Steve, Again

© Ellen Blonder

In my drawing group this week, I photographed a few of our poses. Since our poses are normally short, I wanted more time to sketch some of them. Some of the group members were playing with drawing on colored paper with graphite and white pencils, so I took some paper home, worked with a photo as reference, and drew Steve Coleman (who you can read more about from an earlier blog post).

White Bouquet-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm going to play with a border or backgrounds for this, but otherwise, it's done. Happy summer!

White Bouquet-Days 1 and 2

© Ellen Blonder

After drawing the white peony in colored pencil, I wanted to paint in watercolor again and use white flowers as a subject. I love the calm beauty of a white bouquet. This one uses flowers in my garden: iceberg roses, white hydrangea, and an odd white campanula. It also has tiny chartreuse flowers from lady's mantle, bright green grape leaves and a spiky white flower whose name I can never remember. I spent the first day sketching directly onto watercolor paper, and the second laying in the first color.

Art of Chris Chun

© Chris Chun

I don't often do this, but I was just introduced to the art of Chris Chun, an artist in Thailand. Here are links to his blog, and website, for your enjoyment.

White Peony-Day 4 Final

© Ellen Blonder

The new pencils arrived, and I should have ordered more grays. Still, it helps to have more shades of green to tone down the too-bright pencils in the set I first bought. Finished.

White Peony-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm still considering adding darker leaves around the flower to make the flower stand out more--and still waiting for the new colored pencils to arrive so I can play with more greens and light grays.

White Peony-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

I ordered different colored pencils, which should arrive soon. I think that's my excuse for not progressing faster on this. Getting the right shades of green for the leaves is difficult when my green pencils are so bright. I've even overlaid these with grays and blues to tone them down.

White Peony-Day 1

© Ellen Blonder

I wanted to try colored pencils again, this time to draw a white peony. How do I convey white on colored paper? I may resort to white paint for highlights. This is from my photo of one of the spectacular peonies at Casa Loma last spring in Toronto.

Drawing Group

© Ellen Blonder

Here's a two-minute sketch of my friend Barbara from our drawing group today. Although we've met for years, we've all but stopped lately. Feels good to knock off the rustiness and loosen up, like working out after a long period of inactivity. 

Open Tulip-Days 5 and 6, Final

© Ellen Blonder

This is it.

Open Tulip-Days 3 and 4

© Ellen Blonder

Grading the reds into yellows is slow and difficult, and I still don't have the right yellow on the base of the petals in deep shadow. I'm tempted to give up and retry this on canvas.

Open Tulip-Day 3

© Ellen Blonder

Getting transitions from red to yellow on the petals is going to be the hardest challenge. I'm sorry I didn't choose canvas instead of the smoother surface of masonite.

Open Tulip-Day 2

© Ellen Blonder

The colors will change a lot, but I wanted to get rid of all that white. This is very rough.