SusieG Studio

Of all the drawing mediums I have used, colored pencils is a hard one for me to use.  I have no idea why.  I love working with colors when I’m mixing paint (watercolor, oils, and acrylics).  Colored pencils have me stumped.

Before class started, Emily told me to pick an object.  Since I love the Caribbean and all things beach-related, I chose a shell.  It looked like an easy object to draw.  I struggled for the first 30 minutes.  I could see the shape in front of me and I drew it.  It turned out wonky.  Colored pencils are hard to erase, so I reworked some of the lines and then reshaped the shell.  Good thing I selected a light colored pencil to do the initial sketch.

Emily told me to squint a few times and I should see some colors pop out (other than the basic off white/light beige color I could clearly see).  So I squinted and produced this drawing:

I then added the blue shading/shadows under the shell and all of a sudden my shell was no longer floating on my paper.  It had a home.

This was the last evening for my Drawing Explorations class.  I have signed up for another class which involves using charcoal.  In the meantime, I will be posting pictures of my personal homework assignments.  Stay tuned!

Paper used:  Canson sketch paper (18″ x 24″)

My take away from class:  need to stop over analyzing what I see.  I can tell the longer I stare at my blank paper the longer it takes to get started.