book

© Ellen Blonder

I just learned how to put a link to my China Book on this blog, something I designed on Blurb.com after my 2009 trip. I'm not selling it as of now, but click the link for an armchair tour. Sorry I can't make the photos bigger.

Most of the photos are mine; some are taken by my cousin Rose, my traveling companion. I took over 1,400 photos. The book has around 500.

Colored Pencil Peony-Final

© Ellen Blonder

Shading in the petals was far more difficult in colored pencil than my usual watercolors. Getting darks required going over and over an area, pressing down hard on the pencils, while the lightest tints were a challenge to keep clean and bright. I don't think I'll be switching my preferred medium, but this exercise made me appreciate a good pencil drawing even more.

Colored Pencil Peony-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

If you just held a petal from this peony in your hand, it would appear pale pink. In a drawing, though, I keep having to reach for darker and darker pencils to convey that paleness. I'm using ten different pinks, reds and purples to try to get a full tonal range. 

Colored Pencil Peony-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

Yesterday's post, of dark blue berries was easy compared with this. Getting a peony's pale pink petals to look delicate but not washed out is going to be the big challenge here.

 

Blueberries-Final

© Ellen Blonder

After working in this medium, I can't say I prefer it to watercolor or acrylics, but colored pencils do present some interesting challenges--and I always have fun with those. I'm used to mixing my green paints with black or red to gray them down before I paint leaves. Many green colored pencils seem way too bright, and it's much harder to tone them down to what I want. On the other hand, shading spherical shapes is much easier with pencils than paint. Next, I'll have to try a flower in pencils.

Blueberries-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Filling in blueberries all day today. It's a slower process to do shaded spheres in pencil than watercolor, but pencil is also more forgiving.

Blueberries-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I haven't tried drawing in colored pencil for many years. Feels odd not needing to mix my colors on a palette beforehand, and it takes a different kind of patience to build the color up slowly so the pencil tracks don't show. This is more fun than I expected.

Blueberries-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I photographed a branch heavy with blueberries last summer. I also bought some colored pencils and have been looking for a subject to sketch with them. My inspiration is a book by an artist I met in Kauai, who was there to co-teach a seminar on botanical illustration at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. Her name is Wendy Hollender, and you can see her beautiful images or find her book Botanical Drawing in Color through this link, which will guide you through learning to correctly draw botanicals with colored pencil.

Lilies-Final

© Ellen Blonder

The lilies are done, unless I add a gecko to a flower stalk.

Lilies-Day 9

© Ellen Blonder

Detail of the lilies in the center part of the painting where the orange tones become more muted in the distance.

Lilies-Day 8

© Ellen Blonder

Progress seemed slow today, then I counted. There are 19 flowers in this, excluding the buds.

Lilies-Days 6 and 7

© Ellen Blonder

Details from the right side of the painting. Only the foreground flowers are finished, but I like the background flowers more muted.

Lilies-Day 5

© Ellen Blonder

Now it's time to add detail to the flowers, a slow process, but fun. Here's a close-up of the lower left corner.

Lilies-Day 4

© Ellen Blonder

Painting catch as catch can lately, I'm trying to get the background leaves in before adding details to the flowers.

Lilies-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Here's the detail emerging on the upper right corner of the canvas.

Lilies-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

The blue background makes mixing of the colors for the lilies a challenge. I'll have to punch them up, without making the eye jump back and fourth.