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.
SusieG Studio 